I'm glad that some people still care about the golden age of crazy steampunk deathtraps that were basically a giant barely covered engine with a little seat and 4 wheels.
I think that modern manufacturers could take a page out of the S76’s book. A 28.4 L inline 4 motor with 300hp, 2000 ft-lbs of torque would be a hot seller in a Lexus, BMW, or John Deere platform.
10:00 I'll never get over this startup, half a second after the guy lets go of the handle, it suddenly tries to flip over from the sheer torque of that engine firing off. Definitely a beast.
@fastinradfordable First of all on today's combustion engine there's no fire reaching the exhaust, because there's no unfinished combustion, and second, he mentioned it because there's no exhaust pipe as such. So, don't be an a**hole for no reason, "bruh"
@@Rondo2ooo Those flames roaring out the side - strike me as if the car is a fire breathing dragon - it just looks like so much unleashed power, just waiting to be harnessed.
@@Rondo2oooTake off your exhaust manifold, on any ICE car of your choice and there will be fire. I mean look at normally aspirated race and rally cars, between gears and off throttle there's sheets of this orange and blue stuff coming from the exhaust tip, let alone the exhaust port. It's not just hot air that makes exhaust pipes close to the engine glow red hot now is it. You call the other dude out on his comment, he was not only 100% correct, but you've made yourself dingus of the year with your attitude and ignorance. He also said exhaust ports, top job doubling down. Did you even comprehend what he wrote old bean, I think not?!
If you have been buggering for more than 4 hours straight, see your doctor. For 3 years straight, see your doctor, a priest and a representative of the Nobel Prize Committee.
Um, yeah, probably not the best word for what he did! LOL! Pestering, bugging, begging, hassling, may (?) have been more accurate. We shall never know....
The reason "more power" equaled "more displacement" back then was the fuel. They were using straight gasoline, without any additives, notably, any octane boosters - and straight gasoline can only support a 6:1 compression ratio. That was a hard-and-fast limit, and all the modern power / speed improvements centring on higher compression, simply were not possible. When the spark ignites the fuel in a gasoline engine - modern or built back when the S76 took to the road - the fuel must BURN: if it burns it applies gradual pressure to the piston as it travels down the length of the cylinder, but if it explodes instead, it will generate instant extremely high pressure and likely break things or even tear the engine apart. And if you increase engine compression beyond what the fuel is capable of, it tends to explode instead of burn; it's called "detonation" in the trade. This is why all the top racers back then had such enormous engines, because that was the only way to increase power. The fix for this problem is to increase the detonation-resistance of the fuel, so you can squeeze it harder and faster, and it will still wait tamely for the spark and then burn instead of exploding. The first step was to add fractions of one of the refinery's other distillation products they got from crude oil, namely octane; octane not only resisted detonation better than simple gasoline, it gave its name to the entire genre of doping gasoline with detonation-resistant additives. But octane itself - even used straight-up as fuel instead of mixing parts of it with gasoline - can only support a 8:1 compression ratio. So petrochemical research has gone on ever since, seeking further dopants to increase gasoline's compression ratio further.
I remember seeing a video on the discovery / invention of Tetra Ethyl Lead and how the guy who concocted it and marketed it for public use died of lead poisoning. Sort of like Pierre and Madame Curie
@@isthatrubble Engines just don't care about higher-octane fuel; they love it, they'll take all of that shtuff they can get. It's only too little detonation resistance, i.e., too low-octane, that causes trouble. So you can fuel any old engine with newer, higher-octane gasoline; your only concerns are things like no-lead (which requires hardened valve seats, as tetraethyl lead lubricates valve seats and the new stuff doesn't), and if your fuel system is put together with o-rings, some fuels (like methyl alcohol) attack older o-rings. So it's important that your fuel is compatible with your engine seals and components, but higher octane will not cause you any troubles by itself.
@@yknott9873 thanks for the explanation! what do people running engines built to take leaded fuel usually do, just replace those specific parts with ones made from different materials?
@@isthatrubble Either get hardened seats installed by specialty machine shops - some heads have replaceable valve seats from the factory - or buy fuel or oil supplements. I often watch Junkyard Digs, and Kevin says you must use a zinc additive to engine oil in older engines, that does the same thing.
I was lucky enough to park next to the Beast on 5 May 23 when it was on its way to the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry. The location was the Portsmouth Ferry Terminal as it was being driven on public roads (along with a wide range of other amazing cars). It did have an exhaust system fitted because apparently modern car owners object to having their paint removed at traffic lights 🙂
I came to comments section.... just to add this comment if it hadn't been already. EDITED TO ADD - I think i might just occasionally "accidentally slip" this phrase into common usage. see if anyone notices... tho not going to put it in recorded format, plausible deniability and all that...
Old-timey racing was a trip. "I got a screaming deal on these 22 surplus aero engines, guess I'll build some race cars and race them *myself* and maybe I won't die! Huzzah!"
