Another photo of the Packard-engined Miss America X, built and "piloted" buy Gar Wood. It's from 1931 and was that boat's last run.
A little more about the motors. They were originally developed by Packard specifically for speedboats based on a motor used in a WWI Liberty bomber aircraft. However, as WWII seemed unavoidable, they were put back into production to be used in PT boats. Three V-12s were used in each boat. The power output was initially rated at 1200 hp each, but as they were developed further, the power increased to 1500 and finally 1850 hp. They were a little thirsty. At full speed they consumed 166 gallons of 100 octane avgas per hour. Each boat had a 3000 gallon fuel tank, which made them a floating incendiary bomb.
A total of 543 boats were built by 3 companies. (ELCO, Higgins and Huckins) At this time there is only one boat still fully functional and in the water. It's docked on the Willamette river in Portland, Oregon. I was able to tour it last year. It's been totally restored and is mind-boggling to a desert rat like me. While I was there, they fired up one of the 3 motors. It was LOUD in the engine room. The one WWII veteran who was part of the restoration group said that while at cruising or attack speed, those who operated the engines could only work for one hour at a time and when their shift was finished, they'd be completely deaf for the next 30 minutes or so. It must have been unreal to hear all 3 motors running at full speed...not to mention being aboard the boat at top speed, which was about 50 knots although some were modified by their crews to reach speeds over 70 knots for "unofficial plywood derbies." The term plywood is misleading, because they were built of mahogany planking with no plywood used at all.
I hope a contemporary photo isn't objectionable. I'm going to attach one of the engine room. It was pretty cramped and crowded which made a clean shot just about impossible, but the one I've attached shows 2 of the 3 motors. I have a number of photos on a website I run and to avoid link issues, I'll respond to a PM with the url.
