Rolls-Royce Meteor

The Rolls-Royce Meteor, later called the Rover Meteor, was a British petrol tank engine of the Second World War. It was a de-rated development of the Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine, proposed in 1941 by Leyland Motors and Rolls-Royce and worked out by W. A. Robotham and his chassis design division at Clan Foundry in Belper. The main changes were reversing the direction of rotation to suit automotive gearboxes, removing the supercharger and reduction gear, and fitting cast pistons so that it could run on lower-octane pool petrol at around 600 bhp. Early prototypes were assembled from recovered Merlin parts. Rover took over production in January 1944 and kept building and developing the engine until 1964, about 9,000 engines in all. It powered the Cromwell, Comet and Centurion among other British tanks, and is regarded as the engine that first gave British tanks ample, reliable power.