I agree that car museums with static displays are depressing sights. However, I recently visited a vintage tractor museum in Australia and my guide started up two restored tractors. It was the best feeling hearing the engines.
I'm lucky enough to have seen this car in action going up the hill at Goodwood Festival Of Speed, the sight sound and smell of this machine is amazing!
Very cool, I'm 63 and I've been hearing and reading about "The Beast of Turin" for at least 45 of those years. Really exciting to see and especially hear it run, thank you. PS, already subscribed, I like your presentation style very much!!
The exhaust is the most rudimentary thing. The 4:2 collectors are all it had in it's racing career. The picture at 9:18 may be from afterwards. Horizontal flames are a bit anti-social.... He has not admitted the speed he reached on the motorway on the way to Goodwood. 130mph in top gear @ around 1000 rpm.
Balls of Steel! Not only to drive it, but to even contemplate re-building a monster like that. That 4 cylinder engine has a larger displacement than the v-12 Merlin! I tip my hat to Mr. Pittaway. And to you, Bart. Nice work.
Im pretty sure the Auto Union Type D was the most crazy car made, had Rosemeyer waited a day to try to break Mercedes's record, he would have cracked 280 mph on a public road.
Saltburn? Do you have any more info on the beach races there? I live 3 miles away and I want to know more about those days but there's not a lot of documented stuff around here
This is a really beautiful video. I feel the same way about machines- it's way better to see them doing their thing. They don't have a will of their own, but complex machines like cars and planes do seem to have a sort of spirit- they all handle differently and have different needs. You treat them with different care, according to what they do. They feel different on the road, and sound different. You could argue that they fill a lot of boxes for being "alive". They need sustenance and perform respiration in order to turn that into energy. And they grumble when they aren't taken care of! I can tell something is off on my Sweetheart (yeah, she's named) by listening to very slight noises. She's not some specialized machine like the Beast, but she gives me a lot of freedom in exchange for what's not that much work. So I guess it's not that odd to feel sentimental about these machines.
This car is amazing, seen it on TV at Goodwood, the owner drives it to and from the event on public roads, would love to see this beast on the motorway spitting flames as it goes by.
I’ve seen some of the videos he’s shared on this monster, and it really is fascinating. Seeing this pre-war (WWI) Racecars thrashed within an inch of their life, wrecked, and rebuilt is genuinely something else. (Some moustache required.)
I really loved this video, paint cans, mustaches and beasts! Of this car my favorite part is the rectangular exhaust tubes with sparks and flames. It's hard to believe that a hundred years later I went to a car dealer to purchase a Dodge Caliber SRT4 that has similar performance as the Beast of Turin, but my wife nicknamed my car "Princess" because I only use premium fuel. I still drive Princess in 2024 because it's been an awesome commuter car, six speed Getrag, 285HP, moon roof.
@@microdesigns2000 wifi-100 and totally computer driven and controlled. People will just hope in, and the cars will drive them where they want to go with no human intervention, would be my guess. Provided society is still around - well modern computer driven society.
This is a car I also have an obsession with! Thank you for putting this together. Do you have any interest in Edwardian/Pre-1916 car touring? I grew up touring all over New England with my parents in their 1910 thru 1914 cars, my mom is one of the organizers for the HCCA's week long tours. If you're ever curious we've always got open seats! 🎉 I just bought a 1910 Oakland, I'll be driving it around town regularly. Not exactly the Beast of Turin, but golly are they a blast ❤❤
Okay, that's awesome. Duncan is the MAN! Engines nailed to a wooden frame- may dad never mentioned that part but he was a decade later so maybe they used bolts by then.
There's a story once posted on the internet by Duncan Pittaway. He entered his original 1925 Bugatti Type 35 at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix to race, despite the fact that the car is just a pile of bits in his garage. In a matter of weeks, the car was assembled and road registered, and then, he drove it from Britain, through France, all the way to Monaco, raced it there, took the class win and drove it back home again!!! There's a video here of Duncan and his friends taking their 100+year old cars to a 1000-mile road trip to Lyon, France, to commemorate the centenary of the 1914 French GP held there...
Totally agree with your ending point. I want to get some antique cars someday, maybe an MG TA or TC, something not too pricey- but not so I can stow it in a garage and take it out three times a year for car shows. Cars are just that-cars! They're meant to be driven and enjoyed, and seeing so many insane driving machines coddled behind garage doors and left to languish in massive collections really makes me quite sad. I mean, even today- how many supercars get stowed away and driven just a couple dozen miles per year? Very disappointing.
The Honda CRZ is pretty close to what youre looking for in your sporty Honda Fit. 2 door manual hybrid with an optinal factory supercharger. Its not fast enough to keep up with any real sports car, it's not fuel efficient enough to be a great hybrid, but its by far the most fun i've ever had with a car. Handles like an absolute dream.
