Still making headlines nearly 40 years since its conception the Beast lives on. The 27 litre V12 Merlin engine monster has been in and out of the news ever since it first appeared at the Custom Car show, Crystal Palace, back in 1972. It wasn’t just the engine that blew peoples minds but the fact that at the front of its flip front bonnet was a Rolls Royce radiator grille and mascot that was to be the making and breaking of the car. A larger than life car meant that many myths rumours and larger than life stories have surrounded it ever since but as I was lucky enough to witness events as they unfolded I can tell you the true story of the Beast.
The Beast started life back in the late 60s and was the idea of a brilliant engineer Paul Jameson. All was going well until it came to gearing the car for the road and after destroying numerous gearboxes and clutches he contacted my father John Dodd who was the only auto box specialist around at the time. After successfully mating a GM400 to the engine Jameson then offered to sell him the rolling chassis for £500 in 1969 and the fun began. My first experience of the car was when we took it to Biggin Hill and they let us take it down the runway for some test runs. I was only 9 at the time but the memory of blasting down that runway at up to 180mph open cockpit will last with me forever. Once the mechanical gremlins had been sorted the car went to Bob Phelps FGR in Bromley for a one off Fibreglass body. The Phelps brothers were responsible for bringing drag racing to England, creating Santa Pod and many race car bodies thereafter. The very talented Bob literally designed the body around the chassis and the fact it resembled a Capri at the rear was purely coincidental. The rest of the car took on the shape of a 2 door coupe then there was that very long bonnet crowned with the Rolls Royce grille and spirit of ecstasy mascot, after all it had a Rolls engine or did it? Fact is the first engine was actually a Rover built Meteor, a tank engine version of the Merlin
When the car first hit the road it caused a sensation stopping people in their tracks and when parked it would be completely surrounded in minutes. Soon it was appearing on television in programmes of the time like Nationwide and Blue Peter. It backed up the hype with an RAC certified speed record set a Elvington for the flying half mile and earnt a place in the Guinness book of records. The car was getting notorious for going just as fast on the public roads and all its antics were reported in the national press, one front page headline screaming “Rolls Royces 200mph supercar. Rolls themselves weren’t so amused especially when a German Porsche owner phoned to enquire about ordering one after being blown away by the Beast on an autobahn. They threatened court action for breach of trademarks but then Beast Mk1 literally went out in a blaze of glory after the car grounded out at high speed on its way to a motor show in Sweden splitting the external oil tank and the whole thing went up in flames.
Undeterred, John Dodd brought the wreck back to England salvaged the chassis and a new engine was sourced via Paul Jameson again but this time it was a true Merlin Mk 35, though not supercharged. Even still the low revving normally aspirated Merlin produced around 750bhp but it had a more impressive 1000lbs of torque. Once up and running again it was back at the Phelps works and this time Bob created another one off estate type body that resembled a stretched Scimitar, again coincidental. Against his wishes my father convinced him to fit another RR grille to the car and by 1980 it was back on the road actually registered and taxed as a Rolls Royce. The Beast was soon making headlines again and parking it in Fleet street helped, the huge bonnet was raised in the pretence the car had broken down and watching from their office windows the press duly rushed down and next morning it was all over the papers. It wasn’t long before Rolls started their court action again and in 1982 with the case being followed by the News at Ten they won the day whereupon car and owner promptly disappeared.
My father had in fact exiled himself to Spain and it was some ten years later that I persuaded him to bring the Beast back to England and he agreed but there was one condition. The engine was smoking in need of a rebuild and I was to do it. Desperate to get the car back again I agreed, little then did I realise it would take 5 years during my spare time and under the watchful eye of the now late Paul Jamesons son Bob. But it was all worth the hard work and wait when finally it was all back together and we fired it up. That evening I headed to Guildford Cruise driving the car myself for the first time and it was an amazing experience the past being brought back to life again but this time I was in the driving seat. On the return home that night on an empty A3 I put my foot to the floor and kept it there until the torsional vibrations became so great I had to back off being unable to see clearly and thinking something was about to let go and as it happened there was. It turned out the vibrations were coming from the big gear that steps the drive from the propeller gear down to the gearbox and that is whizzing around behind the centre console right by your left leg. Most of the bolts had loosened and it was literally hanging on by a thread so I had a lucky escape.
Driving the Beast is always an eye opening experience which creates a heady mix of adrenaline excitement and fear that I have not felt in any other car. The engine noise is surprisingly high pitched but you hear a “Thump thumping” especially as the last two cylinders are just behind the dash. It spits and snarls but when you blip the throttle it makes a lovely harmonic hum that builds to a wail as the revs increase. Performance wise it isn’t lightning quick but it is very fast, it used to run tyre smoking 12s at the Pod but where most engines are reaching their peak as this point the mighty Merlin is just getting into its stride. I got to feel that feeling again when more than 25 years after that first trip down the runway I found myself blasting down another at Duxford whilst being filmed for the Top Gear programme, It felt like the Beast had come full circle. Not long after I sent the Beast back to its rightful owner in Spain and since then the car has been totally restored inside and out and repainted that crazy banana colour and whilst it no longer sports the RR grille the Merlin still resides under the bonnet. At the moment the old man is toying about with carburettors because he reckons there’s a bit of lag when you floor it at 120mph, though I reckon that at his 73 years of age it’s a good job but that’s John Dodd for you, as wild and eccentric as the Beast itself. So the Beast lives on and the news is that once sorted it is set to return to these shores again for a promo tour and if it does I promise to bring it to an MMA event, until then ill just have to settle for blasting around in my Oldsmobile.
Paul Dodd, Surrey Muscle.