Bell Aurens Longnose, A Land Rover With Over 1,500 HP

What would a Land Rover look like if it had a 27-litre supercharged V12 engine, the Merlin, produced by Rolls-Royce to power an airplane, with over 1,500 hp? What if it also had an yatch like tail, like classic cars from the 1930’s, and were a roadster, or, even better, an off-roadster? You don’t have to force your imagination to figure it out, since Thomas Bell, the founder of Bell Aurens, has materialised this idea - called Longnose.

“The 12 cylinder is available on request - our preferred solutions are the Rover V8 4.6 or 5.0 or the double V8 as V16. They are closer to the original idea - nevertheless V12 have a similar tradition with cars of British origin and thus will be available on demand. The Merlin engine is an idea which is feasable, but has not yet been calculated. It is possible though - nevertheless it will remain a promotion car with, if at all, very restricted street legality”, Holger Kalvelage, spokesman for Bell Aurens, has told World Car Fans.

As we can see, the V12 version of Longnose would be just promotional for the other models, especially the ones equipped with V8 4.6-litre (235 bhp) and 5-litre (280 bhp) Rover engines. “Every Bell Aurens Longnose will be built to the individual specifications of its future owner - within the set variations we offer. So it’s naturally very difficult to come up with exact prices, as everything is handmade and made to specific requirements. Nevertheless, the basic price for a Longnose with standard tail and 4,6 liter V8 engine will be around € 125,000,- plus VAT, delivery at factory gate. Although there are limitations regarding extras, you can imagine that there are quite a lot of variations possible - the most prominent one being the yacht tail. To give you an indication, we are currently calculating a customer request for a Longnose with yacht tail and the 5 liter V8 engine that results in approx. € 150,000,- plus VAT”, said Kalvelage.

The V16 mentioned would be a product of two Rover V8 engines. It may be an 8-litre (420 bhp) or a 10-litre (700 bhp) engine, but Bell Aurens wants to rest assured the engine meets German MOT standards before it goes to regular offer. “The prototype will be finished in August and presented as a world premiere in September at the Peterborough Land Rover International show in England. Although the prototype still takes some weeks to be finished, three units have been ordered already”, Kalvelage completed.

For anyone that fell in love with the car and can afford to have one, money obviously will not be the problem. Lack of patience may be the central question. “We decided to build 10 cars a year - as we really believe in the handmade process behind that car and will not begin to automate that process. It is a collector’s item and this is what we want it to be. We calculate 4-6 months delivery time from order to the finished car, of course again depending on the individual specifications.”