4:20 Just curious, in what context is it the largest engine ever put in a car? I mean, the Brutus car build by a Museum in Sinsheim, Germany has a 46.9 Litre (2,862 cu in) BMW V12 Plane Engine on the frame of a 1908 American Fire Engine. Granted it was built in the years between 1998 and 2006 (the english Wikipedia entry is wrong in claiming that it was built shorty after WW II, they simply made the thing to look like it was from that era), but it´s still a larger engine in a car.
Largest engine as originally installed by the manufacturer. Its quite easy for individuals or small groups to cobble together a car with a giant engine, just look at insanity like the Triplex Special with its three (!) 27L Liberty V12s for a total of 81L. Like you said Brutus' chassis started life as an American LaFrance fire engine with a comparatively tiny engine 😅
I'm thinking some early fire trucks may have had huge engines to pump all that water - or provide enough horse power to run the pumps, but just a guess.
I can't believe it actually sounds like paint can cylinders! It's like each piston is on a paint shaker.... while running! That's the angriest engine I've ever heard! I'm in love! 😍
Wow, that mustache joke was hilarious. I laughed so hard the first 20 times I heard it. Between that and the various testicle jokes and puns I was practically wheezing at your original and not-at-all sophomoric humor.
Jeremy Clarkson would beg to differ on the claim of largest engine ever put in a car..... Jeremy drove the BMW Brutus. A 12-cylinder BMW aircraft engine installed, with a cylinder capacity of nearly 47 litres.
The fact you stated it exists proves it EXISTS dimwit and it was built as was the engine and they are one now on a vehicle chassis sooooooo ergo it's A CAR WITH A 47 LITRE ENGINE!
Me also ! Well perhaps they came close to those cars they used to race, trying to break the world speed record, on the salt flats, before they started using rockets instead of piston driven engines.
You need to be pretty brave to drive this thing because there's nothing to stop the chain from ripping your arm off if it snaps. One of the joys of exposed chain drive cars, lol.
I've seen thousands of great cars and have been to many great car museums. But the Beast of Turin is so amazing, it's a car that was built to see just how powerful and fast a car could go. It's like you ignore and forget the things you've been told that are impossible and with a naivety that lets you believe and imagine anything is possible, so just do it! I can only begin to imagine what people thought when they saw this car in 1909. A time when it was believed that the human body couldn't survive going faster than 60 mph. Here was a huge, noisy, fire breathing car that went more than twice that speed! Even now when I see these videos of the Beast of Turin, 115 years later, I am in awe and wonder. I'd love to see it in person, to come alive and be driven. To ride in it would be a bucket list dream come to life.💯😀🏆🥇🔥🌪️
Listen these people are heo 's bringing back these cars . Many people whed have left these car to history. But these people put back no matter of the cost keep history still alive I salute you . I wish you the best luck ever
This was an excellent production about truly a beast. At 10:03 I thru my hands up and shouted! From another room the wife shouted back, What happened did you win something?
9:22 I'm sure he was bugging people, not buggering them for three years! I'm sure I would have relinquished the engine and divulged ALL of my deepest secrets way before three years.
Bugger: (slang, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Commonwealth) A situation that is aggravating or causes dismay; a pain. Some words have multiple meanings. (I know, right??? I was shocked to learn that!)
@@tim3172 OK, I was unfamiliar with that meaning. Thanks for the clarification. I suppose the meaning which first came to mind is also a situation that is aggravating or causes dismay; a pain.
The funniest thing is the criminal investigation that's happened in Italy on the restoration process: The claim is, quoting wikipedia (translated from italian media): "In 2019 the Italian authorities started an investigation, as they have ascertained that the S76 engine mounted on the "Beast of Turin" was originally kept in the "Antonio Capetti Collection" of the Polytechnic of Turin: the power unit was loaned to Mr. Pittaway in charge of research and restoration, but the “Collection” discovered after some years that they had been returned with a non-functional replica block."
fortunately there is always someone who is able to bring back works from the past. even if you manage to scratch the only engine left in the world under the eyes of us Italians who only noticed many years later, due to the futurist mentality not inclined to memory. which causes very important pieces to be stored away until they are forgotten and thrown away. As an Italian I can say that it was done well because they would never have done it here.
Some other cars of that era and type were the "Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs", also chain-driven racing machines with huge engines. They were made famous by Ian Fleming's children's story of the same name. My memory is hazy, but I think there were three different ones, at least one driven by an Italian count whose name began with Z who was later killed racing at Monza. One of them had an 18-liter Maybach Zeppelin engine, which may have inspired Fleming to make the car in his story fly.
How about Mr. Dunderbak’s? German restaurant. There used to be a bunch of them, but now there’s only 3. Two are in Florida, Daytona and Tampa, and one is in Allentown Pennsylvania.
Ich hab das Fahrzeug vor einigen Jahren in Speyer live gesehen. Und ja es ist Klasse. Nur ging es im Vergleich zum Brutus etwas unter. Vielleicht auch deshalb weil die Einspritzung ein wenig runter auf ein vertragliches Maß herunter gestellt wurde 😅 Ich kann jeden das Technikmuseum in Speyer zum Brazzeltag empfehlen. Dort wird an diesem Tag alles bewegt was sich bewegen oder laufen kann. Selbst einige Flugzeuge und Schiffe werden Angelassen. Auch einige Gäste wie der S76 oder der Packard bzw Napier Bentley kommen als Gäste.
