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Ford Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break It

About two years ago, we started following a project from Sweden that we just knew was going to break the Internet. We've followed up with its creator, Daniel Werner, to provide you with updates on the whole thing. While normal project cars can sometimes take two or three years to reach their final stages of development, this one is going to be a bit more complicated than that.
Ford Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break It 16 photos
Photo: The Meteor Interceptor
Ford Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break ItFord Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break It
Bigger is better. Or at least that's what most automotive enthusiasts will tell you when asking what kind of an engine you should swap into your project car. Turbos and superchargers can do wonders these days, but having more displacement is always fun.

While most Europeans will settle for something as big as a Mercedes-AMG 384 ci (6.3-liter) V8, that's not going to be the case for everyone. If you're building a project based on a Ford chassis, you can find a few interesting options over at Ford Performance.

If you can spare $18,970, you can get your hands on a 572 ci (9.3-liter) big-block crate engine. That should be good enough for 655 horsepower and 710 lb-ft (962 Nm) of torque. You won't see an engine that big every day, so it's hard to imagine a more impressive option.

Still, Daniel came up with the idea of using a Rolls-Royce V12 unit. A 1,647 cubic inches (27-liter) V12 engine that was originally used to power a tank to be more specific. In stock form, this should have been capable of producing 650-hp and 1,450 lb-ft (1,966 Nm) of torque.

Ford Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break It
Photo: The Meteor Interceptor
But Daniel's ambitions for the Meteor Interceptor meant that he wouldn't just settle for the naturally-aspirated setup. And so, this engine is now force-fed by a twin-turbo system. With the Borg-Warner S500 SX turbos under the hood, he was aiming to hit 2,500-hp at 3,400 RPM and 3,800 lb-ft (5,160 Nm) of torque.

When we last talked to Daniel, he mentioned that he had quite a few goals in mind for his creation. First, he was planning to take it for a top-speed test on an airfield, and then maybe ship it to the Nordschleife for a lap around the track.

At the time, he was also slightly concerned with finding the right dyno for the car. And it seems that his concerns were valid, to say the least. After seeing the latest video, we talked to the man behind the project to get more details about the test.

"The car is almost finished, at least in its first version. It will probably never be at 100%, but at least now we can drive it." The dyno used for the test belongs to one of the team members, Mattias Säfsten.

Ford Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break It
Photo: The Meteor Interceptor
Although they were aware that it wouldn't be able to handle all the power of the Meteor Interceptor, they still wanted to tune the engine and see how it behaves overall. "The problem is that in third gear, the speed is too high.

In the second gear, the torque is too high. Even so, the result we got was 1,622 lb-ft (2,200 Nm) at 1,200 RPM, and this is without the turbos as we had opened to wastegates. But the goal is still set for 3,687 lb-ft (5,000 Nm) with everything running properly."

Even though the dyno test couldn't solve all the riddles of the Meteor Interceptor, it did provide some valuable information for the team to work with. They managed to identify a new problem.

Ford Crown Victoria With V12 Tank Engine Hits the Dyno, It's a Miracle It Didn't Break It
Photo: The Meteor Interceptor
After doing a bit of math and plenty of research, including looking at Unlimited Hydroplane boats in the USA, they arrived at the following conclusion. To ensure at least a minimum level of reliability, they aren't going to exceed 3,400 RPM with the Meteor V12.

At that engine speed, the drag-race-ready TH400 gearbox will run at 9,418 RPM. And it was only designed to withstand 9,000 RPM. So an upgrade might be required. That's not all of it though. With the engine running at 3,400 RPM in third gear, the theoretical top speed should be 276 mph (445 kph).

But the tires that are on the car are not built for those speeds, and, certainly, Ford never built the Crown Victoria to go that fast. With that in mind, Daniel is still set on joining the 200 mph (321 kph) club as soon as they perform the first track test. We will be keeping you up to date with how it all unfolds!

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About the author: Dragos Chitulescu
Dragos Chitulescu profile photo

The things Dragos enjoys the most in life are, in no particular order: cars, motorcycles, diecast cars, and drifting. He's seen (and driven) many vehicles since he started his writing career back in 2009, but his garage currently houses a 1991 Mazda RX-7 FC3S Turbo II and a 1999 Suzuki SV650-S.
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