History Four cylinder dragsters

Ed Donovan put a blown Offy in a Fuller -built dragster in the '60s, ran over 180 but apparently broke drive train, flywheel, in the end, twisted off the back of the crank...and Donovan realized that he was selling Chysler stuff, not Offy stuff, so abandoned the project. Not sure if this is the one you are thinking of. Here is a picture of it from Don Ewald's site:

 

Rule no 7.
The less parts that are available for your motor the more fun you have.
don

 

Thank you '296ardun': I knew that I'd seen it somewhere, & I realize that as I get older, there are times that I suffer from "CRS" :"I know I've seen it somewhere, but where?" I do remember that the car ran 8's out of 270 cu in, but replacement parts cost was a SERIOUS problem : Donovan Motors were a lot cheaper, especially for Ed Donovan!!

 

I have the engine out of the Merrymen car club dragster. Model B block.

 

What brand of head is that ? I've seen some strange heads on B's, but never one like that.

 

Now there's a piece of history!

 

Says "NICHOLS" on the top, can anyone enlighten us?

 

I agree!
Off the subject completely, but related to your comment.
People claim all old music LPs are available as CDs now. NO!
You have buy a record-player to hear some of the obscure "vinyl" tracks nowadays.
Regards from KangaRod (1957 model human)

 

"X/FD" What was the difference between that cl*** and the "X/D" cl***
Fuel? Fuel Injection?
Regards from KangaRod

 

It's a McDowell head with a Nichols overhead cam attachment, destroked crank (4" X 4") and Pontiac straight 8 rods.

 

I'm surprised the Pontiac slant 4 from the Tempest hasn't been mentioned more often, especially IVO Mickey Thompson's various projects and all the GTO stuff that might have been applicable. Gary

 

I was thinking the same thing. Mickey was a madman, not afraid to think outside the box. Here is his 4 cylinder dragster:


And he even built half of that motor and made a 2 cylinder version. Not sure what that motor was intended for though.

Don

 

The 'F' would denote 'Fuel'

 

My friends' brother, (Ronnie Kasch), ran injected Pontiac 4cyl at US30 in the 60's also. Never been able to find any info on him, though.

 

Don..The 2 cylinder engine was built for FIA records.

Bill

 

The Dragonfly was the Allard produced package that I noted earlier.

Roo

 

The Pugeot was Marc Marcelloni's (sp?) car and the Hillman in that case was the Sawtell car driven by John at the time. Marc was half of K & M Ch***is along with Kevin Birch who ran his six cylinder car at the same event. I have photos of the six but not sure if I have anything on the Peugeot.
The junior dragster deal came about when they grouped all of the smaller cl***es in one eliminator (heads up back then). If I remember correctly anything less than a V8, injected on nitro was in /JD.
I don't have all my transparencies from that race scanned but I am sure that I have something on the Sawtell car as they were/are very good friends of mine.

Roo

 

That explains it. I've seen Mc Dowell heads before, but never with the overhead cam conversion.

 

there was a turbo charged ford model A powered dragster i always liked the 4 cylinder dragsters because they were a little different.

 

Probably a Ford "Red Tiger" engine used in US built Ford tractors from 1953 onwards.
Regards from KangaRod (old tractor fanatic as well as old dragster fanatic)

 

Sydney Allard offered a kit called the "Dragon" rather the "Dragonfly" for 600 pounds Sterling in 1964(?)
I found these details about it - Ford 1490cc engine - tuned to run on methanol
Shorrock supercharger - maximum 12 p.s.i. boost
Single SU 2" carb.
Maximum 173 bhp @ 7,200 rpm

Frame - 1 1/2"diameter 17 gauge mild steel tubing
Front wheels - 17" spoked with 2.25 tyre
Gearbox - Ford unit with shortened tail shaft ***embly
*Wheelbase isn't listed but looks very short by modern standards
Dropped front axle ***embly - Ford Prefect E93A
Rear axle - Ford unit (narrowed) 33+" rear track - 3.9:1 ratio
Rear wheels 13"
Total weight - 560 pounds ("dry" weight I ***ume)
I gleaned this information from an old adverti*****t.

