If you watched Top Gear season 18, you have probably seen this exquisitely restored Bentley Meteor in a battle against the German Brutus. Just like the Brutus, this Bentley is powered by an old airplane engine; a Merlin engine from a Spitfire to be more precise. Now that exact car is on the market for sale.

Created by Bob Petersen from Devon, the same guy who made the amazing Eagle Speedster E-type, The Meteor features a 27-liter V12 Merlin engine made by Rolls Royce. Visually it looks almost identical to the original Bentley. Almost, because that supercharger you see at front is actually an oil cooler, designed to look like a supercharger for the sake of styling.

Since that 27-liter engine is capable of making 850 horsepower, the Bentley has a theoretical top speed of 160 mph. But you may never be able to hit that, partly because it isn’t an easy car to drive, and partly because it barley does 2 mpg. You will probably run out of fuel before the car gets up to speed, which is a bad plan, because every fill-up for the Meteor costs at least 500 quid.

Despite all that it is an amazing car, a true collectible. If we had half a million pounds lying around we wouldn’t hesitate a minute.

via Dailymail