Sitting in his shop in the Netherlands, Frans was mulling over a dilemma.
He had a 16-cylinder Detroit Diesel engine and nothing to do with it.
Then, Frans got an idea.
Now, we don’t know exactly what the car culture is like over in Europe, but we’d like to think bolting a twin-turbocharged diesel engine into a hot rod is a pretty crazy endeavor in any part of the globe.
That is, however, exactly what Frans did.
Sitting atop this modified Ford truck chassis is Detroit Diesel twin-turbo 16V71 engine that’s creating north of 800 horsepower. Handling that power is a heavy-duty Allison HT750DRD five-speed automatic transmission.
As you would imagine, the build was far from easy.
“We had to make everything ourselves by hand and several times we had to start all over again. It took us five years to finish,” Frans reports.
The mostly custom-made hot rod was modeled after a 1936 Ford coupe, though Frans did use a hodgepodge of parts from other vehicles, including a pair of axles sourced from a Swedish-made Scania big rig and a roof pulled from a 1947 Citroen.
Frans says he wanted to build a “one-of-a-million hot rod.”
If your votes are any testament, we think he succeeded—Congratulations Frans, your V16 Detroit Diesel Hot Rod is the Top Fan Ride for September 2017!
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Hi and great build!From what I know, on paper this engine makes close to 3000lb/ft of torque how/if you modify the transmission to hand the power? Thanks!