Bob Hannah. Prisoner Day Release Mechanic

Photographer David Dewhurst posted this great Hannah story on his FB site:



Hit by a Hurricane

I sent Honda's former team manager, Dave Arnold, a picture I'd shot years ago of a V-12 Merlin WW11 engine at Vintage V-12 Restorations in Tehachapi, California. Arnold was fascinated and before long he'd shown the picture to fellow Honda team leader Roger DeCoster. They both called and said they had to visit this magical place.

Three weeks later three of us and Roger's friend, Steve, showed up outside the large corrugated building where the mechanical magic happened.

We were shown inside by warbird pilot and magical machinist, Bruce Lockwood. The smell of oil and the sight of so many warbird engines was overpowering. We all fell silent as we took in the mechanical beauty before us.

The silence was broken by an irate engine builder in the corner throwing a wrench and cursing at the top of his voice. Bruce turned and apologized for the profanity, "We have this day-release program with the mens prison. This guy is a great mechanic but he's a bit excitable." We moved closer to the felon in white overalls only to see another wrench fly across the floor.

Bruce started to introduce the five-time World Champion to the hunched con when the white-suited con swung around and started screaming.

Everyone took a step back afraid of what would happen next. That's when the con lifted the peak of his baseball hat to reveal the toothy grin of 7-time motocross national champion Bob Hannah. We'd been, in Hannah's words, punked.

Hannah is a regular visitor to Vintage V-12s. He raced many ultra-fast warbirds at Reno Air Races after his motocross career and the world's fastest engines all came from Tehachapi.

When former motocrosser, Lockwood heard about DeCoster's visit he called Hannah and concocted a plan to surprise the Belgian. The final part of the plan was for Hannah to say, "I don't want to meet no stinking five-time world champion," before turning to punk DeCoster. But Hannah couldn't keep a straight face long enough to get out the line.

The next few hours were filled with championship-level bench racing. Hannah talked about motocross racing in France and a P51 filling his cockpit wit smoke and not being able to see. DeCoster talked about his favorite track in the world, Namur, and how natural and rough Unadilla was.

The the talk turned to the amazing design of the original Merlin engine with the inevitable geeky questions about rebuilding engines that powered Spitfires, Mosquitos and the P51.

Geeky Merlin Facts:

Designed in 1937 when Model-T Fords still roamed the roads, the Merlin was so well designed by Rolls Royce that most original parts are still used today.

The first Merlin displaced 1650-cu-in and produced 1030 hp

Vintage V-12 Merlins can produce 3850 hp. in race trim.

Manifold pressure with a regeared supercharger exceeds 145-in. in race trim.

Vintage V-12 is set to build fourteen Merlins this year for customers around the world. They build twice as many as all the other builders in the world.

Vintage V-12 owner Jose Flores says he has enough used engines and NOS parts from England to keep building new Merlins for another 30 years.

The most powerful Merlin Vintage V-12 ever built was used to power the early Miss Budweiser powerboat.