Yes, it's a 4000Nm 41-litre V12 roadster

Rodney Rucker has visions of building big things wrapped around big engines. Problem is he also has a big workshop in Winslow, Arizona and a few guys willing to help him see those visions become reality.

The Packard Royal Streamliner concept started with a 1940 Packard 4M2500 V12 engine sitting in the middle of Rodney’s workshop. At 2500 cubic inches (41 litres), it is a ridiculously big engine which Packard manufactured for the US Navy to power the fast PT boats that cruised the South Pacific during World War II.

Bore and stroke are a respective 171.5mm x 168.4mm and, to make things interesting, the overhead-cam four-valve-per-cylinder V12 is supercharged at 39psi. To get a real idea of the size and power of this engine, it sucks fuel through two 1500cfm Dominator carburettors – that’s a 3000cfm air/fuel supply -- to produce 1195kW of power and a hefty 4070Nm of torque. Redline is 3100rpm.

So you understand Rodney’s problem. What to put it in? Of course something big, so Chip Foose sketched the overall general shape and proportions that would become the 9.6-metre Streamliner on a 6.4-metre wheelbase.

It is registered in California as a 1940 Packard, and both Rucker and co-owner Art Bauer drive it.

“It is as close to driving a P51 Mustang on the street,” says Rucker. The engine has the concussive intensity of a Top Fuel engine but, as Art says: “the V12 sounds more wholesome. You don’t want to cover your ears; you just want to listen.”

Listen to Rucker and he’ll tell you it is real easy to drive. It has an automatic transmission, power steering and power brakes. He’s been known to take it for drives around Winslow.

“I’ve had it up to 100mph a few times; not much above that because the wind blows the goggles off my head.”

The Streamliner is sheeted in hand-formed aluminium panels, shaped by Marcel’s Custom Metal in Southern California, with brass panels through the centreline.

There's no paint; in fact, the panels took about eight months to shape and an additional year to polish. By the time the Streamliner was wearing its California rego, Rodney and Art had invested $US1 million and about 7000 hours.

It has four radiators, eight cooling fans, two 300-amp alternators and uses 190 litres of coolant and 113 litres of oil to cool and lube the V12.

Building the Streamliner hasn’t stopped those visions in Rucker's head. He and Art are starting their next project with an even bigger engine.

This one may be the largest piston-powered petrol engine ever built – a supercharged Pratt and Whitney 4360 Wasp 28-cylinder radial. Capacity is 71.5 litres, and the engine measures about two metres in diameter. Power is estimated at 2240kW or almost double the output of the Streamliner’s V12.

They found this engine stored in a warehouse in Reno, Nevada. According to Art, this engine was a spare for Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose flying boat (H-4 Hercules) that eventually flew in 1947.

Keep dreamin’ Rodney!