The 20 Best Hot Rods Of all Time

August 10, 2017

Twenty-Seven Liter Rover Rolls-Royce

Base car: Rover SD1

Digital Trends

While it’s not as all-American as the other cars on this list, this bananas British motor can hold its head up high among the prestigious company on this list. The Rover SD1 is about as boring an executive car as you can get. Produced from ‘76-’86, the SD1 was the last Rover to be produced at the Solihull plant in the UK’s West Midlands. Then this guy, Charlie Brumfield, decided he wanted to do something real nasty to it.

Under (and bulging slightly above) the hood, you’ll find a 27-litre (1647 cubic inch) Rolls-Royce Meteor engine. Derived from the Merlin engine which powered both the British Spitfire and the P-51 Mustang, the Meteor powered the Cromwell tank of World War II, and proved itself to be both powerful and reliable. In a car, that means that, well, good things happen. The engine produces 650 horsepower, letting the SD1 pull itself up to 160 mph at around 2000 rpm.

MotorAuthority

The car was rebuilt around the engine, with the engine bay resculpted and extended, making the driver now sit on the left side of the car, and several radiators have had to be fitted. The result? Boring executive car transformed into a ridiculous muscle car, that honors two aspects of British engineering.

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