Sometimes, more really is more. Forward-facing lamps? Eight of them should do just fine. Length? Round to the nearest yard. Displacement? Roughly equivalent to four Dodge Challenger Hellcats and an Audi Quattro combined. The Beast is a monument to excess in every sense of the word and it’s coming up for auction soon.
But wait, what is The Beast? Well, this custom car drew the ire of Rolls-Royce and the amazement of nigh-on every British schoolboy in the 1970s because it was one of the fastest, most outrageous things with number plates. I’m talking in excess of 180 mph in an era when the production car speed record stood at just under 180 mph for the Lamborghini Miura P400S, and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most powerful road car in the world.
The original concept for The Beast came from Paul Jameson, a man who envisioned building a car with a 27-liter Rolls-Royce Meteor V12 normally found in machinery like the Cromwell tank. Allegedly, Jameson had a rolling chassis and an engine, but no gearbox or bodywork. That’s where John Dodd comes in.
Dodd specialized in automatic gearboxes and figured out a way to make a torque converter automatic play nice with the slow-breathing Meteor motor. However, Dodd got more than he bargained for when Jameson offered up the whole car. A bodyshell that looked like a Ford Capri transforming into The Incredible Hulk was fabricated up, and the whole thing became a demonstrator of sorts. It even had a Rolls-Royce radiator grille to go with the Rolls-Royce engine, which would eventually land Dodd in quite a bit of hot water. More on that later.
Sadly, the Mk 1 version of The Beast suffered a catastrophic fire in 1975 while returning from Sweden. No matter, a new engine, new shell, new everything but the chassis itself went in and the reborn Beast Mk 2 became even more of a legend.
At the heart of The Beast Mk. II reportedly sits a 27-liter Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 from a Boulton Paul Balliol training aircraft that’s seen some modifications. To start, it’s no longer supercharged and has been converted from a dry-sump oiling system to a more traditional wet sump. I say it’s reportedly a Merlin V12 as Dodd was a bit of a storyteller.
See, Dodd may have been able to keep the Rolls-Royce grille if he kept The Beast under the radar, but that didn’t happen. Not only was the car itself a publicity magnet, Dodd told Evo Magazine that he had a habit of trolling Rolls-Royce by phoning the company up, putting on a “funny accent,” pretending to be a German baron, and claiming that something with a Rolls-Royce grille overtook his Porsche 911 at 200 mph on the Autobahn.
The result was, predictably, a legal spat over trademark infringement that saw Dodd on the losing end. Classic Driver reports that not only did Rolls-Royce win judgment, Dodd was relieved of his house and other items for Contempt of Court. The result was flight to Malaga, Spain, with The Beast adopting a new grille featuring Dodd’s initials that you see on the car today. It’s rather remarkable that the car didn’t disappear but instead followed Dodd in his new adventures on the continent. In an interview with Classic Driver, Dodd said, “Luckily enough, I was always pretty handy with gearboxes, so when I had lost everything I decided to start afresh in Spain. Since then, I’ve learned to windsurf, waterski, and do all sorts of other things I’d have never done otherwise.” Fair play.
So what’s The Beast like to drive? According to an Evo Magazine road test from 2008, it’s not nearly as much of a brute as it could be. Ollie Marriage wrote that “The Beast is actually a pussycat. It doesn’t bite if you prod the throttle, it likes to be driven, and as long as you only need to make small inputs – changing lanes, for example – it’s easy and light to guide along.” Mind you, there appear to be a few downsides. Miles to the gallon? Two, and those are Imperial gallons, so more like 1.7 mpg in American measures. In addition, the handling’s reportedly a bit rubbish, and braking the sheer mass of the thing supposedly isn’t an exercise for the weak.
Still, what might be the ultimate ‘70s custom car could be yours if you have the scratch. The Beast is going up for auction on Car and Classic on Mar. 9, and would be a worthy garage addition for anyone who can stomach the absurd fuel bills. Here’s to Paul Jameson and John Dodd for imagining and executing this glorious exercise in automotive absurdity. May their legacies live on.
(Photo credits: Car and Classic)
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This is stupid and amazing and I love it and it’s definitely a favorite of mine
I swear I’m not lying. Looking at the headlights is straining my eyes. Maybe a rocket surgeon could explain why? Looking at the headlights hurts and makes my eyes water. Tis a weapon.
Trying to place the rear lights. Four Ford Capri units?
