page_title: Aero-engined car
section_title: 1920s
hierarchical_section_title: Aero-engined car / Racing / Interwar period / 1920s
caption_attribution_description: Sunbeam 1000HP at National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, UK
context_page_description: An aero-engined car is an automobile powered by an engine designed for aircraft use. Most such cars have been built for racing, and many have attempted to set world land speed records. While the practice of fitting cars with aircraft engines predates World War I by a few years, it was most popular in the interwar period between the world wars when military-surplus aircraft engines were readily available and used to power numerous high-performance racing cars. Initially powered by piston aircraft engines, a number of post-World War II aero-engined cars have been powered by aviation turbine and jet engines instead. Piston-engined, turbine-engined, and jet-engined cars have all set world land speed records. There have also been some non-racing automotive applications for aircraft engines, including production vehicles such as the Tucker 48 and prototypes such as the Chrysler Turbine Car, Fiat Turbina, and General Motors Firebirds. In the late 20th century and into the 21st century, there has also been a revival of interest in piston-powered aero-engined racing cars.
context_section_description: By the 1920s, after the end of World War I, interest in and development of aero-engined cars reached a new level. Coatalen built another aero-engined racing car, the Sunbeam 350HP, which featured a Sunbeam Manitou engine that had been designed to power Royal Naval Air Service flying boats. With an engine displacement of 1,118 cubic inches (18.32 l) and the ability to generate 355 hp (265 kW) at 2,100 rpm, the 350HP achieved a top speed of 134 mph (216 km/h) in 1922.
  In 1923, Ernest Eldridge began building the Mefistofele, which consisted of a Fiat SB4 chassis and a 21.7-liter (1,320 cu in) Fiat A.12 bis aircraft engine that produced 320 hp (240 kW) at 1,800 rpm. On 12 July 1924, Eldridge drove the car to a world-record speed of 234.980 km/h (146.010 mph) on public roads in Arpajon, France, which marked the last time that a land speed record would be set on public roads. The car's name was bestowed upon it by the press due to the tremendous amount of noise and smoke generated by its engine.
  Argentine racer Adolfo Scandroglio built his Fiat Botafogo Special in the image of the Mefistofele, using a 1917 Fiat chassis and the same 21.7-liter (1,320 cu in) Fiat A.12 engine that had been chosen by Eldridge. The car, which was named after a famed racehorse, was capable of producing 320 hp (240 kW) at 1,800 rpm. In 1949, Scandroglio was killed while racing the Botafogo Special, and the car was presumed to have been lost before its engine was rediscovered in the 1990s. After its rediscovery, the Argentine company Pur Sang, which is noted for creating exact replicas of Alfa Romeo 8C 2300s and Bugatti Type 35s, reconstructed the Botafogo Special. In 2011, the rebuilt car was purchased from Pur Sang by Jay Leno.
  In 1923, the Sunbeam 350HP was purchased by Malcolm Campbell, who made modifications to the coachwork as well as the engine in his endeavor to increase its speed. He also renamed the car Blue Bird, and on 25 September 1924 used it to set the official world land speed record with a speed of 146.16 mph (235.22 km/h) at Pendine Sands in Wales. The next year, on 21 July 1925, Campbell returned to Pendine, where he became the first person to exceed 150 mph (240 km/h) as he set a new record of 150.766 mph (242.634 km/h).
  Perhaps the most well-known aero-engined cars of the interwar period were the series of amateur, chain-driven creations of Louis Zborowski that were each known as Chitty Bang Bang. They later attained fame as the namesake for the children's book Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, written by Ian Fleming, as well as the film and musical of the same title. Although the origin of the name is unknown, it is thought to derive from either a lewd World War I soldier's song or simply the sound of the aircraft engines that powered the cars. The first car, Chitty 1, featured a customized pre-war Mercedes chassis and a 23-liter (1,400 cu in), six-cylinder Maybach airplane engine that had powered a Gotha G.V bomber before it was surrendered by Germany as a war reparation. The engine could produce 300 hp (220 kW) at a relatively modest 1,500 rpm. Chitty 1 achieved celebrity status at Brooklands in 1921, where it won races at speeds in excess of 100 mph (160 km/h). In 1922, Zborowski returned to Brooklands to achieve his highest ever speed in the car, 113.45 mph (182.58 km/h), although that autumn Chitty 1 was destroyed in a racing accident.
  Zborowski began working on a second car of the same name, Chitty 2, in 1921. While its use of an older model Mercedes for its chassis made it similar to its predecessor, this iteration of Chitty Bang Bang was powered by an 18.8-liter (1,150 cu in) Benz Bz.IV engine that manufactured 230 hp (170 kW). Chitty 2 placed second in its only race at Brooklands, although it did record a speed of over 108 mph (174 km/h). In 1922, Zborowski and his wife took the car on a lengthy excursion across France and Algeria, all the way to the edge of the Sahara, where a dearth of sufficient radiator water caused such substantial engine damage that he was forced to retire the car from racing. Zborowski himself was killed a
caption: The Sunbeam 1000 hp at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu in 2006
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