Spitfires used v12's, not V8's.

Ahh, shame, you're right. They where 27 litre as well! That would be a bit extreme. Seems someone was silly enough to put it in a car though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u43pWEwI6xY

There are more of these projects than you might think. Final Objective (a 55 Chev) is the best, IMO: http://www.australiastoughestcars.com.au/news/video-merlin-v...

This guy "Lucky Keizer" made a 5l v-twin motorbike from a Merlin engine.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/08/19/4296075.htm

I saw it live once, unfortunately he couldn't start it. I suspect it's a frequent problem.

Didn't those engines require 150 octane fuel as well? Tough to find that nowadays.

The Meteor [1] tank engine was basically a Merlin running on normal fuel.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Meteor

Beginning to sound like Billy Joel - We Didn't Start The Fire