Cars

Rolls-Royce once created ‘3 or 4’ 9.0-liter V16 engines, but only 1 was ever used

  • Rolls-Royce once made a 9.0-liter V16 engine
  • They only built a few prototypes with this engine
  • One of these cars was used in a movie

Published on Jul 11, 2024 at 3:03 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis

Last updated on Jul 11, 2024 at 3:03 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Tom Wood

Rolls-Royce once created a unique 9.0-liter version of the Phantom.

They did it for a movie, and ended up making a few more just for fun.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, they never made a production version.

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Rolls-Royce had built the engine as an experiment, but the origins of the actual car are not 100 percent clear.

Some say Rolls-Royce created this for a bit of fun for a car show.

But based on something Rowan Atkinson, the ‘Mr Bean’ actor, once said, the story might be a bit different.

A 9.0-liter Rolls-Royce for a movie

9-liter Rolls-Royce
Universal
9-liter Rolls-Royce
Universal

On several occasions, British actor Rowan Atkinson said that he personally asked Rolls-Royce to create a unique 9.0-liter Phantom for a movie.

Atkinson played Johnny English in the eponymous movie franchise comprising three movies.

Johnny English, in the words of Atkinson himself, is ‘a spy who is not quite as good as he thinks he is’, and Atkinson wanted to give the character something unique.

That’s why this car, the 9.0-liter Rolls-Royce, featured in the second of three movies, the 2011 sequel, titled Johnny English Reborn.

A truly massive engine

9-liter Rolls-Royce
Universal
9-liter Rolls-Royce
Universal

The 9.0-liter V16 Rolls-Royce created for these prototypes is one of the largest engines ever fitted to a car.

It has the same number of cylinders, and the same layout, as Bugatti’s newest engine, but it is larger.

At 9 liters, this is larger than the 8.4-liter V10 that powered the last Viper, which was the largest engine ever fitted to a car in terms of displacement.

And it is also bigger than the new 8.3-liter V16 Bugatti Tourbillon, which took that particular title from the Viper, which is no longer in production.

Obviously, this is kind of a moot point, though.

Because there’s no such thing as a production 9.0-liter Rolls-Royce, and there will probably never be one.

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Experienced content creator with a strong focus on cars and watches. Alessandro penned the first-ever post on the Supercar Blondie website and covers cars, watches, yachts, real estate and crypto. Former DriveTribe writer, fixed gear bike owner, obsessed with ducks for some reason.