This Ford Crown Victoria has a massive V12 engine. That much is apparent when you see the video. The monster engine is also made by Rolls-Royce, though you won't find this particular V12 inside the likes of the Ghost or Phantom. Instead, this engine came from something a little more destructive: an army tank. In the world of crazy engine swaps, this might just win. The team behind this build first fired the Rolls-powered beast up about a year ago, and now it's time to hit the dyno with what is one of only a handful of tank-powered cars in the world.
The motor has, of course, been significantly modified to accept life in its new home of a Ford Crown Vic engine bay a bit better. Displacing a ridiculous 27-liters, the engine has two Borg Warner S500SX turbos on either side. As of the car's first start, the goal was to produce 2,500 hp and 3,800 lb-ft of torque. The lunatic behind the project, Daniel Werner, says that in stock form, the V12 tank engine would have only made roughly 650 hp and 1,450 lb-ft.
In order to handle those figures, the Crown Vic needed new axles, which were installed before the test. Given this is a massive military monster of an engine, we're not surprised to see the RPM gauge on this car ends early. During the car's run, the team manages only 2,500 RPM. However, the team ran into a bit of a problem. After a few pulls, it's clear that a larger dyno is needed to handle the kind of power and torque this engine makes. Even without the turbos (which were out of action due to mechanical issues), the car made 650 hp and 1,622 lb-ft of torque. At the least, it was more torque than the team estimated.
Apparently, that's about all the hub dyno could handle. The second gear puts too much torque through the dyno, but running the car in third gear results in too much "speed." We do mean that in traditional terms (mph), though technically it means the dyno is turning at too many revolutions per minute to be safe or accurate.
Still, for now, the tank-powered Ford Crown Vic can be driven around. The team has established a baseline tune that will allow the car to be driven without it turning an oil pan to swiss cheese or sounding like a tractor (although, it still kind of does). We're looking forward to seeing how real dyno and operational turbos will set some crazy power and torque numbers.
