Everyone has a particular accomplishment they might be particularly proud of.
Maybe they’ve completed a marathon, or earned a particularly hard-won promotion. Maybe it’s a sporting win, a championship or even a medal.
Or maybe it’s something simpler: a jigsaw, worked on bit by bit, or a recipe that was tricky to get the hang of but, eventually, mastered.
For Jos? Manuel Hermo Barreiro, though, that achievement is one we reckon can be shared by very few people.
Barreiro, you see, believes he’s built the world’s smallest V12 engine.
This beautifully-shot video features an interview with the retired naval engineer, as well as footage of his V12, and the other miniature engines he’s built
These include engines that, in larger forms, might be found in boats and aircraft, as well as under the engine covers of older Formula One cars.
“There are over 15,000 hours of work here,” he says, looking over his work so far. “Today’s engineers are wordless to reach that point. ‘It’s impossible!’ they say.”
Yet Barreiro’s astonishing collection shows that with time and care, it isn’t.
“I have no patience at all,” he says, talking about how he does it. “I’m a very impatient person. But it’s not patience – it’s passion. Passion for mechanics.”
Barreiro makes everything by hand, starting with a set of blueprints.
From there, he works individual pieces of metal in his workshops to exacting tolerances, fashioning camshafts, pistons, valves, rockers… everything he needs, in other words, to build up his engines.
He says that finally getting them to work is an enormous satisfaction.
Check out the video, and see Barreiro's work in action.
