page_title: Aero-engined car
section_title: 1930s
hierarchical_section_title: Aero-engined car / Racing / Interwar period / 1930s
caption_attribution_description: Mercedes-Benz T80 world record car 1939
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: In 1931, Campbell returned to competition with an upgraded Blue Bird that was sleeker and lower than its predecessor. Fitted with a 1,450 hp (1,080 kW) Napier Lion engine, the car successfully set a new land speed record with a run of 246.09 mph (396.04 km/h). By 1933, Campbell had created another Blue Bird that was powered by a Rolls-Royce R, which had achieved fame as the engine that helped the Supermarine S.6B seaplane win the Schneider Trophy. With this engine, which produced 2,500 hp (1,900 kW) and had a displacement of 36.7 liters (2,240 cu in), Blue Bird achieved a speed in excess of 272 mph (438 km/h) at Daytona. However, as performance continued to increase, the relatively limited area of Daytona Beach began to prevent cars from reaching their true top speeds. In September 1935, Campbell took Blue Bird to Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats, where it exceeded 300 mph (480 km/h).
  Ab Jenkins, who in October 1935 had set speed records for one hour and for 24 hours in a factory-modified Duesenberg SJ on a 10 miles (16 km) circuit marked out in the Bonneville Salt Flats, realized that it was no longer possible for a modified production car to compete against aero-engined cars for long-distance speed records. Jenkins had his SJ special further modified, replacing the modified SJ engine with a 25.73 liters (1,570 cu in) Curtiss Conqueror engine.  The Conqueror-engined special was named "Mormon Meteor" by a contest held by the Deseret News. In 1936 the Mormon Meteor set the 500-kilometer (310 mi) record at 164.47 mph (264.69 km/h) (breaking a record set by George Eyston), the 24‑hour record at 153.82 mph (247.55 km/h), and the 48‑hour record at 148.64 mph (239.21 km/h). The Mormon Meteor set another 24‑hour record in 1937, averaging 157.27 mph (253.10 km/h). Jenkins then commissioned August Duesenberg to build a chassis that was better able to handle the weight, power, and torque of the Conqueror engine. The result was the Mormon Meteor III, which broke the 12‑hour record in 1939 and set a 24‑hour record of 161.18 mph (259.39 km/h) in 1940.
  In 1937, Eyston brought his Thunderbolt to Bonneville, where its twin Rolls-Royce R engines powered it to a world-record speed of 312 mph (502 km/h). That year on the salt flats, something of a rivalry developed between Eyston and John Cobb, who had previously raced the 23.94-liter (1,461 cu in) Napier-Railton at Brooklands as well as at Bonneville. For 1937, Cobb had built the teardrop-shaped, streamlined Railton Special, which featured four-wheel drive and two Napier Lion engines. Over the span of just a few weeks, Eyston and his Thunderbolt set a new record of 345.49 mph (556.01 km/h), which Cobb and his Railton Special answered with a run of just over 350 mph (560 km/h), before Eyston retook the title by achieving 357.5 mph (575.3 km/h). The following year, 1938, Cobb returned to Bonneville and set a new world record of 369.7 mph (595.0 km/h), which would stand until 1947 due in part to the hiatus of competition caused by the outbreak of World War II.
  By 1939, the Mercedes-Benz T80 emerged as the result of a three-year collaboration between German auto racer Hans Stuck, Mercedes-Benz, and Adolf Hitler, the latter of whom had a strong interest in motorsport and was committed to subsidizing German racing endeavors in an effort to showcase his country's technological superiority on the world stage. Costing an astounding 600,000 Reichsmarks, the six-wheeled, streamlined T80 was largely designed and developed by Ferdinand Porsche. The T80 was powered by the Daimler-Benz DB 603, an inverted V12 aviation engine that boasted a displacement of 44.5-liter (2,716 cu in) and was capable of producing 2,200 kW (3,000 hp), which had been derived from the Daimler-Benz DB 601 that powered the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft. The T80's engine ran on a fuel mixture that consisted mostly of methyl alcohol (63%), as well as smaller percentages of benzene, ethanol, acetone, nitrobenzene, avgas, and ether. After initially being set at 550 km/h (340 mph), the car's targeted top speed was ultimately incre
caption: The Mercedes-Benz T80 at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart in 2006
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