Well, like my Granny said just before she fell off the Harley, "Sonny, its just crazy enough to work."
Looks like a Continental Tank engine. I saw several of them when I was in the Army 58 years ago. Around 1900 Cubic inches as I remember. No blower and much less shiny. In fact I remember the tanks had the intake on the outside and the exhaust down the center. So this one has been quite reworked from that or is a show piece.
These photos were posted on a local facebook page. Taken in an Auckland, New Zealand, workshop in the 1920s. In the group shot there is a 1915/16 Cadillac V8 on the far left and a 1920s big Nash six on the right. The V8 marine engine is as yet unidentified.
Something similar, but a bit different in a tractor at The Great Dorset Steam Fair, in England, in 2016.
Garfield "Gar" Wood had relatively deep pockets and one must remember when this boat (Miss America X) was built (for the 1932 season) we were in the throes of a depression. Gar Wood became an industrialist (and the bank account to match) from his invention of the the hydraulic hoist on dump trucks. The unloading of coal was a hard and labor intensive task and at that time coal was one of the major sources to heat businesses and homes. When I worked at my cousins truck equipment business in the 60s, one of their competitors was still Garwood Industries-it was quite large and we have all spent a lifetime of seeing dump trucks go down the road-all of those trucks use the same system of unloading as laid out by Gar Wood. My grandfather went into the trucking business in 1918 and had to load his trucks sometimes by hand but due to Gar Wood's hydraulic lift unloading was quite easy. Gar Wood had no problem in buying the Packard marine engines as he was determined to not just race hydroplanes or powerboats but he wanted to win (and he retired undefeated in the Harmsworth trophy races). Just so you know the four Packard marine engines were the engines that Gar had used in his earlier boats (Miss America VIII and IX-they each had been powered by two engines). Gar had worked with Packard with the concept of using 4 engines but they were not much help-Gar figured it out successfully and continued his undefeated streak in the Harmsworth trophy in 32 and once again in 33 with this four engine boat. For some reason I have stumbled across Gar Wood's history throughout my life. As a kid I went to his unbelievable mansion (Woodhaven although it is sometimes referred to as Greyhaven) on the water in Detroit where he parked boats in garages under his house. The house has a real history in itself. I went there with my grandfather as he knew the caretaker. The house was later abandoned and used as a party place for unwanted guests. The boat pictured above is Miss America X and was owned and restored by Harold Mistele. Harold was a good friend of my grandfather and I remember talking to Harold about Miss America X in the 70s. Long story short we had been talking about Packard V12 engines which has fascinated me for many years and he spoke fondly of Miss America X-at the time I knew nothing of Packard 12s in boats-he did. I had thought the four engines were original to the boat as Gar Wood retired from active racing after 1933. I may be wrong and Harold may have acquired Packard Marine engines, but I did not believe they were war surplus-my memory could be faulty as I seem to find out here and there. Harold and later his son Charles spent large sums restoring these old Miss America boats. Miss America IX was only a shell but of course the engines were missing. That boat today is powered by 2 big block Chevy engines. In regards to Miss America VIII, Harold sued to own that boat as well (but lost) as he had his claim of right to the boat from Gar Wood Jr. Harold had deep pockets as well. When I was maybe 7 or 8, I attended a grand ball on his yacht at the Detroit Yacht club (my grandparents bought me a sport jacket for the affair as I had come to their house unprepared). Harold was as nice as he could be when he was busy with entertaining all of his guests and took me on a tour of his yacht-answered all of my questions like I was his most important guest. Always liked the guy and we both had a love of Packard 12s for sure. Here are some pictures of Miss America X, I took a few years ago.
Bruce, it cracks me up at times when I think of some of the crazy stuff. If was fun having a grandfather like I did.
Well good news I came across a site with a plethora of photos of Unusual engines. Eirst up Pontiac Four cylinder with a Mickey Thompson HEMI head
Jim, thank you for clearing that up- I thought that it might have been a pre-war build, but figured that Packard/Merlin engines would be easy enough to find after the war- go figure that it was built in the midst of the Great Depression!
Jim, many thanks for the history of the Gar Wood boats.......as Mac refers to, I didn't think that the 4 Packard V12's were the Packard Merlins as they do not appear to be the same however as I have only ever been able to view such things via pics I am happy to be corrected, so are you aware of the original source or use of these V12 Packards..............and again to all those posting info, details and pictures my sincere thanks......Andy Douglas in Oz
Andy in an attempt to answer your question (without going on at tremendous length) Packard built a number of 12 cylinder engines for both aircraft and marine use. You can always tell which is which by the prefix that Packard used, for instance there was a 1A-1551 aircraft engine in the early 20s (basically a reworked Liberty) and a 1M-1551 the same engine basically adapted to marine use. The V-12 as built by Packard was started in 1915 with the Twin Six passenger car and then the Liberty starting with real engine development late in 1915 with the first engines built in 1916. The chief engineer for Packard was Jesse Vincent and his hobby was professional boat racing and in the early 20s he was quite successful with his Packard Baby Gar. Even prior to Vincent being brought on board Packard had adapted some of their engines to boats for racing maybe moreso than pleasure. The engines that are pictured above that were in Gar Woods Miss America boats were specifically designed to race and win Gold Cup type racing. Vincent was a die hard racer. He was Ralph De Palma's pit boss when De Palma won the 1915 Indy 500. Packard rebuilt the 1914 Grand Prix Mercedes when De Palma brought it back from Europe on the eve of WWI (right after the French Grand Prix at Lyons where the Mercedes took the top three spots over the 1914 GP Peugeots -a picture of one is in this thread although mistakenly identified as a 1913 Peugeot-actually the spare team car for the Peugeot team in 1914-a 1914 GP Peugeot). I point out that Vincent was a hard core racer to reinforce I suppose that he took the marine engines and their successes just as seriously. They won Gold Cup events (dominated more realistically I suppose). They (Packard) were the premier builder of V12 engines in the U.S. As to the Merlins that are written about quite extensively and I believe they were built exclusively by Packard in the U.S. (by Rolls Royce over the pond). Of course Merlins were used in aircraft in WWII but were adapted to marine use after WWII. There were also Allison powered boats after the second world war as well. I believe the earliest for a Merlin being raced in boats was 1947ish. I believe that the engines used in Gar's Miss America X were 1M-2500s (or very similar). Here is a picture of a 3A-2500 and was the aircraft version but very similar to the ones used in 1932 and 33 in Gar's boats. The 4m-2500s were later developed for use in PT boats and were different in a number of respects, including size. The Merlins were also quite different and there is no mistaking them. Somewhere I have some pics of other 12 engines but do not have them at my fingertips and often when I dig and find these old pics they end up being erased as they are OT. Hope this helps.
Jim, thank you for taking the time for the explanation, I was aware of the Packard Twin Six of 1915/16 and the later versions use in the 1930's in production cars but hadn't heard of the Packard 2500 series racing engine which appear to be quite different to the Packard Merlins built in the USA under licence from Rolls Royce..... from your pic these Packard V12s appear to be a SOHC design, is that correct?...........thank you.......andyd
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