Those look like Allison V1710 aircraft engines.  Used in the P40, P38, and early P51s (A variant).  They were used extensively in unlimited hydroplane racing.  Some guys tried to make them work in drag racing, but they don't accelerate fast enough to make a good drag race engine.  In the '50s they were available as surplus and apparently cheap.  Not so much today.  In the late '90s my uncle was gong to put one in a replica wood speed boat.  The project was never finished, but I got to know that engine pretty well.  It was a solid, reliable engine that never got the glory of the Merlin due mostly to politics and policy which led to its replacement instead of evolution. 

6sally6 wrote:

Real ???...or not Could jew imagine the rackitt that puppy would make !?!
6s6

It looks like there are 6 engines and each one has 24 exhaust ports, so that's 144 pipes!  Even 8 slicks is a joke if they are all hooked up to the wheels.  Each engine makes around 1,000HP (there were versions that made almost 3,000) and has an integral single stage supercharger.  They don't turn a lot of RPM, because the prop was run off a gear train.  A crack machinist made an adapter plate on the one my uncle had that allowed a two speed Lenco to be connected to it instead of the prop gear housing.  The idea was it would have a port gear and an open water gear.  Kind of bummed it never got finished, but on the other hand we'd probably all be dead...

Ah, I see it now, there are 4, not 6.  They are angled so the header tubes in the middle are vertical. 

Heh, funny that it doesn't actually work, but not terribly surprising. 
 

I would like to hear that thing run!

Looks like Guffrey's favorite noun is stuff.