Early V8 500ci in 1918!! & some history

[LIMEY]

Saw this early 1918 V8 last weekend & just had to take some pics of it, turns out the man behind it held the land speed record in 1907 at 137mph on a V8 powered motorcycle.
This extract is taken from the link i'll post in the next pic.
At this time Glenn Curtiss was 29 years old - and had been manufacturing motorcycles since 1901...in but six years he had built America's pre-eminent motorcycle manufacturing business (in 1903, when Harley-Davidson built their first motorcycle, Curtiss built over 500).

[LIMEY]

Here's the link take a look its well worth it
http://www.glennhcurtiss.com/id32.htm

[haring]

That's gorgeous.

[manyolcars]

He is the engine guy of the Curtiss-Wright airplane company too.

[Blownolds]

There were some monster CID engines back then. I think Packard had a 700+ CID way back then. I'm sure there were other monsters. They probably didn't even make a hundred HP tho'...

[LIMEY]

Just been reading this....talk about no substitute for cubic inches;
In 1918 Arthur Nutt, Curtiss' brilliant engine designer, improved upon Charles Kirkham's innovative K-12 of 1916, creating the 400-hp D-12/V-1150 ci (shown below), which was first used in 1922.
In 1924, the British purchased this D-12 engine "for their high performance development," which, by further refinement led to Rolls-Royce's Falcon and finally, in the mid-thirties, to the 1650 ci PV.12 Merlin of approximately 12-1300-hp (its horsepower would raise, dramatically, to 1,760-hp, during WW2 when used on the Spitfire - and to as much as 3,600-hp for a full-race model today)...
Noting this may be challenged (even by Jane's), its source is Briton Charles Grey (1875-1953. Founder and editor, The Aeroplane, 1911-1939; editor, Jane's All The World's Aircraft, 1916-1941), arguably the world's most knowledgeable person on flight's early days, who, in 1953, shortly before his death wrote:
"Strange thing isn't it that the U.S.A. has never recognized Glenn Curtiss as by far the greatest man America has ever produced in Aviation? ...And the D-12 engines, from which the Rolls Falcon, & ultimately the Merlin are descended…So far as I know there is nobody in the World who has claim to have influenced aircraft design & production as he did, or had done..."
...while Curtiss improved its D-12 to over 500-hp - and in 1928 to its famed 600-hp "Conqueror" V-1570 ci. The D-12 powered many winners of Pulitzer and Schneider Trophy races in the mid-twenties...and in 1930, the Germans, their own engines lacking, used twelve Conquerors to power their huge Do-X flying boat.
And much as with Rolls's experience, the Conqueror's power was raised to 675-hp - and by the mid-thirties was superceded by more powerful designs.

D-12/V-1150ci