Hi guys
This is one of two cars called the 'Sissy Bar car'. The sister to this car appears lost to history. It is a Don Long car with a Tom Hanna body. older guys would say 'with a Hanna body' because he was the best. My kid brother is now one of the best a lot of guys say, not a boast, proud of him, so we were asked if we might punch some tin for it by Long. We are slammed so maybe the great Steve Davis will do it. Need to ask again. The Boss is less of a FORD fan than 5 of us there.
We also wanted to snag it and do it because I have all of the correct engine parts and we love it. So in doing this search we talked to Don Long, an old pal and a chassis genius(He's fine), and Ed Pink. But the awesome Mike Kuhl is keeping us informed because is real close to the Snake. He is great, built Ford FE's for Louie Unser and was at HMS every Tuesday buying tons of FE stuff for UNSER.
Last time I talked to Pink he needed a blower manifold and a Frankenstein Mag. I have those parts but need to keep them. I was looking and looking for an intake for him but they fetch around 5,000 and guys wait 2-3 years to find a clean one. Mine is perfect. He said he would just make some rather than pay that. Quoting;" There is no way we would ever pay these outrageous collector guy prices.'' I agreed but the market is what it is and I need mine for one of our cars in the collection
Mine has the v bottom and port nozzles so if you have one, let them know, or email me and I will call him. Email me pictures too. You have a chance to help a legendary car.
So I went to my pal Nick Arias and asked him about what would it take to cast SOHC blower intakes. We laugh, he is great. His price, at Buddy Bar, having dome millions of dollars worth of castings there, was about 23,000 minimum in aluminum. If you are not Nick Arias good luck getting that price.
Mine is mag, the original car had the mag intake.. You have front and rear pop off intakes too. So that is one deal.
Pond sounded very happy to provide his nice strong parts for this engine last we talked. He is great. You know, his block, if available in the 60's, would have been a HUGE game changer and you could have run 660s-670s
I think the cost of genuine parts is an issue? I was looking for a block for them, Don Long is a good buddy, but a clean, std bore H block, can fetch 8,000. I have one and it is so pretty you would kind of hate to load it up on Nitro...but I may..... Some parts should die with dignity.
This car ran the FORD aluminum heads with a trick. I put a lot of this on the other forum .
On fuel, you torched the whole exhaust port out,,,,,you could see it down track,,,that melting aluminum look. You'd see a few real tall white-ish flames shooting way up sometimes, or there were other signs....like no port left..
If you think about that and know Nitro, they DIDN"T torch the head gasket with an o ring in the deck and head and a soft copper gasket,,,,,and only 10 head bolts
Everybody praised the Dodges for more head bolts but 10 worked just fine from 65 to around 71
They did torch the exhaust ports. The trick there was a special aerospace ceramic style jet coating in the port, baked in. They did that here in town and it worked.
Lot's of tricks, one was to use that tough SK crank, I have one still. It is dark and induction hardened. Stronger than a regular 427 crank. You ground the throws to Chrysler size, and the mains went to 002 under or 012 under for more clearance. You ran straight weight 60W or 70W
One of our guys in the shop built engines for Pink. Pink calls him the best mechanic he ever knew. The point is, if you ever saw Pinks engines or shop, it is beyond pretty and beyond trick.
Everything that he built then looked like a jeweled swiss watch inside and out. First shop we ever saw with an aerospace style inspection room with large granite tables and digital indicating and quadrant measuring machines to confirm every dimension on every part for example. His accuracy was .00001 if I recall, a tenth of a tenth.
And like we posted, the gang, a lot of Nitro SOHCs went all year with sodium valves, a stock chain, one good key and so on. OHIO George's blown gasser spun over 9,000 like that
One trick PINK revealed that we usually didn't say a lot about was, but it is out there, he did do a run of Chromoly chains , same pitch and diameter, for the very fastest stuff, toward the end...
I only have one left and it is used but fine
So this engine will be very trick and we are all trying to help if possible. Rumor has it the Snake will not only do a burn out in it but maybe make a short squirt.....that will be fun to see!
