BRUTUS – The Car with a 47-Liter BMW Aircraft Engine

YouTube / PaddyPatrone

Man-made Beast

There aren’t a lot of cars that carry as much wonder and respect as Brutus. Built by a group from the Auto & Technik Museum, this beast of a car uses a BMW V12 aircraft engine with a power output of 750 hp at 1,700 rpm.

The power from the engine is transferred to the rear axle via two massive chains.

These engines were first produced in the 1920s and were used in various aircraft types such as the Arado Ar 65, Heinkel He 51, and the Heinkel He 70. 

As expected, Brutus weighs a lot – around 2.5 tons –  and has a fuel consumption of 70 L every 100 km. 

The driver is sat directly behind the engine, and with no shock absorbers plus a relatively small set of wheels, the known top speed of Brutus is “only” 200 km/hr. Nobody knows how fast Brutus can actually go since no one has dared to go faster. Would you ever dare to?