Imagine the feeling of just hand cranking this monster. 4 paint can sozed pistons popping and snorting while uou pray to god the engine dosent predetonate and breaks your shoulder. Old cars are like this are a by-gone era of doing anything possible to achieve a goal without testraints or sanctions. Just build the craziest machine you can imagine and send it down the track. Amazing video.
I live 26 miles from Goodwood and have raced the track many times (pre renovation) in mostly mark 1-3 Mini Coopers and I have seen these beasts in action. I cannot imagine a 150 mile jaunt on public roads to get to the track in one of these, probably more dangerous than racing the circuit.
The importance of having a big bushy moustache can not be overstated when driving the Beast of Turin. So too the ability to bugger large groups of people in Italy. Viva Duncan
I'm glad that some people still care about the golden age of crazy steampunk deathtraps that were basically a giant barely covered engine with a little seat and 4 wheels.
It is not golden age, it is stone age of cars. I find them fascinating anyways!
Those are the best ones.
Technically, it’s diesel punk (‘cos not steam powered 😅) But totally agree with the sentiment of your comment 👍
Fair, though these engines have such a low compression ratio that you might as well call it steam rather than combustion lol
Golden words!!!
I think that modern manufacturers could take a page out of the S76’s book. A 28.4 L inline 4 motor with 300hp, 2000 ft-lbs of torque would be a hot seller in a Lexus, BMW, or John Deere platform.
10:00 I'll never get over this startup, half a second after the guy lets go of the handle, it suddenly tries to flip over from the sheer torque of that engine firing off. Definitely a beast.
The lack of torsional stiffness in the chassey helps dampen the engine torque lol
Yeah!
Lol!
It's Awesome!
It may not be an aircraft engine, but it still tried to do a fuckin' barrel roll.
That exhaust is amazing, you can basically look into the combustion chamber!
I've seen cars of this era on you tube, when they started up - flames blasted out the exhaust pipes.
@@kfl611flames come from exhaust ports on EVERY ENGINE.
Wanna know why???
Fire is inside the engine.
It’s the principal of the entire thing bruh
@fastinradfordable First of all on today's combustion engine there's no fire reaching the exhaust, because there's no unfinished combustion, and second, he mentioned it because there's no exhaust pipe as such. So, don't be an a**hole for no reason, "bruh"
@@Rondo2ooo Those flames roaring out the side - strike me as if the car is a fire breathing dragon - it just looks like so much unleashed power, just waiting to be harnessed.
@@Rondo2oooTake off your exhaust manifold, on any ICE car of your choice and there will be fire. I mean look at normally aspirated race and rally cars, between gears and off throttle there's sheets of this orange and blue stuff coming from the exhaust tip, let alone the exhaust port. It's not just hot air that makes exhaust pipes close to the engine glow red hot now is it.
You call the other dude out on his comment, he was not only 100% correct, but you've made yourself dingus of the year with your attitude and ignorance. He also said exhaust ports, top job doubling down. Did you even comprehend what he wrote old bean, I think not?!
9:25 Three years of constantly buggering people in Italy must have been exhausting.
The key is buggering the right people.
For which party?
@@alastairward2774 both, I imagine.
If you have been buggering for more than 4 hours straight, see your doctor. For 3 years straight, see your doctor, a priest and a representative of the Nobel Prize Committee.
Um, yeah, probably not the best word for what he did! LOL! Pestering, bugging, begging, hassling, may (?) have been more accurate. We shall never know....
This car never fails to intrigue me. Look at the size of the pistons and rods. WOW. Each piston is over 7 liters.
The way the torque twists the car when the engine starts is impressive.
No each bore is over 12 , with piston at lowest , displacement is just over 10
7.1 liters per cylinder to be exact!
@@chrishartley4553Absolutely, I actually busted out with a _"Whoa!"_
My wife laughed at me 😂
And that means at 2000 torque.
That means 500tq per piston.
😮
The craziest era of racing when a mustache and huge balls were the driver's protection
you're just jealous
@@bartscarstories absolutely!
My handlebars shall steer me to victory!
The reason "more power" equaled "more displacement" back then was the fuel. They were using straight gasoline, without any additives, notably, any octane boosters - and straight gasoline can only support a 6:1 compression ratio. That was a hard-and-fast limit, and all the modern power / speed improvements centring on higher compression, simply were not possible. When the spark ignites the fuel in a gasoline engine - modern or built back when the S76 took to the road - the fuel must BURN: if it burns it applies gradual pressure to the piston as it travels down the length of the cylinder, but if it explodes instead, it will generate instant extremely high pressure and likely break things or even tear the engine apart. And if you increase engine compression beyond what the fuel is capable of, it tends to explode instead of burn; it's called "detonation" in the trade. This is why all the top racers back then had such enormous engines, because that was the only way to increase power.
