Roll Royce Merlin Engine Demonstration

Driffield Showground, home to the East Riding Engine Club’s annual Steam and Vintage Rally, is situated next to the former Driffield RAF Station. This aerodrome is now largely derelict but during the 2nd World War was at various times home to many types of aeroplanes including Spitfire and Hurricane fighters and Wellington and Halifax bombers.

One thing all these planes had in common was their use of the famous 27 litre, V12, Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and over the weekend of 15th & 16th of August it will once again be possible to hear a Merlin engine resounding across the airfield.

This time however, the engine will not be in an aeroplane but will be a static exhibit at the Driffield Steam & Vintage Rally giving regular working demonstrations throughout the weekend.

The engine came from a Beaufighter IIF which crashed near Chichester and has been painstakingly restored over 6 years by owner Peter Grieve of Carlisle and Robin Byers of RS Byers Engineering, Houghton. Alongside will be another of their restorations, a Rolls-Royce Griffon Mk 58 which powered the Shackleton bombers and some later Spitfires.

These two engines will revive many memories for the older visitors to the rally as well as giving the younger ones a visual and aural spectacle they are unlikely to forget.

Further information is available at Merlin v12 Website