Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

[mustang13]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

Some Blue Oval stuff i'm sure I'll never have along with a Novi V-8 used at Indy.



Big Boss

Little Boss


Novi V-8

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

Here are some more AMC bits.
Wally Booth/Dick Maskin AMC Pro-Stock cylinder heads. A fella on the one of the AMC forums has these; I think there are a few more floating around too. These are cast iron AMC heads that were used by the Wally Booth in the early 70's. What's cool is that they share the same general shape as stock amc heads but are taller and have monstrous ports. These things also used a custom rocker-shaft valve train.


Reportedly there is an article on Booth from National Dragster, April 2000 where he states that when he quit, they were making about 800 horsepower with a 362 cubic inch engine, Wow!
I am not sure the NHRA rule structure for pro-stock at the time but one-off heads bolted to stock blocks must have been legal in the class?

Maybe Brian on some other drag racing historian can explain?

I'll take a shot Mike.

OK, first things first. Even if we didn't already know that Booth ran a Gremlin in 1972 there is a tell tale about the motor that would give it away, the cid. NHRA wanted the manufacturers to have a place to show off their new small cars and the fact was, by 1972 the muscle car was dying quickly. They thought that if they didn't let the small cars in, the class would die. To incentivize the companies to run small cars, they allowed vehicles with a wheelbase under 100 inches to race at 2,000lbs provided they ran a motor under 366ci. You'll read lots of stuff telling you that Booth ran a 401cid Gremlin...incorrect. As Mike has correctly said, the motor was under 366ci per the rules.

Mike, the only thing Pro Stock parts need to have is a factory part number, just like today. You can open the GM Performance Parts catalog and buy the same raw block and head that Greg Anderson runs and it'll have a GM part number on them. Then you can spend thousands of hours on the dyno to get it to make the comparable power level.

Those heads, despite the fact that there may only be 10 sets or 20 sets, or whatever number ever produced, so long as they had a part number from AMC were legal tender in Pro Stock. The only real hard and fast rules on the motor itself back then were regarding carbs (2 4bbls allowed), and the fact that the motor had to be from the same make as the car. The infamous words in the rule book that followed were usually along the lines of, "any internal modification allowed" or something like that.

Those are some cool pieces to have, although I bet they'd be all but useless on the street with those massive friggin ports!



Brian (your local drag dweeb)

[67prostreet]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

mustang13, I briefly blacked out after seeing those.
And yes I would sell my kids for one of them ;) :D

[oldsman496]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

I don't have much of a story for this... but this little 2" picture has been stapled to my garage wall for about 23 yrs now.. sorry for the quality, but I could find nothing about this "motor" on the web.... Does anybody know anything about this ? Its from aprox. 1987..... I thought at the time it would end up in the Aerotech Olds......

[Memphis]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

What I would do to get my hands on these engines :o (Click on them to see it full size)

[CTX-SLPR]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

Saw the Buick Turbo Nailhead in person at the 100th Aniversery of Buick in Flint back in 2003. Something about the ~800lb-ft of torque at ~4000rpm not working with any known transmission kept it out of production.
Looks like a pair of those Weber intakes on the left 2 BBB's. That top one looks to be an example of the rummored Stage III in the 4-bolt main story. That cross rammed, sidedraft 215 looks tastey, wonder if it's incorportating any Mickey Thompson stuff from his Indy efforts. I can't see enough of the SOHC motor to tell for sure but I think it's a 455.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

I saw a pair of Gurney heads at a swap meet once. No price was on them. I guess it fell into the category of "if you have to ask.....".

[mike343sharpstick]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

More please ;D
There has got to be a ton of old ProStock stuff out there or something from Smokey Yunick.

[Junk Whisperer]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

I'm STILL lovin' the OHC Corvair-Six. Sorry,can't help it :D. And I'm with Dan on 'ole Harry Miller,the Man was a GENUIS. Has anybody have a Picture of His Board Track racin' 'Miller Submarine' racer,QUITE the sinister lookin' piece to boot....~J/W.

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

http://www.bangshift.com/blog/Vintage-Race-Car-of-the-Week-The-Golden-Submarine.html

[CTX-SLPR]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

Want to buy an M/T 4x2 Weber Buick intake: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

[mike343sharpstick]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

Wow, that's cool!
I have seen similar vintage intakes used for EFI, That would be crazy cool!
Any idea what the ending price will be, I would think around $1,200 :o

[ch1ll]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

Brian, a part number is all it takes to NHRA drag race a hp piece? NASCAR requires 500 of the part to be produced.
Man could I tell you a good story about that.

[ch1ll]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

I'm crying. All this stuff makes my junk look sooooo ordinary. :'( :'( :'( :'(

[A/Fuel]

Re: Unobtanium and cool old race stuff

[quote=mustang13 ]
Some Blue Oval stuff i'm sure I'll never have along with a Novi V-8 used at Indy.



I think Wilkerson is going to run some of this stuff soon.