wow! overkill?

Never one to go partway, Leno decided to give himself a 16-ft.-long, air-cooled, 800-hp-plus rod.

All of my car-owning buddies used to kid me because I never had a real hot rod. Well, a little over a year ago, a guy named Randy Grubb showed up at my garage. He was hauling a trailer with a car on it that he and a pal of his, Mike Leeds, had built. Unfortunately, the car had no rear brakes, headlights or turn signals and was far from road legal. However, it did have a 190-in. wheelbase and an engine from an M-47 Patton tank. Naturally, it got my attention.

So I handed over shopping bags full of $20 bills and the car was mine. And, it stopped all of that no-hot-rod nonsense I was hearing--in a hurry.

Enter Bernard Juchli, foreman of the "Jay Leno More-Money-Than-Brains Garage." Bernard has built numerous race-winning cars and worked on many projects over the years. He took one look at this project and said, "Just shoot me now."

As if getting this car roadworthy weren't already enough of a challenge, we soon had to replace the engine because somebody had opted to use radiator hose as an oil line. There I am, going down the freeway for the first time. I put my foot into it and boom! That 90 psi of oil pressure was too much for the radiator hose and all 16 gal.--that's right, 64 quarts--of oil was gone in less than 10 seconds. That was the end
This engine is an AV-1790-5B and it's 1792 cu. in. It has overhead cams and Hemi heads. Since it was designed to move a tank, it puts out 810 hp and makes 1560 ft.-lb. of torque. But you can't just hit the local neighborhood NAPA store for replacement parts on one of these. Fortunately, a fellow by the name of Roy Smith has a surplus company in Augusta, Ga., and he has piles of them sitting there. He probably bought them for 5 cents on the dollar, but that's fine with me. There are guys who just save things, sort of like monks of the Middle Ages. They look at something and say, "Someone put too much work into this piece of machinery to just throw it away."

Remember, this motor was used in a tank that weighed 92,883 pounds--empty. Fully armed, the tank weighed 101,775 pounds. With 233 gal. of 80-octane fuel in its tank, the Patton would travel about 80 miles. That's about one-third of a mile per gallon. The engine was originally built under license by Chrysler, and cost the government $110,000 in 1953. Today, a complete rebuild would cost $4500. How's that for re-using the nation's tax dollars?

With the engine handled, we turned our attention to getting all of that power down to the ground. So we replaced the transmission. The one in the car came out of a Greyhound bus. It had about 200,000 miles on it, and it was slipping continuously. So I called my friend Dave Killackey at Performance Allison Transmissions in Azuza, Calif., who pronounced, "There's only one transmission that could do that job: the Allison HD4060 6-speed." We got one from GM Powertrain. I wanted the transmission geared so that when the engine was running at 800 to 900 rpm, the car would be moving about 80 mph. This is an American car, powered by an American tank engine, and the power is being put to the ground by an American transmission, by Allison.

I called the folks at Allison and told them my needs. They, of course, asked, "What vehicle is this for?" When I said it was for a car with an engine from a Patton tank, I was put on hold. I really thought that would be the end of it. But, no, they came back and they were very excited. These people are engineers and they love projects--especially hot-rod projects. We took the car over to General Motors' Proving Ground in Arizona to get it specially calibrated. Steve Spurlin, from Allison, knew just what to do. "When we're through with it," he told me in serious truck-engineerspeak, "it will easily handle your duty cycle."

We added, among other things, rear brakes with vacuum boosters front and back, a new starter motor, an entire new electrical system, rear springs and an electric pre-oiler pump. We even added a Ki-Gas system--like many supercharged cars use--to inject raw fuel and prime the motor before starting. And we have mufflers, so we're socially responsible.

This isn't a car that when you take it apart and drop something you hear bink. You hear, Clunk! Bang! The engine alone weighs 2100 pounds. The car weighs 9500 pounds--nearly 5 tons, but only one-twentieth of what the tank weighed. This thing is faaasssttt. Best of all, it's hilarious to drive. The size is what's the funniest. The engine alone is 6 ft. long. The car looks like a roadster on steroids. When Arnold was on "The Tonight Show," I brought it in to show him. I said, "It's the Terminator car." He loved it.

Since the engine is air-cooled with huge fins and cam-driven fans, it's like driving with your face in a hair dryer. On the coldest day of the year, I'm driving around with short sleeves. People think, "Wow, what a macho guy." But really, macho or not, I have a 100° breeze in my face even if it's 30 below.

This is the only car I've ever had with an engine that can actually overcome the brakes. You put your foot on the brakes as hard as you can and hit the gas, and it still pulls. It's ridiculous how much torque there is. We had to reinforce the frame because it was twisting like a coat hanger. We installed a Rockwell 3.78:1 air-locker rear end, like you'd use on a huge dumptruck. It costs $4200 and it's made of "unbreakabillium." With it, we can really light up the tires, which travel 11 ft. per rotation.

I have aircraft-engine cars, of course, like my Phantom II Rolls with a Merlin V12 from a Spitfire fighter plane, but this is my first tank-engine car. We're branching out. Truth is, this is not that different from an airplane engine. Except that they didn't make a whole lot of gasoline engines for military tanks. The first time someone hit one with a grenade, the Army brass went, "Oh." So tanks went diesel. The Army doesn't use Patton tanks anymore, but I'm using up those old engines. And now the Army has heard about my car. They want me to race it against their tank at Fort Irwin, Calif. My strategy is simple: Just stay out of the way of that gun turret and I'll be fine

 

im at a loss for words

 

What's next, a battleship motor in his car?

 

wheres this info coming from just curious, b.t.w. my uncle is good friends with Leno, they he also has quite a car collection and old motorbike collection.

 

Is that the article from like a car and driver (that or popular mechinics) I seem to remember reading that exact same thing like 6 months ago. Picture was diffrent I think.

 

jay leno is the man... but i'd still like to see that go up against our top lexi on CL


who is that now anyway?

 

is he really? wow...tell him id grovel and beg for a tour of his garage...

im not sure where this info is from. I heard it was in some mags

 

Am I the only who thinks this is another case of "Just because we CAN means..."

Jay Leno is a [car] nut if there ever was one.

 

Yea he is, two of my favorite cars beyond my uncles Prancing horses and old indian motorcycles is one of the first LS400 that was sold in the states is in his garage and he also shoehorned a corvette v8 into an old Jeep Cherroke 4wd and all both in mint condition and amazing cars

 

I saw the guy that built that car on a TV show a while back. He built similar one a while back, too. Simply amazing stuff. I absolutely love hearing about those beligerant creations!

 

There was a bit about this car on Rides.
Awesome machine!!

 

Ooooooooh

Wonder what the redline is on that, 1500 rpm?

 

LOL, with that much power you only need one gear!!