In Jay Leno’s garage

It is considered one of the greatest piston engines ever built and was the beating heart of most British warplanes including the Avro Lancaster, the de Havilland Mosquito, the Hawker Hurricane, and the Supermarine Spitfire. It also powered the North American P–51 Mustang.

Jay Leno, famed comedian and television host, is a serious student of the history and technology of engines and automobiles. He currently operates three of the “Mighty Merlins.” These are part of his incredible collection of 372 antique cars and motorcycles, all of which are registered and street legal. His rarest is a 1925 American Doble Steam [powered] Car that belonged to Howard Hughes and could reach 132.5 mph. He even has a 1999 Y2K jet-powered motorcycle that can reach 237 mph. The 1400-degree Fahrenheit exhaust from the turbine engine can melt the front end of a car that pulls up too close behind him at a traffic light. (This actually happened.) The bike has a turboshaft engine that develops 350 shaft horsepower.

His magnificent collection of vehicles and engines is kept in “Jay Leno’s Garage” on the west side of the Hollywood Burbank Airport just north of Los Angeles. The use of “garage,” however, is a misnomer. Leno’s “garage” consists of three large machine shops that he purchased individually. He had them connected and refurbished to form a 140,000-square-foot facility. You can get lost in the place and amazed by all that you’d see.

One of Leno’s Merlins is installed in a 1934 Rolls-Royce he has had for almost 30 years. The normally aspirated, 1,000-horsepower engine provides so much power that Leno says driving it is “like the hand of God pushing you [from behind].” His other “aero-engine car” is a 1930 Bentley. These Merlin-powered cars are recognizable by the six polished headers (exhaust manifolds) on each side of the car (or by the flowing white hair of its driver).

Leno’s third Merlin is a Rolls-Royce V-1650-1 built in the United States by Packard for aviation use. It has 1,650 cubic inches (27 liters) of displacement and a single-stage, two-speed supercharger that shifts into high speed at an altitude of about 25,000 feet. This engine, however, will never get that high. Leno has it mounted on a four-wheel, mobile test stand that includes a 5-gallon fuel tank and a 10-gallon oil tank. The engine turns a cutdown Hamilton Standard 23E50 propeller. The rig is equipped with an instrument panel—Leno calls it a dashboard—containing a full complement of engine gauges and controls.

Leno loves to run this Merlin and calls it a “living piece of history. But you have to chain it down,” he warns. “This 1,750-horsepower engine can pull the building down.” The test stand often is restrained by a braked 5,000-pound forklift, and power output is limited to 2,200 rpm.

The best part of it, though, is that it sounds like a Mustang.

BarrySchiff.com