It weighs a tonne, makes a tremendous noise and shoots flames from its exhaust - yet does not move a millimetre.
The V12 Rolls-Royce engine Mark Cameron has restored and is taking to A&P and other shows is one result of a hobby the Action Engineering managing director began about a decade ago.
Mr Cameron has a warehouse space at his Dunedin business with plenty of historical military hardware, including a tank, military vehicles and weapons.
He said the Rolls-Royce Meteor engine, which was designed during World War 2, was a derivative of the Merlin aircraft engine used in Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes.
His was used in Centurion tanks bought by the Australian army in the 1950s, and he bought it after it had been in storage for about 40 years.
The engine had to be stripped and cleaned, and a frame made so it could be shown.
That was something he did in his spare time, and was not an easy task.
The engine was difficult to work on, having tight spaces to access, and ''a lot of components''.
On its one tonne weight he said: ''It's all aluminium, but there's a lot of engine there.''
It was finished in 2013, and he began taking it to shows last year.
''A lot of people are curious about engines.
''It's all about people getting up close to an engine like this.''
Mr Cameron said he had gathered his small arsenal of historic hardware because he loved preserving history.
''Military vehicles were developed to be the greatest application of technology of their time.
''It's interesting to see how that technology developed.''
Mr Cameron began his hobby 10 years ago when he was given a Bren gun carrier.
''I'm still working on that.''
The engine will be on show at the New Zealand Ploughing Championships in Palmerston on April 18 and 19.
