British man sued by Rolls-Royce after adding a Rolls-Royce grille to his WW2 aircraft engine-powered car
Published on Jan 03, 2026 at 2:20 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Dec 23, 2025 at 4:56 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Claire Reid
A man who fitted a 27-liter Merlin V12 engine into a custom-made Rolls-Royce-inspired car dubbed The Beast ended up being taken to court by the carmaker.
Engineer and transmission expert John Dodd was the proud owner of The Beast, which was given the nickname thanks to its powerful engine.
However, it wasn’t the Rolls-Royce-sourced V12 under the hood that prompted the company to launch legal action.
It was all to do with the design of the car, and one aspect in particular.
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It wasn’t the powerful engine that caught the attention of Rolls-Royce
The story of The Beast begins back in the 1960s, when engineer Paul Jameson created a custom chassis and fiberglass shell to house a Rolls-Royce Meteor engine.
After learning about the vehicle, Dodd snapped it up and even created a special three-speed automatic transmission for it.
However, this car – known as The Beast Mark II – caught fire in the early 1970s, resulting in Dodd building a new version: The Beast Mark II.
This time around, the car was fitted with a 27-liter Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engine, the sort that you’d typically find on a WWII-era Spitfire – see why it was nicknamed The Beast?
Dodd claimed the car’s monstrous engine gave The Beast 950 horsepower and 760-lb-ft of torque.
But it wasn’t the car’s engine that attracted attention from Rolls-Royce.
When designing the car, Dodd had fitted the road-legal Beast with a Rolls-Royce grille and the Spirit of Ecstacy emblem on the hood.
One day, when out blasting the car on the autobahn in Germany, a Baron spotted the car and contacted Rolls-Royce inquiring about the ‘new model’.
This led to Rolls-Royce taking legal action against Dodd for breach of trademark.
In court, Dodd was told by the judge not to use or exhibit the car until the next hearing, prompting him to attend a second hearing at the High Court in London on horseback.
Yep, you read that correctly.
“I decided on one horsepower, rather than 796,” Dodd is reported to have joked at the time.
Following three hearings, Dodd lost the trial and was ordered to pay thousands in legal fees and fines.
He also removed the distinctive grille and Spirit of Ecstasy from the front of the car.
What became of The Beast?
Following the end of the court case, Dodd moved to Malaga in Spain with The Beast.
He held onto the car until his death in 2022, after which it was sold for $95,300.
Its new owner decided to wrap the yellow-colored car in a two-tone metallic grey and reinstated the Rolls-Royce grille and Spirit of Ecstasy, but don’t worry, it’s still got that 27-liter V12 engine.
After owning The Beast for a couple of years, the new owner also decided to part ways with the icon, and it went under the hammer back in November – so this might not be the last we hear from The Beast.
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Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Claire covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on cars, technology, planes, cryptocurrency, and luxury.
