American LaFrance 1908 Custom BMW 47 Litre V12 "Brutus" 2006

[sammo85]

I really would like the Brutus from Topgear with all the smoke, flames and explosions.

 

[Gatorbait771]

Dat 27L V12.

 

[sammo85]

I think that's it.

 

[The Stig Farmer]

/endsuggestions

We have a winner 👍

 

[sammo85]

maybe with that they could include the Bentley kit with the spitfire lump.

 

[Famine]

Those of you who know I'm standardising the title formats in this forum will also know how amusing it is to encounter a car that doesn't fit at all and a thread titled "Brutus"...

So it's taken me a while to find out that it's a 1908 American LaFrance fire engine chassis combined with a 47 litre V12 BMW aero engine found laying around in Spain by Hans Dittes of the Auto-und Technikmuseum Sinsheim. The museum's director Herman Layher, who completed the 1997 Peking to Paris in a 9.5 litre American LaFrance racer, thought it was an awful shame to have the aero engine lying around and spent four years overhauling it, thinking it was a 25 litre unit. When they discovered it was actually 47 litres, he spent four more years stuffing it into the ALF fire engine chassis.

It's rated at
Power: 750hp @ 1650rpm
Torque: Uhh... don't ask. It's near 2,750lbfft
Weight: 2537kg

Apparently it's supposed to run at 60mph at just 800rpm - though tickover is 400rpm - and it regularly sees speeds of up to 85mph (woo!). One (and only one) test driver has taken it to 125mph and reports that there's still plenty of power but that it'll still spin the wheels.

Fun fact - the right bank of cylinders are 4 litres apiece, but the left bank are 3.82 litres due to different length connecting rods.


Anyway, thread retitled. Get voting - it's hilarious.

 

[Pootis]

I would like to see this in GT7.

 

[MatskiMonk]

BMW VI Aero Engine , in my opinion, this is not the most interesting vehicle to be fitted with a VI.

This is..

 

[IfAndOr]

What a piece of kit! That's some great information unearthed by Famine.

Now either The Stig is very short (in the OP picture) or this guys very tall!

Sounds good too...

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Fun fact - the right bank of cylinders are 4 litres apiece, but the left bank are 3.82 litres due to different length connecting rods.

First - thanks to Famine and other moderators for all their hard work put into this section of the site. I have particularly enjoyed reading the car suggestions.

Second - in relation to the fun fact - I had assumed that the difference in stroke between the cylinder banks on this engine was due to it using a "Master" and "Slave" connecting rod arrangement and although it's not strictly a Master and Slave due to the relatively small difference in the bearing size of the two con rods - it is a variation on this known as an "articulating rod". The illustration makes clear what this means much better than words.

 

[Pootis]

This 'car' is beautiful, it should be added since we have the Tank Car.

 

[Andefir]

that vs jay leno's tank car.

 

[StigBelcherStyl]

American LaFrance Custom BMW 47 Litre V12 (Brutus), 1908

SPECIFICATIONS

ENGINE
• Engine : 47.0 Litre, 12 cylinder
• Power: 551 kw (750 hp)
• Torque: 3,728 N.m (2,750 lb.ft)
• Engine location: Front

PERFORMANCE
• 0-100 km/h Time = Not Tested
• Cruising Speed = 97 km/h (60 mph) @ 600rpm
• Top Speed = 201 km/h (125 mph) (Tested)

DRIVETRAIN
• Layout Front engine, Rear-wheel drive system
• 3 Speed Manual Transmission

DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTS
• Weight: 2537 kg (5593 lbs)

FELLOW COMPETITORS
• Bentley 27-Litre , 2012
• Bentley Packard Mavis, 1930
• Jay Leno (Tank Car) "Blastolene Special", 2003

 

[JKgo]

Trying to wrestle that much power with those skinny tyres sounds like a good time. Sign me up! 👍

 

[sammo85]

I never thought posting the BRUTUS would be quite so popular!. I do think GT6 needs to go back to more old school cars.

 

[StarLight]

Voted!



If you like this car, you probably will like this car too.
(click on the picture)

 

[Pootis]

Everytime I see the name of the car in the thread title, this comes to mind:

Brutus from Mob of the Dead.

 

[smearcampaign]

The Brutus' Top Gear rival here:

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/jay-leno-bentley-27-liter.310320/

 

[CaptainTNT]

I voted. Another awesome gigantic car.

 

[StigBelcherStyl]

The Big Displacement Engine Comparision

976 hp, 29.3 Litre V12 - Jay Leno's Tank car, 2003
750 hp, 47.0 Litre V12 - LaFrance Custom 1908 BMW 'Brutus', 1908
675 hp, 27.0 Litre V12 - Bentley 27 Litre Peterson, 2012
1500 hp, 41.8 Litre V12 - Packard Bentley 'Mavis', 1930