2 mpg? I’m unimpressed. I once owned a ’72 Buick Estate Wagon. If you only took it on very short jaunts around town in the winter so the choke never came off, it also got 2 mpg!
I dig it. Party in front, family in the back. Makes for a rowdy and expensive trip for ice cream!
This is one of my favorite custom cars of all time! The story, the styling (of both versions), the absurdity of it all, it’s just fantastic. You forgot to mention how supposedly John Dodd showed up to the courthouse riding a horse once after being told to stop making a show of driving the Beast to court!
I wish I could bid on this thing but I think the engine alone is beyond my budget… I just hope whoever buys it appreciates it and doesn’t chop it up to use the engine for something else.
Also John Dodd’s daughter has a youtube channel where you can find videos of him driving the Beast and talking about it!
Always glad this car still exists, as ridiculous as it looks and drives.
One car I wish I’d been able to see in person was the Australian-built ‘Final Objective’ 1955 Chevrolet.
https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/massive-attack-1955-chevrolet-sports-coupe
Rod Hadfield is a legend, that ’55 is possibly not his wildest creation either
https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/rod-hadfields-twin-supercharged-boss-429-model-t
https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/rod-hadfield-warman-special
https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/rod-hadfield-fire-chief-1948-fiat-topolino
There are several motorcycles out there powered by the last two cylinders from one of these Merlin engines. 5-liter V-twins!
The one I remember reading about 30 years or so ago didn’t have a starter – the guy used an air driver to start it and hoped it never stalled during a ride.
The headlight clusters sure will freak out anyone suffering from trypophobia.
What a rocket-sled! I have a hard time wrapping my head around something that appears to have all the aero of a canvas shoe reaching 200mph. It just needs a Vista Cruiser roof and a clam-shell gate. Maybe a set of Vogues on those Centerlines as well.
Jay Leno has a similar 27-liter Merlin engine powering a 1934 Rolls-Royce with a convertible coupe body. Aside from a serious 6-into-1 external exhaust on each side of a very long hood, it could plausibly pass for a modified car of that era.
There’s some nutcases/clever fabricators in Sweden who’ve fitted one into a Ford Crown Victoria. Oh, and twin turbocharged it, as one does. They have got it moving under it’s own power, whereupon it almost immediately chewed up the driveshaft. I’m sure that’ll only be a temporary setback though.
(Search for “The Meteor Interceptor”)
2 mpg in the car, 2 gpm in the tank.
At least it’s still mpg and not gpm.
Btw, in aircraft, a common fuel “mileage” term is barrels per hour.
That 2-tier/8-headlight nose looks AI-generated.
It’s the close up photo on your home page, captioned, “Automotive engineers don’t want you to know about this one weird trick!”
Sure, it gets 1.5MPG, but how big’s the fuel tank?
Unfortunately, the designed used an old 5 gallon gas tank from a small boat.
A few years back, I had an old CJ5 with a Chevy smallblock. The tank was just under 10 gallons and it got about 12 mpg. The fuel gauge never worked so I was always pranoid about running out of fuel. I carried a 5 gallon jerry can just in case. It came in handy once or twice.
Reminds me of the SUV Homer Simpson designed, the Canyonero.
You’re blending two different arcs.
Homer designed the dome-roofed “The Homer” to the displeased of everyone who witnessed it’s existence.
Homer bought a Canyonero, which is 12 yards long and 2 lanes wide, discovered he bought the F-Series model for women and gifted it to Marge.
Too hard to navigate the narrow drive through at Taco Bell. Pass.
I like the beige paint job. Very understated.
It’s an eight eyed monster.
I would drive it even through it gets feet per gas station.
“Next station in 10 miles”
“Hope we make it”
I totally thought this was a joke article with a wacky photo edited in the lead. Very interesting read on an outlandish hot rod. 2mpg is a crack-up!
Right? This reminds me of the headline for the Jay Leno tank-car in PopMech that he doubled his mpg- from 3mpg to 6
If I could make any modifications, I would put the engine in the rear. I bet it’s fun to drive but that front-end looks unwieldy as hell.
I would add more headlights
Okay Jason
An incredibly impressive feat of engineering, but this is one of the ugliest vehicles I’ve ever seen.
The Family Yuckster
If only the folks at National Lampoon were British…
Absurd and amazing.
“You think you hate it now, but just wait until you drive it.”
This is what I pictured Clark drove prior to trading it in for the family Truckster.
Say good bye to the old gas guzzler, Russ.