Barry called me today ,happier than a clam . he rebuilt three 97's to specs and tuned them all (he is barry grant )got them all on his wife 61 ford with a Y-block .got the linkage and all working *****en .drove the car around .it worked fine ..as normal. well it was strating to snow ..so he was hurry ing along to put the NEW 98's on .. bam ! a little over 30 min .the 98's are in place linakage and all .he said,before the bendix was out of the starter you could hear and feel the difference .hin and his wife took off down the road .(it being 3 speed on the collum )shift at a normal pace and excelarating and decelarating at a normal pace .then one good romp on it .he said,no dout .it out performance and out function the ol' 97's . they will be in production soon and avilable as soon as spring ..so,look here for any updates ..or barrygrant.com ..
It's cool that they work well, but it's too bad they don't have a more vintage look. In my opinion they are down right ugly......
oh,you've seen them in person ? he had a booth at mooneyes and at sema . well ,i guess you'll have to keep your hood closed .. haha
I agree they don't look vintage, but I'll be real interested in seeing some other comments about how they perform. What's the price for them$$$???
Well the biggest problem is there 98s, not a Stromberg 97.. I would think the 98 performed better then the 97 maybe due to more CFMS????????????????? Oh and they are UGLY.. Duane..
I think they are pretty pricey too..very close to a 97..so why not just buy the nice vintage looking 97's (rebuilt of course) for a traditional rod when your going to be within dollars for these..that way you will not have to act ashamed of your carberators and keep your hood on. Personally i think they have a place, but not on a trad. hot rod. they missed the mark on looks and they really missed the mark on price.. the opinions expressed are mine and only mine , you are allowed to disagree, thats why we are allowed our freedom in america (still) to forge our own opinions and go our own way..until we completely become a communist run society.
these opinion's are good ..everyone needs a little feed back .but just saying they are ugly is'n real enough. why are they ugly ?what makes so bad ? and the price is what it is .the new 97's are the same .but,that's ok ? carbs are expensive .tool,die,production,shipping,testing ...all that plays a factor . that's nearly the same reason that the worlds largest natural resource (water) is a dollar something a pint .
the thing that confuses me on these.. is this.. They are not vintage looking at all. They look like a modernized version of an old 2bbl. Kinda like a HHR is a modernized '52 panel truck. So if they are not vintage looking, that would keep the Traditionalists away. I'm sure they perform better, but if you are going for maximum performance, why mess with buying multiple 2 bbls to stick on an out of date intake manifold? I guess that leave one group.. street rodders and I'm sure that's a big enough market to make BG some money off these. Even so.. it's a select few street rodders that haven't gone to EFI and are still using an old enough engine that has intakes that will support multiple 2bbls.
Awesome! So will these 98s have better customer service than the **** they've fed their customers for the last decade? Will they be delivered to my door full of debris too? Better to be consistent than good I suppose.
I think they are great looking, but I would never put them on a traditional car. And if it isn't a traditional car, why would you run them over a nicely tuned 4 bbl? I love barry though. He's a good guy.
Yeap to modern for me. Yeah it would be great to solve all the problems ***ociated with 97's and Holley 94 but totally replacing them for a new later model just throws the hole old style carb out the window. May as well put a automatic and a 4 barral on it in my opinion Rusty
Dirty31,I agree with you about clutchless rods,but what's so bad about 4 barrel carbs? Both the common AFB and Holley 4150 types were introduced in 1957.And if they were made in the 40's for example,hot rodders would have used them to improve performance. I like the looks of multiple old style carbs,but the cost and possible reliability problems can be a drawback for some of us.
I appauled the effort, not too hot on the looks. Would make sense for an all out racer using "vintage" power and wanting to get every HP they can. That being said, you can't beat the ol' leaker 97. They are so simple, even a caveman can rebuild them.
Like it or not, not EVERYONE has to own a period correct car down the last nut & bolt. A newer / better performing / non-leaky carb may not look exactly like another carb from 60 or 70 years ago, but it excells in every other way. I'm going to preface this next part by saying that the nailhead in roadster has three 97's on it. The nailhead in my Buick has an Edelbrock 4 barrel on it. I like the old and I like the new. Both have their pros and cons... just like everything else in this world. There are simply some people that do not want to mess with 97's or 94's. Either they do not have the knowledge to rebuild / tune one correctly or they would rather have something that is more reliable, runs better or performs better. To them, the 98 is the answer. Will the new 98's look exactly period-perfect sitting on top of a flathead that is in a car that was built to look like it just jumped off the little pages of Rodding & Restyling from 1957? Probably not. Will the new 98's start, run, and perform better than 94's or 97's? Most likely. For the guys that love to jump in their car to go where ever & when ever they feel like it, without having to adjust the carbs every once in awhile, this may be exactly what they have been waiting for. Some of the posts before mine refer to the carbs as ugly. That's fine, yer opinion is welcome. However, there are an ***load of ugly cars being built too. LOL I KNOW you guys know what I'm refering to. If not, check out some of the junk being featured in Ol Skool or similar mags. (I get to throw my opinion in there too) It's all a matter of opinion of what you think OR what you "think" you are supposed to think because of what forum you may be on at this particular moment. "It's not a 97 = not period-correct = must be ugly! I gotta say that cuz I'm on a "traditional" car forum." Wouldn't want anyone here to bash me for liking something that is newer than 50 years old. I know you guys can understand every point I just typed. If it ain't yer cup-o-carb... that's cool. No harm, no foul. But not everyone can OR would want to rebuild / tune / adjust / adjust / fix leak / adjust em again... just so they can say their car is period-correct. I'd rather have a good running car than workin on it all the time. It may not be exactly spot-on and period correct with patina oozing out of ever hole and be steeped with history... but she gets down the road just fine.
