Bigger is not always better when it comes to engines for race cars on tracks or circuits, but for record-breaking speed events it has always seemed to be a necessity. The 20+ Club at this year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance features several examples of cars best driven in a straight line or at speed events on circular tracks with broad sweeping turns.

Since the beginning of automobile manufacturing, sales have depended on advertising, and many automakers have attempted to promote their wares by winning races and setting new speed records. Almost from the beginning this brought about a series of race cars with engine sizes well above the 20 liter mark (one liter is just over 61 cubic inches).

One of the most exciting of these early monsters was a 1905 25.4-liter V-8 Darracq that

recently sold at auction in England and is now being restored by its new owner, Mark Walker. This overhead valve engine, with a bore and stroke of over 160 x 140 mm (there are about 25 millimeters in an inch), set world speed records of 109.65 mph in both Europe and America in 1905. And on January 25, 1906, at Ormond Beach, Florida, it reached a record speed for a gas-powered car of 117.6 mph.

Not all early attempts at “bigger is better” managed to succeed. A. G. Vanderbilt’s 28-liter “Wonder” racer, the largest entry at the Daytona Beach speed trials of 1906, was dubbed the winner of the booby prize because it failed to reach speeds of cars with engines half its size.

Fiat fell short in its attempt to set a speed record with its aero-engined 28.4-liter monster of 1910. The standing world speed record at the time was held by Victor Hémery who had gone 125.94 mph in a 200 hp Benz of 21.5 liters. Fiat hoped to reach at least 140 mph with its mammoth creation. The engine was supposedly manufactured for an airship and was equipped with a single overhead cam, four valves per each of its four cylinders, and dual ignition. With a bore and stroke of 190 x 250 mm, it was said to develop 300 hp at 2,200 rpm. Period photos of the car show that it was more than a little top heavy; a driver would want to keep a firm grip on the wheel and avoid all turns and crosswinds.

On a five mile straight at Ostend, Belgium, in 1913, the car was timed going 132.37 mph in one direction, but this was not recognized as a record because the car was not officially timed in both directions. An engine like the one originally used in this car was recently acquired from a museum in Europe, and the car is now being reassembled with original Fiat parts by an English race car collector.

Very few cars with 20+ liter engines were sold to the public as passenger cars, though both Benz and Mercedes offered such cars prior to World War I. Factory records indicate that Mercedes sold six 20+ liter cars. The engines for these cars were built by the company’s airship department. Three of these engines were 20.5 liters and had six cylinders with a bore and stroke of 160 x 170 mm, while the other three were 24.0 liters and had eight cylinders with a bore and stroke of 150 x 170 mm.

Benz factory records indicate that it sold just one 21.5-liter model in long chassis form meant for public road use. That car, a 1913 Benz with engine number 13,280, will be on the field at the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours. This car was bodied by Snutsel and Son of Brussels, Belgium, and was sold to a M. Heje of Belgium on Christmas Eve of 1913.

According to some automotive historians this Benz was commandeered by the German Army as a staff car for General Paul von Hindenburg during the occupation of France in World War I. Later, the Benz was brought to England and was raced at Brooklands with considerable success; in the 1920s, the Benz won six major races there, and in 1929 it set international speed records for both 200 miles and 200 kilometers. That same year, the Benz lapped the Brooklands track at an average speed of 115.92 mph, eclipsing the short chassis Benz record by 1.3 mph. The engine in this Benz is the same type as the one used in the Blitzen Benz that achieved 141.732 mph in the hands of Bob Burman on the sands at Daytona Beach on February 19, 1911.

For a brief period after World War I, many surplus aircraft engines found their way into race cars, but most of these engines were less than 20 liters in size. The weight and long chassis required for engines of 20+ liters generally made them difficult to handle on tracks and road courses.

After World War II, surplus aircraft engines were again widely available at a reasonable cost. Two of the entries at Pebble Beach this year are powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 engines like those used to power the famous British Spitfire and American P-51 Mustang aircraft. The placement of one of these 27-liter engines in a 1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom II chassis gives literal meaning to the Rolls-Royce Flying Lady on the car’s radiator cap. In this Phantom, the engine is fed by two fuel pumps delivering 100 gallons per hour via three Carter carburetors. Even without supercharger, the engine delivers 1,100 hp.

The second Merlin-powered car on the field is the 1953 Swandean Spitfire Special built by Michael Wilcock, proprietor of the Swandean Garage in Worthing, Sussex, on two Daimler Dingo scout car chassis welded end to end. With supercharger, the Merlin

engine in this car delivers 1,600 hp at 3,000 rpm. The Special, which participated in the Brighton Speed Trials several times in the mid-1950s, has done 150 mph in third gear. No one knows for sure what it will do in fourth—probably with good reason.

The 28.4-liter engine in Jay Leno’s tank-engined car, also on the field, brings to mind the old conundrum, “If you feel the need to ask how much fuel it burns you probably can’t afford to own it.” The V-12 single overhead cam fuel-injected Hemi engine was built in 1953 by Chrysler (under license from Continental) to power the M47 Patton Tank. The engine originally produced about 1,000 hp, but with twin Banks turbochargers, it now produces 1,600 hp and 1,590 pound-feet of torque. One can well understand how Jay’s tank car, known in an earlier incarnation as the “Blastolene Special,” has come to be known euphemistically as “The Terminator Car.”

If you get the opportunity to hitch a ride in one of these 20+ liter creations, don’t pass it up; it will surely be the ride of a lifetime. But I do offer one note of caution: you would be wise to choose your chauffeur with considerable discretion.

George Wingard has always been a hands-on automobile lover. He has been restoring and racing antique, vintage and sports cars for the last 50 years.

Copyright © 2008 Pebble Beach Company. Excerpted from the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Program and used with permission from the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. All rights reserved.