There is no way that NHRA or the Goodguys would let you, me or just about anybody we know stage and launch an illegal car.....but the Snake is a legend and if says I am fine who is going to 'educate' him about driving a Dragster?? That is juice if you ask us...
He almost ran me over in his high speed Lawn Cart on the starting line with a Fuel car about a year ago. Really funny, his vision was kind of lost in the glare I think... we smiled and laughed. Close, but no cigar Snake.
I actually have stories about his first pass in a fuel car, he got a test pass for Howard Johnsen or Howard cams, with my Boss and others there. All I am going to say is that it was a learning experience.
We keep hearing that they do not own this Long car but who knows, they have some contract to restore it, publicize it and sell it we heard, not at all sure
Our place had SHELBY in the loop
Blown and injected SOHCs were all over the place out West in the 60s, you could see 2 sohcs in the Finals too. Kalitta kept his car at Holman Moody Stroppe when in town and had our stickers on his cowl. He is great and his car flew too. He borrowed /Bobby's' tool box for a little while,,,,and still has it....LOL He laughed so hard telling me that.
Back then most cars did not carry a Crew so you would draft guys at the races. Kalittas main guy at times was with us at Ford Racing. We recalled this recently....his engine might have a std bore, next to a 10 over, next to a 020 over next to a std.....you know ,,,a mix and match which was a smart way to get more passes from a block....
One of his best Crew guys then just had a bad stroke so please hold a good thought for Bruce .
We loved Cammers on Nitro, the could out rev a Dodge by up to 1500 RPM and sounded different. From miles away, you could hear a Cammer over a Dodge if it was on kill..
And every single one of them had the black, hardened good old Ford hex for the oil pump,,,and straight 60 or 70 W,,,,,,,they just got changed out it they showed any wear
I think this car is next on the jig at Don Long so i will check and report back
Long is a block from Shelby basically
OH,,,,Kieth Black built a whole bunch of fast Cammers and he was a great guy who came up to visit us and who was just the best. A lot of people miss him.
I think this car still needs a MAG....last we heard, so if any of you guys have a Frankenstein?
These are a Schiefer, wrinkle painted black, tall and square, the cap is off to one side, and there is a tag that says 8-427. They were a big big deal back then, they didn't drop holes and lift the blower like the smaller mags.
But the top teams sent the mags out all the time to get checked and pumped up. We had about 5 mag places around here. You usually sent the Driver over to the mag place...
I am keeping mine,,,LOL
This car should really be great to see and hear again and a lot of us are elated
They will run it up at the Reunion, in Bakersfield,,,,,you all will see a video I am sure.
I did a wanted ad for the stuff they lacked, no replies. I'll check and see
That row of Dragsters looks like it is at the Garlits Museum and I hope that all of you guys go there some day.
On the Flexi Flier deal ...bb,,,,you had 2 Top Dragster builders back then, Don Long and Woody Gilmore. Woody is a great man and his shop was a few blocks down the hill from Stroppe(Ford racing West basically). Woody would come into the machine shop on Saturday mornings to talk to my boss and discuss metalurgy, fixtures, tolling and so on. In the 80s he was in our shop for a while doing really trick street rods. Woody invented the Flexi Flier and gets the credit from everybody we know. His cars had less diagonals, less uprights and bowed just a bit more when they rode the pinion.
Back then there was this constant back and forth between Long and Woody. Woody used to tell us that he was so busy that he would tack chassis' together and bring in certified welders who were able to TIG like a stack of dimes, perfect, to finish chassis' all night, 3 shifts. That is how big front motored cars were around here.
Woody was also known for just blowing any smart ass or know it all right out the door of his shop like they got shot out of a cannon. He is a big, strong, tough, smart guy. When he left the 80s shop for a tricker gig, he gave my brother a nice bottle of Vodka which is still in his roll away un touched. Great guy.
He was so smart that he used to stay in the shut down area at the end of Lion's Drag Strip which was about the fastest place around for a long while. He would kind of sit in his pickup bed and hold court. He would kind of de brief all of the fast guys and come up with ideas to make the cars faster. It took us years to figure this out and when he explained why, years later, we said, wow, smart guy. Fast guys learn by hanging around fast guys they say.