I wonder how many people talked **** behind Mr. Hilborn, when he brought out his new idea and ran it?.........I can hear the guys back then, the ones that could not embrace the new even back then.......HotRodding has always been about advancement...going faster...and faster...I feel the real hotrodders back then could care less if they could drive their cars from state to state while vacationing...it was all about the quest to make them faster...I believe their were alot of fake hotrodders back then as thier is today.....I run six 94's straight up and love them......but being a hotrodder I am dam curious .....how much faster the new carbs would carry me..........sure I can not afford them, but its not against any of the rules to wonder.......because their are no rules..............I do not know why this reminds me of something Big Daddy Roth told me, "Your biggest critic will always be the one with no talent and imagination"..................I have been working on six new carbs all 94's...I have increased their cfm's I hope, increased their ****erfly dia., decreased the throttle shaft dia., but need to flow a stock one and my machined all to hell ones to see what the outcome is...for all I know I could have taken a step backwards........its one of those projects thats on the back burner......Its kool that their are people out their still pioneering hotrod parts for the public....It was just late last year I met Mr. Hilborn and at the age of 94 I believe, he was behind his desk working on design on his computer...so you have to ask yourself what have you been up to latley.......I myself have been trying to play catch up.... Littleman
Good points Dave.......but all carbs need some adjusting every once in awhile.....after all, they are CARBS....not FI. And every BG carb I've messed with didn't keep tune nearly as well as a Holley or AFB.....
I think its a fine effort, but whats the point? If it's not going to look vintage, just go injection. I see no marketing value at all, other than a couple of guys who a scared to jump into EFI Littlemans' comments about Hilborn are valid, however not the same here because carbs are not new, these are just restyled. No new technology Just my 2cents, I've enjoyed BGs carbs over the years and the quality's been good.
I know my stuff would be faster with a single four barrel..........I had a four barrel on my 68 Chevelle in High School then went to a 4x2 setup, I traded a kid some other non car related stuff for it..and he delivered it to me in the High School lunch room in 1986, I skipped my next cl*** I was so excited, he had no clue what it was..........I do have a four barrel on my 49 Divco Milk Truck thou............I have always been curious to take the 6 x 2 off and bolt on the single four barrel or duel four setup and compare time slips...But I have the new engine w/ I dare say aluminum heads to give it a try.....ha ha ha ...maybe I do not belong here.......Littleman
3 are going on my nailhead this year maybe not traditional but than neither is the tremec and neither is the Winters rear or the mig wire used on it **** it................
I really appreciate the period-correct cars. I think it takes a lot of dedication and p***ion to build one correctly. I'd like to have one someday. For now, I actually prefer what I term, traditionally-inspired. That means my flathead will have a T5 behind it and a modern Weiand blower on top. These carbs wouldn't necessarily be out of place on the engine I'm building for my '40. If I had a car that had an exposed engine, I would probably be more sensitive to what gets seen regularly. That doesn't make me a poser, it makes me conscious of what I'm trying to do with my car - traditionally inspired. Externally, I want it to retain the flavor & internally, I may make some concessions to modern advancements. That doesn't mean I'm going to put A/C in my '40. It's a PERSONAL line I don't want to cross. But form follows function to a large degree in MY version of traditionally inspired & these carbs would work. Just so happens I have a healthy stash of 97s and 48s (and even a couple 81s and the odd 94 or two), so those will likely go on from a financial standpoint, but I wouldn't turn my nose up at these carbs based on someone else's idea of what's "correct" because their "correct" and my "correct" are based on different standards...
I think we are forgeting about the muscle cars, a guy with a tri-power set up on say a 69 GTO or something might really like it. I dont think a carb company having a good performance 3X2 set up in the catalog is a bad thing. There is a pretty big market of old car lovers between the traditional guys and the street rodders.
I agree....new products are a good thing...whether you use them or not......I will not lie I really dig my 94's........today we are purists.....trying to build as they did.....back then they wanted to be on the cutting edge of speed and I would not consider them purists but pioneers to what we have today.......Its funny that we shun new faster sometimes safer stuff.....It comes down to what ever makes you happy and what type of car you want.....Today you should include the saftey aspect into your build for driving on todays roads is far different from when they blasted down the road.....with that said just build what you want, build what gets you off..........I really hate all the bashing in this hobby their really is alot of it.....Littleman
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