I found this web site for a company called Nostalgic Hot Rod Products. They say they'll have the magneto's repoped by this fall. ( If I had a buck for everytime I've heard that line, I could afford an original one!) Anyway, does anyone know any more about this or the company called Nostalgic Hot Rod Products in Orange CA?
It's a bit funny how everybody will jump thru hoops toscore an old H & C Mag when there are much better igniters out there. A friend who has been racing Flatheads since the Mutual Racing Association days (1948-1952) has tried about everything on them and has a low regard for the quality of spark from the H & C. He's used Vertex, Wico, Bosch, - you name it and right now he's got a G.M. H.E.I mounted on the front of his 296" Merc in a vintage race car. Running on alcohol he say's it's as good as any mag he's ever used.
Its probably a "serious" racing engine & hes doin what has to be done, not going for the nostalgic look. people under estimate the HEI ignition!! only problem with it is that it looks like shit & takes up alot of room.lol JimV
I have the distinct feeling that this, like the repro 97 is beyond my price range so i can't get excited about it.
Trying to solve this the old fashioned way, I picked up the phone and called them to ask what "tuneable advance curve" means. Unfortunately, the number listed is being picked up by a fax machine. Hmmm... I emailed them as well.
Thats what I read. Its makes the line fuzzy to know wether its a mag or a dizzy. Any mechanical advance mechanism is "tunable". Its just a matter of changing springs. What I can't work out is wether its a magneto or a Mallory in a party frock?
I would like to see one. My grandfather, Ollie Morris, worked with Tom Cirello and developed the process to convert the HC mag to a true HEI electronic distributor in the late 1970's. Tom had the original HC patterns and my grandfather tried to buy them, but at the time Tom didn't want to sell them. After Tom moved a few times, he lost contact with my grandfather and sold the patterns (probably to this guy). Since then, a guy has been calling my grandfather and asking about the process he uses to convert the mags to HEI. My grandfather hasn't given the guy much information because he felt the guy was just trying to copy him. I wonder if Nogstalgic Hot Rod Products knows a gentleman in San Diego has trademarked the HC name??? Dan Marvin, Owner Exeter Auto Supply
I wonder about all this myself, DMARV is a stand up guy I've bought from before, I'd like to know the "real deal" on this also. We do alot of Flatheads and guys would love to have a H-C mag, is it on the up and up, or a China HEI knockoff?
Tom Cirello did have all the patterns and boxes of misc H&Cparts, I used to buy from him around 1989-90. He got all the stuff from Schieffer who got the stuff from Cliff Collins. Cirello made new rotors both early and late style out of a grey plastic that was far superior to the butterscotch originals....you could slam them on a work bench and they wouldnt even chip.. you look at a butter scotch one funny and it explodes! Cirello sold to a guy here in San Diego a few years ago, he was going to offer point coil units for sail. He sold to NHRP. The NHRP website is no longer up due to a copyright infringment with the owner of the Harman and Collins name and logos which are now trademarked. Since they knew about the trademark before the website went up but did it anyway they were facing a slam dunk lawsuit if the continued. No one I know has been able to contact them since. The original H&C cases were machined sand castings. The Schieffer and Cirello housings were die cast, used a cap adapter for a tower style cap and ran the old dual point distributor style rotor (less 2nd coil brush). Internally they were basically the same except for an extended shaft for the new style rotor and I have seen expoxy potted coils from Schieffer which had to perform far better than some of the early style ones I have seen come out of these things. Speedway still sells the drive and couplings...but that magnet wheel is a lot of inertial to put on that teeny drive with nothing to absorb the shock load during rapid acceleration and deceleration. With the fixed timing the only real way to run one is with a lead plate. Hamilton Intakes makes a beautiful one. You can find them on the web.
I met the guy thats gonna be putting these out, might even use one on one of my customers cars. I think he said they will be HEI internals.....
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