There it is with the heads off, the tiny 2.5L Daimler Hemi V8. Originally rated at 140hp, Leyland said that it would break at 200. Russ Carpenter was making 1,000hp on nitro. He wins.
The name Russ Carpenter may not be on the tips of the tongues of American drag racing fans but once you get to know this guy’s story, it probably will be. Carpenter became well known in drag racing circles for being the guy who took a tiny 2.5L Daimler hemi V8 that made 140hp from the factory and eventually had the thing making more than 1,000. The dragster that you see below ran career best numbers of 7.20/180 before he retired it. While those numbers are easily eclipsed by Top Dragster sportsman competitors in the USA today, remember that this was an engine measuring out to about 170ci and everything about it had to be hand fabricated, designed, and tested. There was no shelf for speed parts to use in the Daimler engine so Carpenter needed to brain up to make this all happen. His successes were rewarded by admission to the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame, a worthy recognition for his hard work, innovation, and ass kicking success in the car. But let’s back up a second.
I had never heard of Russ Carpenter until our own Benoit Pigeon sent me a note and showed me some video of the car and it blew me away. Not so much for the blazing performance but for the fact that this tiny little engine sounded like its bigger Chrysler brothers once the can was tipped down its throat. The comically small bug catcher, the 3-71 blower, all of it is like less than half scale to the engine we most associate with those hemispherical combustion chambers. According to the induction note on his British Drag Racing Hall of Fame page, Carpenter used factory parts inside the engine even when it was running heavy loads of nitro. Stuff like Triumph TR6 pistons were used to handle the abuse that heavy loads of pop dealt out. How cool is that?! Because everything was so small, Carpenter could not use a normal slider clutch from a recognized manufacturer because they were simply too big to fit. His solution? Make a smaller one from scratch and he did. The man later added a multi-speed planetary style transmission and had to remake a bunch of that program to make it work as well.
Compare those ports to….well, anything! Incredible how wee the whole thing is but considering the displacement, it does makes sense. Truly like a shrunken Chrysler….a very shrunken Chrysler!
On the competition side, Carpenter was very successful. All of this inventing stuff, making stuff, and doing things that others said were impossible didn’t result in a car that couldn’t win but looked cool. Exactly the opposite, in fact. Through the 1970s Carpenter campaigned the car and then in the late 1970s he gained sponsorship from an auto parts supplier who hooked him up with pieces and this is when things got really good because Carpenter took the car traveling outside of England. After beating everyone’s backside all over the place, the rules were changed to try and slow Carpenter’s car down by adding weight. Russ added the 9-inch Ford axle you see in the photos and actually went faster. Competitors asked that the rules be put back. He was protested at races and still won. He was reclassed at races and still won. Carpenter ran the car all the way into the late 1980s when series rules basically outlawed his combo and then he parked it. That’s a pretty awesome 20 year run, if you ask us.
What we really love about this story outside of the engine itself is that it once again showcases the fact that in the end, you really can outsmart the guys trying to outspend you. In the process you will also outwork them and raise their ire to the moon when you continue to beat them to a pulp as their wallets open ever wider to squash your efforts. Russ Carpenter did it for something like 20 years and gained a huge legion of fans and followers along the way. His car is still intact and he cackles it for crowds at events all over England. The guys that were there remember seeing it and the guys that weren’t can revel in the stories of its success. We’re glad that there is video evidence of this thing’s sheer awesome sound because when it is running you’d be hard pressed to tell it from the larger Chrysler models that came to dominate nitro drag racing here in the USA. The idle may be higher but boy does it sound PISSED!
Here’s a six minute promotional film shot while Carpenter was wrecking everyone in the 1979/80 era – (at 3:00 or so he talks about the engine)
Here’s a fire up from just a few months back –
Here’s video of the dragster being fired up and idling –
Thanks for this amazing and informative article Brian – but I just wonder if Russ was aware of the 4.5 litre version of the Daimler Hemi found in the Majestic Major limo. He could have challenged Chrysler Hemis with this motor and more than doubled the horsepower. There are probably a few of these fine cars quietly rotting away hidden in garages and their motors could be bought for peanuts. Indeed an “SP450” sports car could have been a serious challenger for the Cobra 289 especially fitted with Jaguar E Type suspension.
Russ Carpenter still looks after these amazing motors and I think that it is high time that some bright (and rich) spark started producing modern fuel injected versions that would be a great alternative to the usual Chevy motors found in third rate Cobra clones.