GTP Cool Wall: Napier Mobil Special

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Napier Mobil Special

  • Total voters
    67
  • Poll closed .
TheBook

TheBook

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The Napier Mobil Special

railtonspecial01.jpg


In 1938, this was the fastest car in the world, capable of 353 miles per hour. They kept improving it and breaking their previous records, and in 1947 it became the first car with proper driven wheels to break the 400 mph mark. This record remained unbroken until 1964. For 17 years, the only way to go faster on land was to use a rocket or a jet engine. Sure the speed is amazing, but the thing that makes this car so cool is the source of the power. It has not one but TWO 24 liter, W12 (not the VW kind of W, but the kind that has three banks of four), DOHC, 48 valve, supercharged Napier Lion aero engines, that had been built to withstand the strains of running at double the RPM than it would ever do in a plane (3600 doesn't seem like a lot, but keep in mind each cylinder, CYLINDER, displaces 2 liters, and that the engine is roughly the size of a refrigerator) that produced 1350 horsepower, each. The car was also just shy of 29 feet long and weighed almost 3 tons.​
 
I'll have to think on this one. On one hand...400 miles an hour is ridiculous in anything short of an Unlimited Air Racer. and it did that in 1947, only a couple years after WWII, which was about equal with period piston fighters, nearly the fastest aircraft of the time.

But LSR's such a...well, obscure sport. I dunno. I really don't know.
 
I'm rolling with meh on this one as well, it may be fast (extremely) but I'm just not a fan of cars built for records, particularly not when it comes to straight lines.
 
It get's a meh from me. It's an LSR car so there really isn't anything special about it to separate it from the pack, like you get on many road cars.
 
I went with S-Z - not for the car, but how it would look as a peice of art in some aristrocrat's glass box.

Just image this thing hanging off your wall. :D
 
Not sure about this one.

-On one hand it's a land speed car, which I just don't care for.
-Cars built for speed records will only be beaten and eventually forgotten, while cars that are just all around GOOD stay around for ages
-On the other, it looks pretty cool and the engine is an engineer's wet dream

I'll vote as I look into other people's reasons
 
I'll say sub-zero simply because of the speed it achieved in the era it did it, and because I don't think much of jet-engined LSR cars, piston motors FTW!:lol:
 
Like all the race cars that keep getting nominated, it's not a road car so can't be judged in the same way. Meh. :rolleyes:
 
Not being able to drive it on the road (or track for that matter) and looking like you've been swallowed by a giant silver jellyfish = Meh
 
I don't like LSR cars. They don't really count to me.
Just an opinion, but they're not "cars" they are vehicles that technically "drive" created solely to set world records for fastest land speed.
The records it held are very impressive though, so instead of seriously uncool, I gave it just "uncool".
 
Going by the usual scale, nobody is going to think you're cool if you go to pick up a date with this one. Particularly the girl, who has to sit on top of the thing.


And as usual, race cars aren't cool. Neither are old cars, usually. Seriously uncool.
 
Engineering in this thing considering its time context grants it a sub-zero, but being a fan of LSR myself, well….

And for the record, I think that the record this car held was the one that was broken by Mickey Thompson in his 4-blown-Pontiacs-powered Challenger I (406 mph one way)
 
This car comes from a time when top end speed and acceleration mattered more than the driver's personal safety, a period which almost scares the crap out of me.:scared:

Sub-Zero
 
Sub-Zero for the engineering and technology used at the time. As said before, this was a time that the cars safety was more important than the drivers.
 
Lets put it this way, if you showed anyone this in real life would anyone not say "cool!"?
But I'm not sure this is really to the nature of the cool wall. We're getting into some bizarre territory here where we see lots of random special cars nominated rather than "normal" cars. And its kind of predictable that such cars will be voted cool.
 

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