engines, low numbers of F-82s produced, and the arrival of jet fighters. The initial production P-82B had Merlin engines, but North American was forced to use the Allison V-1710 for the E/F/G models when Packard stopped production of the Merlin engine. In total, 69,305 V-1710s were built by Allison during the war, all in Indianapolis, Indiana. Other uses The V-1710's useful life continued, as thousands were available on the surplus market. In the 1950s, many drag racers and land speed racers, attracted by its reliability and good power output, adopted the V-1710; Art Arfons and brother Walt in particular used one, in Green Monster. It proved unsuccessful as a drag racing engine, being unable to accelerate rapidly, but "could taxi all day at 150". Unlimited hydroplane racing also became a big sport across the U.S. at this time and V-1710s were often tuned for racing at up to —power levels that were beyond design criteria and significantly reduced durability. Later, as purpose-built V8 engines became available for drag racing and unlimited boats shifted to turboshaft power, tractor pullers began using the Allison engine, again developing unimagined power. Finally, the warbird movement began to restore and return to the air examples of the classic fighters of the war and many V-1710-powered pursuit airplanes began to fly again, with freshly overhauled engines. The reliability, maintainability, and availability of the engine has led others to use it to power flying examples of aircraft whose original engines are unobtainable. This includes newly manufactured Russian Yak-3 and Yak-9 airplanes, originally powered by Klimov V-12s in World War II and the two (so far) airworthy examples of the Ilyushin Il-2, taking the place of the Mikulin V-12 it originally used, as well as ambitious projects such as a replica Douglas World Cruiser and Focke-Wulf Fw 190D by Flug Werk of Germany. Variants Allison's internal model designation for the V-1710 started with the letter A and proceeded to the letter H. Each letter designated a family of engines that shared major components, but differed in specific design details. Each of these designs were identified by a number, starting with number 1. The last letter, which was introduced when both right hand turning and left hand turning engines were built, identified by the letter R or L respectively. The military model numbers were identified by a "dash number" following the engine description "V-1710". The USAAC/USAAF models were the