The fix for this problem is to increase the detonation-resistance of the fuel, so you can squeeze it harder and faster, and it will still wait tamely for the spark and then burn instead of exploding. The first step was to add fractions of one of the refinery's other distillation products they got from crude oil, namely octane; octane not only resisted detonation better than simple gasoline, it gave its name to the entire genre of doping gasoline with detonation-resistant additives. But octane itself - even used straight-up as fuel instead of mixing parts of it with gasoline - can only support a 8:1 compression ratio. So petrochemical research has gone on ever since, seeking further dopants to increase gasoline's compression ratio further.
I remember seeing a video on the discovery / invention of Tetra Ethyl Lead and how the guy who concocted it and marketed it for public use died of lead poisoning.
Sort of like Pierre and Madame Curie
considering all that, I wonder where they get the fuel for it now, petrol stations not really selling pure gasoline/petrol anymore.....
@@isthatrubble Engines just don't care about higher-octane fuel; they love it, they'll take all of that shtuff they can get. It's only too little detonation resistance, i.e., too low-octane, that causes trouble. So you can fuel any old engine with newer, higher-octane gasoline; your only concerns are things like no-lead (which requires hardened valve seats, as tetraethyl lead lubricates valve seats and the new stuff doesn't), and if your fuel system is put together with o-rings, some fuels (like methyl alcohol) attack older o-rings. So it's important that your fuel is compatible with your engine seals and components, but higher octane will not cause you any troubles by itself.
@@yknott9873 thanks for the explanation! what do people running engines built to take leaded fuel usually do, just replace those specific parts with ones made from different materials?
@@isthatrubble Either get hardened seats installed by specialty machine shops - some heads have replaceable valve seats from the factory - or buy fuel or oil supplements. I often watch Junkyard Digs, and Kevin says you must use a zinc additive to engine oil in older engines, that does the same thing.
That exhaust is like a bomb continuously exploding. Zero back pressure.
You smell like peach cobbler
"do you know why I pulled you over?"
"PACPACAPACPACAPCAPACAPAC"
*gets hearing damage*
*Exhaust blows papers away*
*Neutral-here*
*Puts into first-there*
*Puts second-gone*
*Breaks sound barrier in 7 seconds flat*
Haha, yeah maybe if it had an electric starter …
For a car to sit motionless behind a rope in a museum is like a beautiful supermodel in a trench coat in a closet with the door shut.
Or a beautiful racehorse trapped in a stable, unable to even get out and gallop...
Or a pet bird in a cage
I thought that’s how the billionaires store their supermodels…
I don't think that's a good analogy.... Objectifying people is weird.
I'd say keeping the Mona Lisa behind a curtain is a better one.
@@annunacky4463Naw, they just throw 'em out and get new ones....
I was lucky enough to park next to the Beast on 5 May 23 when it was on its way to the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry. The location was the Portsmouth Ferry Terminal as it was being driven on public roads (along with a wide range of other amazing cars). It did have an exhaust system fitted because apparently modern car owners object to having their paint removed at traffic lights 🙂
I don't think "buggering people in Italy" means what you think it means! lol Great video and an awesome bit of engineering!
It's one way of getting what you want!
I thought the same thing!
@@matter9Right?! Maybe he should have said bugging people.
I came to comments section.... just to add this comment if it hadn't been already. EDITED TO ADD - I think i might just occasionally "accidentally slip" this phrase into common usage. see if anyone notices... tho not going to put it in recorded format, plausible deniability and all that...
Those poor Italians 😅
Now the statement of "a vortex of sound" makes a whole lot of sense after that start
Cars like that need to be heard, and smelled, as well as being seen.
I keep coming back to this. The idea of a 300hp 28.4 Liter straight 4 that makes ridiculous torque at 1000rpm makes me laugh.
Old-timey racing was a trip. "I got a screaming deal on these 22 surplus aero engines, guess I'll build some race cars and race them *myself* and maybe I won't die! Huzzah!"
Had the opportunity to get close and personal with this at the FOS. An incredible visual and audible experience that literally shakes you 👍🏻
I agree that car museums with static displays are depressing sights. However, I recently visited a vintage tractor museum in Australia and my guide started up two restored tractors. It was the best feeling hearing the engines.
I'm lucky enough to have seen this car in action going up the hill at Goodwood Festival Of Speed, the sight sound and smell of this machine is amazing!
This is real appreciation of history not the collectors who put their cars on museums or in private collections just fro their price appreciation.
Those Goodwood races with cars of that era are fantastic to watch.
Very cool, I'm 63 and I've been hearing and reading about "The Beast of Turin" for at least 45 of those years. Really exciting to see and especially hear it run, thank you.
PS, already subscribed, I like your presentation style very much!!
-how safe is this car ?
-safe?
-ye how do you survive if you crash.
-you do not crash
That's why you need the mustache to drive it. Cushioning.
