Lord Percy is absolutely correct. I am fortunate enough to have Spitfires fly over my house quite frequently. I live close to RAF Coningsby, home of the Battle of Britain Flight. A quite distinctive throaty roar is produced from the exhausts.
Most of the upgrades to the Merlin were the result of ever-increasing octane rating. At the start of the war the engine ran on the then standard 87 octane aviation spirit. . From June 1940 small quantities of 100 octane fuel became available from the U.S. and Merlin IIIs were found to be capable of running on it.
The next major version was the XX which ran on 100 octane fuel. This allowed higher manifold pressures, which were achieved by increasing the boostTurbocharger.
The process of improvement continued, with later versions running on further-increased octane ratingOctane rating
Fundamental design changes were also made to all key components, again increasing the engine's life and reliability. By the end of the war the "little" engine was delivering over 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) in common versions, and as much as 2,070 hp (1,544 kW) in the Merlin 130/131 versions used on the de Havilland Hornet.|||merlin
different versions as the war progressed|||merlin
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