The idea was an "entry level" cl***, built to strict specifications, perhaps like Formula Ford in Road Racing.
Ideally if there was enough of them sold there would be separate cl*** created for them.

There is a YouTube video, from 1964, about the "Allard Dragon"
Search YouTube for "Allard Dragon Slingshot Dragsters 1964"
The audio is terrible but the footage is interesting!
Regards from KangaRod

 

This was at the Meltdown drags

 

Thanks for the Dragonfly info. Sometimes things just don't catch on. I know when I built the Sr Dragster which was even before I knew of the HAMB and the HA/GR I had hoped it would spawn a group of 3 to 6 folks in our local area to build one. I had envisioned 250 chevs , 235 nd 261 as well. For my Ford friends (both of them;>) a 223, a 240 or a 250 Ford would have been wonderful. For the AMC guys a 232or a 258 would work. I could live with that with the 225 Mopar since I don't always have to be the king and I can bump them to 246 fairly easily. It would hae been a blast to pull 4 or 5 even up the staging lanes and run of and it would have been popular with the crowd as well. Never happened locally. At Picton I am I think the only inline six running. Twas the same I think for the Allard cars. Was a great idea and one would think it would have been real popular but it seemed to go no-where. I mean 600 pounds sterling for a blown alky digger ! And that is just the beginning. I believe there is a twin cam Lotus conversion for the same engine that showed up in some Ford Cortinas.
It would be fun to find one or even just make one of those Drargonfly rails.
I always thought is was an excellent idea.
don
As for the Crosley rail above. Give that man a cigar! He gets it! He is probably having more fun then anyone else there. And for less $$$$$

 

Early to mid 60's My friend Pete and I ran the Slant Pontiac dragster of John Moore.
{More-Drop Axles} Pete drove and I tuned, Had Algon injectors and ran Fuel. high 10's, 135mph, always ended up running against AA super stockers for money. John just wanted us to give him a trophy, He had a Garage full. We got to keep the money we won.

 

@SamIyam started a thread here years ago about a Crosley? powered 4 banger dragster. I will see if I can find it or Sam can drag it up.

 

The Holden inline six was the engine of choice in Australian built "Middle Eliminator " dragsters in Australia, in the 1960s.
Holden inline 6 dragster & altered cars of that era were very low tech. cars capable of being built by "mere mortals".
I like Dolmetsch's idea of a cl*** for low tech, low budget inline six powered dragsters.
Current NHRA & ANDRA Compe***ion Eliminator cl***es are all very high tech and high $, regardless of the number of cylinders they have.
I ***ume he is thinking along the lines of 1960s style front engine dragsters with 1960s with inline 6 engines for his eliminator bracket.
Regards from KangaRod

 

For the last couple year I been dreaming about building a rail around a 3liter straight six Volvo engine.

But seeing that litle rail with that Volvo 4 banger I get mixet ideers floating around my head.


This could be so great. Only downside I have to build both to have anybody to drag with. And find a track that will let me race.
:-/

 

There were a couple of Volvo powered 4 cylinder dragster in Germany in the 1970s - 1980s.
"Breakaway" 2.0 liter raced by Michael Kloss
"The Graduate" 2.2 liter raced by Gerd Habbermann
Do a Google search on both cars to get ideas about a Volvo powered dragsters.
Regards from KangaRod (Australia)

 

There was a British dragster called "Stripduster" that began as very basic car powered by a 903cc Morris Minor (!)engine in the 1960s.
It ended up being developed by having the engine over-bored and fitted with a small supercharger.
See http://www.stripduster.co.uk/site/Stripduster.html
Regards from KangaRod