He needs to take this car to Jay Leno's Garage for an episode... great story.
Couldn't agree more. I'm actually convinced that to best preserve an automobile it has to be driven regularly. Also there's no better way to enjoy it.
Good job on the video, Bart. Great pictures and movies, and an enjoyable narration. Subscribed! By the way, I would LOVE to drive this beast!
After seeing fired up on your video, I can see why they called it a BEAST! Geeeze!
Enjoyed that a lot, Thank you. That exhaust is like the ultimate cruise night party trick.
The exhaust is the most rudimentary thing. The 4:2 collectors are all it had in it's racing career. The picture at 9:18 may be from afterwards. Horizontal flames are a bit anti-social....
He has not admitted the speed he reached on the motorway on the way to Goodwood. 130mph in top gear @ around 1000 rpm.
Balls of Steel! Not only to drive it, but to even contemplate re-building a monster like that. That 4 cylinder engine has a larger displacement than the v-12 Merlin! I tip my hat to Mr. Pittaway. And to you, Bart. Nice work.
This is the CRAZIEST car I’ve ever seen. Thanks for producing and posting. Fantastic video.
10:00 I understand why they called it the Beast when hearing that sound.
The look at the flames spewing out of the exhaust at 8:10 when they get it started by the side of the road at night, is worthy of a poster.
Im pretty sure the Auto Union Type D was the most crazy car made, had Rosemeyer waited a day to try to break Mercedes's record, he would have cracked 280 mph on a public road.
Almost two thousand cubic inches, and no mention of fuel economy. I think it probably gets around two, as in two gallons per mile.
Saltburn? Do you have any more info on the beach races there? I live 3 miles away and I want to know more about those days but there's not a lot of documented stuff around here
This is a really beautiful video. I feel the same way about machines- it's way better to see them doing their thing. They don't have a will of their own, but complex machines like cars and planes do seem to have a sort of spirit- they all handle differently and have different needs. You treat them with different care, according to what they do. They feel different on the road, and sound different. You could argue that they fill a lot of boxes for being "alive". They need sustenance and perform respiration in order to turn that into energy. And they grumble when they aren't taken care of! I can tell something is off on my Sweetheart (yeah, she's named) by listening to very slight noises. She's not some specialized machine like the Beast, but she gives me a lot of freedom in exchange for what's not that much work. So I guess it's not that odd to feel sentimental about these machines.
This car is amazing, seen it on TV at Goodwood, the owner drives it to and from the event on public roads, would love to see this beast on the motorway spitting flames as it goes by.
That sound. Fire. It lives. Art in motion indeed.
I have had an XKE and a 1970 Citroen Deesss. So I really liked this video!
Very nice review of the greatest car of the early period.
The Beast of Turin is not powered by a four banger - it's a four BOOMER!
I’ve seen some of the videos he’s shared on this monster, and it really is fascinating. Seeing this pre-war (WWI) Racecars thrashed within an inch of their life, wrecked, and rebuilt is genuinely something else. (Some moustache required.)
Dear Bart,
I will literally pay for you to do a long video about the Lotus S3 and the Citroen DS.
Love the channel
I really loved this video, paint cans, mustaches and beasts! Of this car my favorite part is the rectangular exhaust tubes with sparks and flames.
It's hard to believe that a hundred years later I went to a car dealer to purchase a Dodge Caliber SRT4 that has similar performance as the Beast of Turin, but my wife nicknamed my car "Princess" because I only use premium fuel. I still drive Princess in 2024 because it's been an awesome commuter car, six speed Getrag, 285HP, moon roof.
But think of the 1900 compression ratio compared to today and the octane of gas from 1900 to 2024, huge difference.
@@kfl611 yes, 1900 cars were amazing! And 2020 cars are amazing too! I wonder what it will look like in 20 more years.
@@microdesigns2000 wifi-100 and totally computer driven and controlled. People will just hope in, and the cars will drive them where they want to go with no human intervention, would be my guess. Provided society is still around - well modern computer driven society.
There’s nothing like hearing that gigantic engine fire up for the first time in a century. What a machine!!!
2,000 ft lbs of torque. Bro my peterbilt dont even make that much torque 💀
This is a car I also have an obsession with! Thank you for putting this together.
Do you have any interest in Edwardian/Pre-1916 car touring? I grew up touring all over New England with my parents in their 1910 thru 1914 cars, my mom is one of the organizers for the HCCA's week long tours. If you're ever curious we've always got open seats! 🎉
I just bought a 1910 Oakland, I'll be driving it around town regularly. Not exactly the Beast of Turin, but golly are they a blast ❤❤
What a story. What characters! Had to sub.
Totally agree. Cars are art in motion. Perfick
Okay, that's awesome. Duncan is the MAN!
Engines nailed to a wooden frame- may dad never mentioned that part but he was a decade later so maybe they used bolts by then.
