Jay Leno's 'tank engined' hot rod!
11-09-04, 08:09 PM
#1
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Jay Leno's 'tank engined' hot rod!
Just read about this in Car & Driver. Incredible.
21 feet long, a vintage 1950's tank engine with 810 HP and 1560lb/ft torque. LOL
http://popularmechanics.com/automoti...004/5/hot_rod/
http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1
A lil excerpt from the popular mechanics article... hilarious...
This engine is an AV-1790-5B and it's 1792 cu. in. It has overhead cams and Hemi heads. Since it was designed to move a tank, it puts out 810 hp and makes 1560 ft.-lb. of torque. But you can't just hit the local neighborhood NAPA store for replacement parts on one of these. Fortunately, a fellow by the name of Roy Smith has a surplus company in Augusta, Ga., and he has piles of them sitting there. He probably bought them for 5 cents on the dollar, but that's fine with me. There are guys who just save things, sort of like monks of the Middle Ages. They look at something and say, "Someone put too much work into this piece of machinery to just throw it away."
Remember, this motor was used in a tank that weighed 92,883 pounds--empty. Fully armed, the tank weighed 101,775 pounds. With 233 gal. of 80-octane fuel in its tank, the Patton would travel about 80 miles. That's about one-third of a mile per gallon. The engine was originally built under license by Chrysler, and cost the government $110,000 in 1953. Today, a complete rebuild would cost $4500. How's that for re-using the nation's tax dollars?
With the engine handled, we turned our attention to getting all of that power down to the ground. So we replaced the transmission. The one in the car came out of a Greyhound bus. It had about 200,000 miles on it, and it was slipping continuously. So I called my friend Dave Killackey at Performance Allison Transmissions in Azuza, Calif., who pronounced, "There's only one transmission that could do that job: the Allison HD4060 6-speed." We got one from GM Powertrain. I wanted the transmission geared so that when the engine was running at 800 to 900 rpm, the car would be moving about 80 mph. This is an American car, powered by an American tank engine, and the power is being put to the ground by an American transmission, by Allison.
I called the folks at Allison and told them my needs. They, of course, asked, "What vehicle is this for?" When I said it was for a car with an engine from a Patton tank, I was put on hold. I really thought that would be the end of it. But, no, they came back and they were very excited.
21 feet long, a vintage 1950's tank engine with 810 HP and 1560lb/ft torque. LOL
http://popularmechanics.com/automoti...004/5/hot_rod/
http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1
A lil excerpt from the popular mechanics article... hilarious...
This engine is an AV-1790-5B and it's 1792 cu. in. It has overhead cams and Hemi heads. Since it was designed to move a tank, it puts out 810 hp and makes 1560 ft.-lb. of torque. But you can't just hit the local neighborhood NAPA store for replacement parts on one of these. Fortunately, a fellow by the name of Roy Smith has a surplus company in Augusta, Ga., and he has piles of them sitting there. He probably bought them for 5 cents on the dollar, but that's fine with me. There are guys who just save things, sort of like monks of the Middle Ages. They look at something and say, "Someone put too much work into this piece of machinery to just throw it away."
Remember, this motor was used in a tank that weighed 92,883 pounds--empty. Fully armed, the tank weighed 101,775 pounds. With 233 gal. of 80-octane fuel in its tank, the Patton would travel about 80 miles. That's about one-third of a mile per gallon. The engine was originally built under license by Chrysler, and cost the government $110,000 in 1953. Today, a complete rebuild would cost $4500. How's that for re-using the nation's tax dollars?
With the engine handled, we turned our attention to getting all of that power down to the ground. So we replaced the transmission. The one in the car came out of a Greyhound bus. It had about 200,000 miles on it, and it was slipping continuously. So I called my friend Dave Killackey at Performance Allison Transmissions in Azuza, Calif., who pronounced, "There's only one transmission that could do that job: the Allison HD4060 6-speed." We got one from GM Powertrain. I wanted the transmission geared so that when the engine was running at 800 to 900 rpm, the car would be moving about 80 mph. This is an American car, powered by an American tank engine, and the power is being put to the ground by an American transmission, by Allison.
I called the folks at Allison and told them my needs. They, of course, asked, "What vehicle is this for?" When I said it was for a car with an engine from a Patton tank, I was put on hold. I really thought that would be the end of it. But, no, they came back and they were very excited.
Last edited by bitkahuna; 11-09-04 at 08:13 PM.
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11-10-04, 10:57 AM
#9
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I thought this was hilarious too... gotta love his environmental sarcasm, HAHA...
Later, Leno replaced the overwhelmed bus transmission with a six-speed Allison automatic. Instead of 2 or 3 mpg, the Tankrod's mileage rocketed to about 5. "You know," says Leno, "it's Southern California. You want to do what you can for the environment and everything . . ."—
11-10-04, 01:08 PM
#11
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Originally posted by mooretorque
I think I now have something in mind for your next mod, bit...................
Aren't you beginning to get tired of 300 piddly hp???
I think I now have something in mind for your next mod, bit...................
Aren't you beginning to get tired of 300 piddly hp???
Nope - it might be fun if I had Leno's tens of millions, but I've honestly no interest in making the GS I have any faster.
11-10-04, 04:16 PM
#12
Lexus Champion
But you could have even bigger exhaust tips.............
Think of the SIZE of those tips........(why does this remind me of the line in Monty Python's "Quest For The Holy Grail" where the king/dad is saying to the fruity prince/son: ".........but she's got HUGE TRACKS OF LAND, BOY!!!" Sorry, can't render that dialect typing.......) !!!!!!!
Think of the SIZE of those tips........(why does this remind me of the line in Monty Python's "Quest For The Holy Grail" where the king/dad is saying to the fruity prince/son: ".........but she's got HUGE TRACKS OF LAND, BOY!!!" Sorry, can't render that dialect typing.......) !!!!!!!
Last edited by mooretorque; 11-10-04 at 04:18 PM.
11-10-04, 05:43 PM
#13
Lexus Fanatic
Yeah...I read that article too....last night. It's interesting how the military will put its vehicles and machines up against hot cars just for publicity reasons when car mags make a request. I remember a couple of years ago, the Navy was willing to do a comparo, with Car and Driver, of a two-seater version F-18 Hornet to a Corvette. One of the C&D guys took a ride in the Hornet's back seat, and the Navy pilot was allowed to test the Corvette.
The difference? Driving a "Vette was a piece of cake for the Top Gun jock. But the C&D guy?.....when you are not used to pulling 6-7 G's at 500 MPH or so in a fighter, you disgorge your lunch VERY quickly.
The difference? Driving a "Vette was a piece of cake for the Top Gun jock. But the C&D guy?.....when you are not used to pulling 6-7 G's at 500 MPH or so in a fighter, you disgorge your lunch VERY quickly.
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