Anyone who appreciates the precision art of engine design ought to get a kick out of this offering from a Spanish engineer named Patelo. Starting with hunks of aluminum, bronze and stainless steel, he spent over 1200 hours designing, milling, turning and drilling what he claims is "probably" the world's smallest V12 engine. Powered by compressed air injection (0.1kg/sq cm), this little marvel boasts a total displacement of 12 cubic centimeters from its twelve 11.3 mm diameter pistons and works like a charm. Best of all, you can see it come together in the detailed video that follows.

Built primarily for educational purposes, Patelo has no plans for selling the mini-motors. In fact, seemingly to prove this lengthy exercise in metallic accuracy was truly a labor of love, he dedicated the engine to his four grandchildren. He crafted all 261 pieces of the engine from scratch, but drew the line with the 222 screws, which he purchased, presumably so he'd have at least a little time to spend with the grandkids.

Here's an English translation of the terms in the video in case you don't have a Spanish dictionary handy (watching it'll be nine minutes and change well-spent):

Construimos el ciguenal: Building the crankshaft

Comenzamos el montaje: Begin the installation

Montamos el ciguenal en el bloque: Fit the crankshaft in the block

Cojinete de apoyo del ciguenal: Crankshaft bearing support

Taques: Tappets

Arbol de levas: Camshaft

Cojinete de apoyo del arbol de levas: Camshaft support bearing

Engranajes de la distribucion: Timing gear

Volante: Flywheel

Cilindros: Cylinders

Pistones: Pistons

Comprobamos con un taladro que todo esta en orden: Check with a drill that everything is in order

Culatas: Cylinder heads

Balancines: Rockers

Varillas de balancines: Rocker shafts

Colectores de admision: Intake manifolds

Colectores de escape: Exhaust manifolds

Tapa de distribucion: Distribution cover

Bombas de refrigeracion: Cooling pumps

Enfriador de agua dulce: Fresh water cooler

Filtro de admision: Inlet filter

Pruebas de funcionamiento: Function tests

Camara lenta: Slow motion

Numero de piezas/tornillos: Number of pieces/screws

Horas de trabajo: Hours of work

Maybe it's the music in the video but precision machining doesn't get much more exciting than this.