There's a story once posted on the internet by Duncan Pittaway. He entered his original 1925 Bugatti Type 35 at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix to race, despite the fact that the car is just a pile of bits in his garage. In a matter of weeks, the car was assembled and road registered, and then, he drove it from Britain, through France, all the way to Monaco, raced it there, took the class win and drove it back home again!!!
There's a video here of Duncan and his friends taking their 100+year old cars to a 1000-mile road trip to Lyon, France, to commemorate the centenary of the 1914 French GP held there...
Totally agree with your ending point. I want to get some antique cars someday, maybe an MG TA or TC, something not too pricey- but not so I can stow it in a garage and take it out three times a year for car shows. Cars are just that-cars! They're meant to be driven and enjoyed, and seeing so many insane driving machines coddled behind garage doors and left to languish in massive collections really makes me quite sad. I mean, even today- how many supercars get stowed away and driven just a couple dozen miles per year? Very disappointing.
The Honda CRZ is pretty close to what youre looking for in your sporty Honda Fit. 2 door manual hybrid with an optinal factory supercharger. Its not fast enough to keep up with any real sports car, it's not fuel efficient enough to be a great hybrid, but its by far the most fun i've ever had with a car. Handles like an absolute dream.
4:20 Just curious, in what context is it the largest engine ever put in a car? I mean, the Brutus car build by a Museum in Sinsheim, Germany has a 46.9 Litre (2,862 cu in) BMW V12 Plane Engine on the frame of a 1908 American Fire Engine. Granted it was built in the years between 1998 and 2006 (the english Wikipedia entry is wrong in claiming that it was built shorty after WW II, they simply made the thing to look like it was from that era), but it´s still a larger engine in a car.
Largest engine as originally installed by the manufacturer.
Its quite easy for individuals or small groups to cobble together a car with a giant engine, just look at insanity like the Triplex Special with its three (!) 27L Liberty V12s for a total of 81L.
Like you said Brutus' chassis started life as an American LaFrance fire engine with a comparatively tiny engine 😅
@@mrspandel5737 OK, yeah, from that perspective it makes a lot of sense. Like Brutus basically being a Engine Swapped Fire Engine Hot Rod.
I'm thinking some early fire trucks may have had huge engines to pump all that water - or provide enough horse power to run the pumps, but just a guess.
@@mrspandel5737 And was half the horse power the engine generated, used just to get all that weight in motion? I wonder how much that car weighed.
I can't believe it actually sounds like paint can cylinders! It's like each piston is on a paint shaker.... while running! That's the angriest engine I've ever heard! I'm in love! 😍
Have you done a presentation of the Maybach chitty chitty bang bang?
24l straight 8.
New car : speed comes with design and suitable air compression in the engine
old car : *MO POWA BABEH*
Wow, that mustache joke was hilarious. I laughed so hard the first 20 times I heard it.
Between that and the various testicle jokes and puns I was practically wheezing at your original and not-at-all sophomoric humor.
Imagine trying to locate all the parts of a car that was disassembled 100 years ago and parted out to a dozen random people.
Good stuff, brother. Love that history.
Great stuff love the video ✌️
Jeremy Clarkson would beg to differ on the claim of largest engine ever put in a car..... Jeremy drove the BMW Brutus. A 12-cylinder BMW aircraft engine installed, with a cylinder capacity of nearly 47 litres.
The Brutus never existed, it's a custom car built in 2006, a guy had an airplane engine in stock and thought: why not make a car out of it?
The fact you stated it exists proves it EXISTS dimwit and it was built as was the engine and they are one now on a vehicle chassis sooooooo ergo it's A CAR WITH A 47 LITRE ENGINE!
I want to see someone build an engine that size with modern engineering.
Me also ! Well perhaps they came close to those cars they used to race, trying to break the world speed record, on the salt flats, before they started using rockets instead of piston driven engines.
Fiat woke up one day, said "fuck it, let's make a monster on wheels" then returned making cheap tin cans for the rest of its life
Just an amazing video story for an amazing car. Thank you Bart.
Thank you, excellent video. I agree drive them
I have to agree with your statement about museums. It's a shame how most of those cars won't ever be started and ran again.
You need to be pretty brave to drive this thing because there's nothing to stop the chain from ripping your arm off if it snaps. One of the joys of exposed chain drive cars, lol.
If that engine sound doesn't make you giggle like a little kid, you're simply not a petrolhead. 😂👌
seen heard and felt the power of that amazing Fiat at Goodwood many times
I've seen thousands of great cars and have been to many great car museums. But the Beast of Turin is so amazing, it's a car that was built to see just how powerful and fast a car could go. It's like you ignore and forget the things you've been told that are impossible and with a naivety that lets you believe and imagine anything is possible, so just do it! I can only begin to imagine what people thought when they saw this car in 1909. A time when it was believed that the human body couldn't survive going faster than 60 mph. Here was a huge, noisy, fire breathing car that went more than twice that speed! Even now when I see these videos of the Beast of Turin, 115 years later, I am in awe and wonder. I'd love to see it in person, to come alive and be driven. To ride in it would be a bucket list dream come to life.💯😀🏆🥇🔥🌪️
Listen these people are heo 's bringing back these cars . Many people whed have left these car to history. But these people put back no matter of the cost keep history still alive
I salute you . I wish you the best luck ever
This is so cool, I am glad he saved the car, those bike tires on a car scare me. takes some courage to drive that.
have you done a video on the bmw brutus from the 20s/30s? thats got a 46 litre spitfire engine in it, i think!