Now Don Long built gorgeous cars, just beautiful lines, and parts and details. You want to know something, he built hundreds of winning cars. And he aligned all of the front ends by eye. No alignment rack, no tape measure, no jig........ All of his axles and links and hairpins and so on were jigged, he was famous for bitchin jigs,,, but he eye balled the alignment.
He clued us in years later.....and we went 241 MPH that way. You just get behind a known straight car, a jigged car, and sight the slick from dead center looking forward. Then view the front tire and have a helped adjust it until the view looks perfectly parallel.
I saw Long a month ago and he was wearing a T Shirt that a lot of us agree with. 'Bring back 1/4 mile Drag Racing'',,,,as a statement concerning this 1,000 ft rule in Top Fuel and F/C
Now there is a foot note, Kalitta ran a Logghe car. We helped him change out his chassis for a new one, Dragsters wore out back then too,,,,,,it got cut up to make Go Karts for the shop at lunch ha ha !! Stroppe Jr was a terror in one, hauling the mail in and out of the main shop,,,funny...
Like I said, I think a modern blown SOHC could do well in the modern Nostalgia Top Fuel for the Goodguys..no problem. A lot of guys believe that, just need a sponsor. We have the tune up and combo
The common belief back when was this, the SOHC had it all but needed a block like the POND iron or a SHELBY. Mike Kuhl was with Ford Racing too, and we talked about this a few times. He kind of designed the 417 DONOVAN with Ed Donovan and Woody and others, The 417 was an aluminum 392 Chrysler with sleeves. All 392 parts bolt on. We went 590 with one and they live great.
Like he says, and many others who were there do too, the 417 killed the Cammer cars, it took a while, but it eventually buried them in Top Fuel. That was really really sad to see and a lot of people plead and begged Ford to give us a new block.
HOWEVER,,,,had Ford or anybody done a thick POND style iron block, or a SHELBY style block, which was talked about a lot, well, things would have been COMPLETELY different.
Final deal on Nitro SOHC.s,,,,,,I hope people remember Tommy Groves SOHC's. He flat flew, beat everybody, match raced all over America and was the class of the field. His 'Going Thing' Mustangs were so darn fast and so reliable. The stripe on his Mustangs is the stripe Ford used on the Boss cars, over the cowl and down the front fenders at an angle. Tommy Grove invented that to kind of hide the stretched nose on his AFX cars, or long nose cars...
Once Tommy Grove perfected his Tune Up, he got one entire season on a cammer shortblock with the heads never coming off. Non adjustable valves, Ford hollow stem valves,,,Crane Nitro cams, Venolia pistons with a 031 Stainless compression ring. That is one tough engine if not over massaged.
He won 213 rounds in a row. What a FORD legend to a lot of us. He pulled about 8500 with that thing. And the Dodge boys would be yanking the heads and everything else between rounds and he would just drain the hot water,do a leak down test, cool it down, change plugs, oil , fresh water, fuel it and send it
Those were the days.....His car beat McEwen's car twice in one race,,ha ha(due to the alternate rule)
There are a lot of tricks for SOHC's that thousands of passes back then figured out.
Final thing for fun, I am sorry that I don't get here enough but months ago I saw a post about iron heads versus aluminum heads and we are busy. A lot of you guys remember how dominant and fast Dyno Don's Pro Stock Cammer Mavericks were? They were so darn fast and so awesome and I wish some Ford guy would re do one soon. We'll help,
He was a good friend and I helped him, but so did one of my closest Ford friends who was his engine builder and Crew Chief on those cars. We worked together just after then. You know Don got the best of everything from Ford and us, many guys helped his cars. Counter to what a lot of people believe today, his cars were faster with iron heads, despite the weight.
The iron head held in more heat and Dyno'd and ET'd better for his combo. The identical aluminum heads from Ford slowed that combo down. And his engines had about a point more compression then most guys due to tricks. One trick was knowing how to mix gas. I shared the asymmetrical cam timing trick. I don't think that he would mind. A lot of people sure miss that smile and wit of his. Great guy
Nice post. Awesome Dragster you have there, class of the field.
Thanks Kindly
You guys are great
