Friday 8th July 2011

Pic Of The Week: The 24-Litre Napier-Railton

When racing drivers were men and their mounts were, er, elephants?

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The 6.0-litre W12 that graces the under-bonnet regions of a Bentley Continental GT (and until recently the odd VW Phaeton) might seem like a rather chunky engine (and it is). But it is as nothing compared with the dubya-engined beast that Classic & Sports Jacket's Mick Walsh has been driving for the latest issue. (C&SC usually looks great on the coffee table, but this month's is a corker. Ed.)

The Napier-Railton that is featured in the latest issue of said journal is truly a monster. Built between 1932 and 1933 by John Cobb, this 24-litre beast was fitted with a 24-litre W12 engine, rated at 502bhp at 2200rpm, and with a scarcely comprehensible 1184lb ft of torque. Enough to push it to a top speed of 167mph.

It is also the car that holds the Brooklands Outer Circuit record, set in 1935 at a truly astounding 143.44mph. And if that ain't worth celebrating in Friday wallpaper-style, we don't know what is.

Normal (1280x1024)
WideScreen (1440x900)
SuperSize (2048x1536)

[Frik]

It can fly too you know. I've seen the photos.

[stew-S160]

B.E.A.UTIFUL!

[markh1]

Helped bump start that beast at the FoS on Saturday. Was pushing on the left rear wheel right by the exhausts, didn't half make my ears ring when it fired up!

[Monty Python]

Is there any reason why we can't have these pictures in "standard" desktop resolutions (1680x1050 and 1920x1200 for example)?

[Contigo]

Yes please can we have a proper resolution one that doesn't look stretched when on a widescreen laptop display?

Also this car had torque that could quite literally rip your face off!!!

[AJLintern]

Why not just choose the biggest one and resize in Paint?

[Snoggledog]

Phwoar. Can we have the BRM V16 at some point too?

[Alimac]

Saw this at Goodwood..........amazing piece of engineering from the 30s and seeing in the flesh what a beast .

[GrumpyTwig]

V.nice, and the photo is in focus

[Will Elbourn]

Real mans car. Would love to go round Brooklands, if only it was still complete.

[Hub]

markh1 said:

Helped bump start that beast at the FoS on Saturday. Was pushing on the left rear wheel right by the exhausts, didn't half make my ears ring when it fired up!

When Jay Leno was driving? I might have a photo if it was!

[Roadru77er]

What an evocative beast!

[goron59]

Monty Python said:

Is there any reason why we can't have these pictures in "standard" desktop resolutions (1680x1050 and 1920x1200 for example)?

+1 on this. The wide screen one does scale up naturally to 1680x1050, but I'd rather have a larger one and scale it down then a smaller one and scale up.

[goron59]

Best pic in a long time. Well done!

[iain1970]

I can't help thinking that if Morgan took possession of this and made it a three wheeler....

[homerjay]

all well and good, but could it manage 30mpg on a run?

[TheStoat]

Fabulous car. Seen it at Brooklands. I believe that when it retired from racing it went on to a life of testing parachutes!

[clonmult]

goron59 said:

Monty Python said:

Is there any reason why we can't have these pictures in "standard" desktop resolutions (1680x1050 and 1920x1200 for example)?

+1 on this. The wide screen one does scale up naturally to 1680x1050, but I'd rather have a larger one and scale it down then a smaller one and scale up.

I tend to use the larger one, and have it centered, so you then have some high res napier-railton goodness blasting out of the 24" 1920x1200 uber bright desktop, with less of those irritating black bars at the top and bottom ....

Bloody stunning picture, stunning car, awesome engineering. Gives me goosebumps ....

[hornetrider]

A return to form for pic of the week

[toppstuff]

Modern cars (even the really good ones like 458's and the like) increasingly leave me cold.

Classics are where it is at. And this thing is an extreme classic - a monster of a car. Of course, it is immensely valuable and probably worth more ££ than a nice country house. But given the choice between this and a fleet of 458/SLS/MP4/Aventedor nonsense, I would take the classic every time.

All it needs are cycle guards and some indicators, get it MOT'd and terrify the locals with it. Marvellous.