Aero-engined is a term used to describe a car fitted with an engine designed for aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 use. This practice was popular in the inter-war period of the early 20th century in the quest for improved car performance. The developing motorsport

Motorsport

Motorsport or motorsports is the group of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition...

 industry made use of cheap war-surplus aero-engines, as did early powerboat racers such as Gar Wood.

Aero-engined cars

• Chitty Bang Bang
  Chitty Bang Bang
  Chitty Bang Bang was the informal name of a number of celebrated English racing cars, built and raced by Count Louis Zborowski and his engineer Clive Gallop in the 1920s, which inspired the book, film and stage musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang....
  
  , the original racing car that inspired the car in the book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the related Higham Special.
• Napier Railton
  Napier Railton
  The Napier-Railton is an aero-engined race car built in 1933, designed by Reid Railton to a commission by John Cobb, and built by Thomson & Taylor...
  
  
• Napier-Bentley
  Napier-Bentley
  The Napier Bentley is a vintage racing car; a one-off special built in 1968 by David Llewellyn. It was originally built on a Sunbeam chassis, but after a serious accident was re-built on the chassis of a 1929 8 Litre Bentley...
  
  
• Packard-Bentley
  Packard-Bentley
  The Packard-Bentley "Mavis" is a vintage racing car built by VSCC member Chris Williams. It is powered by a 42 litre Packard V12 developing 1500 bhp...
  
  
• Sunbeam 350HP
• Sunbeam 1000HP
• Golden Arrow
  Golden Arrow (land speed racer)
  Golden Arrow was a land speed record racer. Built for Major Henry Segrave to take the LSR from Ray Keech, Golden Arrow was one of the first streamlined land speed racers, with a pointed nose and tight cowling...
  
  
• Most of the Bluebirds
• Thunderbolt
  Thunderbolt (car)
  Thunderbold is a British Land Speed Record holder of the 1930s, driven by Captain George E.T. Eyston- Records held :Between 1937 and 1939, the competition for the Land Speed Record was between two Englishmen: Captain Eyston and John Cobb. Thunderbolt's first record was set at on 19 November 1937...
  
  
• Railton Special
• Mercedes
  Mercedes-Benz
  Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
  
  
• 1948 Tucker Sedan
  1948 Tucker Sedan
  The 1948 Tucker Sedan or Tucker '48 Sedan was an advanced automobile conceived by Preston Tucker and briefly produced in Chicago in 1948...
  
  
• The Beast
  Rolls-Royce Merlin: Alternative applications
  The Rolls Royce Merlin, although designed as an aero engine, was used in other applications both on land and at sea.-Automotive:Michael Wilcock of Sussex, England built the Swandean Spitfire Special, using a Merlin XXV engine acquired from a scrap yard for one hundred and forty pounds. The engine...
  
  
• Thrust2
  Thrust2
  Thrust2 is a British designed and built jet propelled car, which held the world land speed record from 4 October 1983 to 25 September 1997.The car was designed by John Ackroyd and driven by Richard Noble. On October 4, 1983 the car reached a top speed of and broke the record at . This was...
  
  
• ThrustSSC
  ThrustSSC
  ThrustSSC, also spelt Thrust SSC by secondary sources, is a British jet-propelled car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers and Jeremy Bliss....
  
  

See also

• Aircraft engine
  Aircraft engine
  An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines...
  
  
• Vehicles powered by Napier Lion engines