Bigger than Biggest – just because we can…

Some settle for a set of wider alloys, while others take it a step further with arch extensions. Others take a much more extreme approach with serious tuning of the engine. Then there are those who stick to the narrow path of virtue, and simply build a conservatory on their house.

And then, there are the utterly insane, who just feel the world is too boring to contemplate without drastically rebuilt and modified prehistoric engineering. Take for instance this Packard-Bentley, also known as “Mavis”. A 23-foot-long Bentley replica which spews fire. It weighs in at almost 5,500 lbs. and delivers more horsepower than a Bugatti Veyron.

This monstrous vehicle is built on a Bentley 8-liter chassis from the late 1920’s, naturally hugely modified in order to cope with the enormous 42 liter Packard 4M 2500 V12 engine. It develops 1,500 HP and a mind-boggling 2,000 lb/ft. of torque. The engine stems from an American torpedoboat from the Second World War.

If you count on either side of the body, you’ll reach a sum of 24 short exhaust tips, which is due to the design of the head, which has twin exhaust ports. However, the engine does ONLY have 12 cylinders – each of which is 3.5 liters. Furthermore, the engine is equipped with a compressor the size of a large bin, which revolves at 2.4 times the speed of the engine. This beast of an engine breaths through a Holley 1685F carburetor from an aircraft engine.

Painted in mattblack, this huge pre-war monster attracts quite a bit of attention, and has proven to be a very popular installment at car shows. The English newspaper The Telegraph went for a test drive and documented the occasion with a video. They were clearly impressed with Mavis’s abilities in a straight line – though corning- and braking capabilities receive less praise.