Great video congrats Duncan congrats and continue
The S76 and the packard bentley are my 2 favorite cars in the world. Lunatic on wheels
This was an excellent production about truly a beast. At 10:03 I thru my hands up and shouted! From another room the wife shouted back, What happened did you win something?
Ģood vid .Enjoyed watchin.😎👍✌🇨🇦
I would like to see an in depth video on the amazing engine.
If a large moustache is what it takes to drive that car, then I would grow one for the next decade.
This car is pure magic as it’s owner too !
Great content, agree 100% with your opinion - thx Duncan P.
9:22 I'm sure he was bugging people, not buggering them for three years! I'm sure I would have relinquished the engine and divulged ALL of my deepest secrets way before three years.
Quite....I believe there were laws against such things back on the day.😀😂
Bugger: (slang, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Commonwealth) A situation that is aggravating or causes dismay; a pain.
Some words have multiple meanings. (I know, right??? I was shocked to learn that!)
@@tim3172 OK, I was unfamiliar with that meaning. Thanks for the clarification. I suppose the meaning which first came to mind is also a situation that is aggravating or causes dismay; a pain.
can you please do a video on the mercedes t80? if youve never heard of it it's gonna be a wild night of digging through rabbit holes thats for sure!
The funniest thing is the criminal investigation that's happened in Italy on the restoration process: The claim is, quoting wikipedia (translated from italian media): "In 2019 the Italian authorities started an investigation, as they have ascertained that the S76 engine mounted on the "Beast of Turin" was originally kept in the "Antonio Capetti Collection" of the Polytechnic of Turin: the power unit was loaned to Mr. Pittaway in charge of research and restoration, but the “Collection” discovered after some years that they had been returned with a non-functional replica block."
fortunately there is always someone who is able to bring back works from the past. even if you manage to scratch the only engine left in the world under the eyes of us Italians who only noticed many years later, due to the futurist mentality not inclined to memory. which causes very important pieces to be stored away until they are forgotten and thrown away. As an Italian I can say that it was done well because they would never have done it here.
If a car isn't driven, it's just a statue. Not a car.
10:18 damn, that is one angry thunder😍 if Zeus had a car, he would be driving this beast❤
I love the articulated exterior drive shaft.
Caution is thrown to the wind
Great video, thanks!
Some other cars of that era and type were the "Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs", also chain-driven racing machines with huge engines. They were made famous by Ian Fleming's children's story of the same name. My memory is hazy, but I think there were three different ones, at least one driven by an Italian count whose name began with Z who was later killed racing at Monza. One of them had an 18-liter Maybach Zeppelin engine, which may have inspired Fleming to make the car in his story fly.
Guess you learn which side to stand pretty fast.
How about Mr. Dunderbak’s? German restaurant. There used to be a bunch of them, but now there’s only 3. Two are in Florida, Daytona and Tampa, and one is in Allentown Pennsylvania.
Ich hab das Fahrzeug vor einigen Jahren in Speyer live gesehen. Und ja es ist Klasse. Nur ging es im Vergleich zum Brutus etwas unter. Vielleicht auch deshalb weil die Einspritzung ein wenig runter auf ein vertragliches Maß herunter gestellt wurde 😅
Ich kann jeden das Technikmuseum in Speyer zum Brazzeltag empfehlen. Dort wird an diesem Tag alles bewegt was sich bewegen oder laufen kann. Selbst einige Flugzeuge und Schiffe werden Angelassen. Auch einige Gäste wie der S76 oder der Packard bzw Napier Bentley kommen als Gäste.
Imagine the feeling of just hand cranking this monster. 4 paint can sozed pistons popping and snorting while uou pray to god the engine dosent predetonate and breaks your shoulder. Old cars are like this are a by-gone era of doing anything possible to achieve a goal without testraints or sanctions. Just build the craziest machine you can imagine and send it down the track. Amazing video.
Great vid!!!! 👍👍
I live 26 miles from Goodwood and have raced the track many times (pre renovation) in mostly mark 1-3 Mini Coopers and I have seen these beasts in action. I cannot imagine a 150 mile jaunt on public roads to get to the track in one of these, probably more dangerous than racing the circuit.
300hp in the 80s is impressive
300hp these days is still a respectable number
But 300hp back then in 1910s ?
Thats legend right there
The importance of having a big bushy moustache can not be overstated when driving the Beast of Turin. So too the ability to bugger large groups of people in Italy. Viva Duncan
Now l know its a Fiat you cleared that up and a very informative video now l know a bit more about the beast of Turin