Early speed parts rule. That’s a fact. Back in the late 1940s and early 1950s industrious machine shop owners across the country could make and market parts of their own design. One such company was Frenzel, located in Denver, Colorado. Frenzel built cylinder heads, other hard parts, and a very small number of superchargers. This is one of ’em!
As you can see in the photos, the blower accepts two carbs in the rear and looks like a giant metal pancake. This one is bolted to a Frenzel blower, which the seller claims is the only one he has ever seen. We could not dig up much, ok, any information on Frenzel intake manifolds, so the man may be speaking the truth, which would take the rarity factor and multiply by it by tons. Obviously, this is for a Flathead V8 engine which was the pinnacle of power making goodness for hot rodders in the early ’50s.
We think this is a rad piece of rodding history. We don’t have $10,000 to spend on a blower, or an entire car for that matter, so this one won’t be coming home with us. If you’ve got a traditional rod build going on, this is one piece that will really set it apart from the crowd!
Ebay Find: A Vintage Frenzel Centrifugal Supercharger
I’ll take two, thank you.
Hey Brian-
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Speedway Motors in Lincoln, NE has a couple of those mounted on engines in their museum.
Pretty bitchin’ to just stare at.
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I want that sooo bad!. but i aint got a pot to p**s in! let alone $10,000 then pay for import costs….oh cruel world why??
Best estimates have manufacture numbers for the supercharger at a couple dozen. In the early 50’s they sold for about $190, adjusted for inflation that’s about the same price as a basic rootes kit runs these days. They generated about 6lbs of boost. Not bad for the time.