News hardware Someone had the absurd and brilliant idea of putting a tank engine in a Ford, and it works!
Published on 09/10/2022 at 10:30
In today’s “it’s possible, so why not” section, we’re going to tell you the story of three friends who had the funny idea of replacing the engine of an old Ford Crown Victoria… By a tank engine. One of the most emblematic sedans of the 50s and 60s finds a second life following a rather surprising operation.
The Ford Crown Victoria, an iconic sedan
The Ford Crown Victoria is an iconic car manufactured in the United States from 1955 to 2011. This car has been used a lot by law enforcement, but not for the reasons one would expect. Indeed, if the Ford Crown Victoria has a specificity, it is its engine, a 4.6 V8 of 220 horsepower, a powerful machine but also very easily repairable.
This car is one of the best representatives of the sedans of the time, but obviously it is starting to get old. The halt in its production forced Ford to raise its price to choke off the stock.
This is where three Swedish friends come into play, who have had the marvelous and brilliant idea of installing a new engine in this famous sedan. But beware, not just any engine, that of a tank!
What if we put a tank engine in an old sedan?
Daniel, Andreas and Matthias took on the absurd challenge of installing a complete V12 engine in the famous Ford Crown Victoria.
This 650 horsepower V12 engine is a Rolls-Royce Meteor used in tanks during World War II and was purchased by Daniel for the modest sum of 6,000 euros. Daniel is a big fan of cars, but especially of engines. Thus, he was able to cultivate what motivated him throughout his life, to the point of making this kind of crazy bet.
Of course, the engine far exceeds the space available in the American sedan. Especially since Daniel and his friends modified the engine to add two turbochargers with their intercoolers. The purpose of an intercooler is to let air into the engine in order to ventilate the machine, but also to gain power. Indeed, the objective of our three friends is to reach 2500 horsepower.
For the moment, the car is already functional as it is, but it is still far from the potential that Daniel wishes to achieve. The complications come, of course, from the peculiarities of the engine. This one has so much torque (1966 Nm) at low rpm that the transmission is a real headache for the team.
On top of that, they had to cut out a lot of the engine bay and completely redesign some parts to fit the new engine. The weight of more than 800 kg does not make things easier.
All the stages of this adventure can be followed on the YouTube channel of The Meteor Interceptor, where the team uploads all the progress it makes. It seems that the first phase (installation of the engine and start-up) has already been completed, it only remains to know what they will decide to do next.
