Veteran to Classic - Dodd's Dinosaur

John Dodd, with whom MOTOR SPORT crossed swords some considerable time ago about his claim to have tuned a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud to reach a maximum speed of 128mph and to attain what we thought to be unrealistic average speeds, has written to us from Spain, about a car he has built with a Rolls-Royce Merlin aero-engine. He tells us that this car, which is registered here as a Rolls-Royce, Reg No KPO 67K, has a chassis by Paul Jameson, and a two-door estate-type body by FRG Roy and the late Mr Phelps who used to own Santa Pod speedway. The Mk 35 Merlin engine runs clockwise, viewed from the front, as it has been turned round in the chassis, a step-up gearbox providing the reversal of rotation. A Californian-made special B & M torque-converter is bolted to the flywheel face, and the engine is boosted by Turbocharger-400 re-engineered for its purpose. To take the power and torque a Jaguar rear-end with Salisbury differential and titaniam halfshafts are used. Mr Dodds says his 27-litre beast has been to England and back quite a few times and is street-legal. It would be interesting to hear from anyone here who has encountered it.

John Dodds explains that Rolls-Royce has not heard the last of him and that he is working on a book to be titled The Rolls-Royce Myth Exposed. I can’t wait to review it! WB