Wright stuff

This is a cutaway of a Wright Cyclone R-3350. It's an 18 cylinder radial, 54 litre, 2700bhp aircraft engine with a power to weight ratio of 1.01. What surprised me was the thickness of the crankcase walls where it supports the bearings: It's only about a quarter inch thick. And it's aircooled. Bloody impressive when you think its over 60 years old and at the end of piston engine development before jets came along - with a power to weight ratio of 5 or more.
Thinking about it - it only works out at around 50bhp a litre. A modern diesel in a mondeo will better that.