My late dad spoke highly of the Comet, it was his main steed as a tank driver during National Service.
I'm not sure how you could describe the Meteor as a cut-down 12 cylinder version of the Merlin when they both had 12 cylinders. The biggest difference was the lack of supercharger as tanks don't generally cruise around at 20-30,000 ft.
I saw John Dodds' beast in the flesh in the early '70s. He was filling up at a garage he owned just south of Bromley when I pulled in. It was originally built by Paul Jameson who struggled with finding a suitable transmission and Dodds came up with a solution.
When I saw it it still had the original vaguely Capri-ish body and the RR grille and bumpers. IIRC, RR changed their policy after that, if you wanted a new grille and bumpers you had to hand over the bent ones they were to replace!
Couple of links
The Petrol Stop: The BEAST Merlin Powered Car
The Beast | Features | evo
As he pulled out onto the road, a bloke in a hotted-up Anglia thought he'd have a race. There was a brief growl and the "Rolls" was gone.
ICT_SLB
I'd always assumed the same until a couple of years ago but not Packard Merlins, pre-war designed monsters of, if my calculations are correct, around 40 litres.
Packard V12 Marine Engine
India Four Two
That was Ford saying the tolerances weren't tight enough. Packard may have had a similar problem but they had to redraw them anyway from UK to US standards.