I had heard the rumors , the HAMB drags engine had been torn apart, most of the stuff ****tered on the winds of ebay........ you see SAMIYAM bought the engine from the winner, the logistics of shipping , the fact that Sam could use the motor, and a deal was struck, it worked good for a while... then Sam gotta bad case of the iwanna's, iwanna run alcohol iwanna run injection iwanna get more compression... the last i hear they are gonna tear it apart, beef it up , more comp. enderle injection........cool......then , whats this, now he's talking about a 283, ex drag motor.....big piston, lotsa port work...mmmmmm, i wonder what happened to the raffle engine? everytime it was different story, e-bay, lost it playing poker, traded it for a box of filled doughnuts at bakersfield,[ well **** i guess the crew's gotta eat] some punk kid was running around livermore with it in a camaro wanting to street race everything that moved......... then about a month ago, i start hearing from a good source outside of Livermore that it might just be right there still, hidden away in a garage, ......mmmmmmmm i needed to get an engine delivered to Eugene Ore, and i had been promising a pal i would get a crank down closer to santa rosa for him, i heard rumors that a new engine might be needed.....well i could get everything done in one trip if i dont sleep... I pulled out fri at 7pm from seattle,fueled by gas station coffee and the need to know the truth i pushed on for the last place i had seen the motor myself Livermore cali. i dropped the engine off in Eugene late that night and pushed on,at about noon on sat i rolled into the Strube homestead,........ He confirmed what my outside source had told me , the engine WAS in Livermore, sans a few parts, we could go look at it but the owner is out of town.....DAMN, after a couple of calls Sam came up with some keys and off we went, to a small house in the middle of town. After getting the garage door open, there it was sitting behind a little early 60's nova drag car......... i unwrapped it and checked for the stamps i had put on it while building it, you see everything on that engine got stamped with the HAMB name when it was built. The stamps were there!, even with the valve covers that looked like they came out of the movie I-robot it was a pleasant sight...... THAT WAS IT,,, it was coming home with me! A deal was made, the neighbors were getting antsy, another HAMBER was called in to help load , but they wanted no names mentioned. This guys not home , engine is being loaded into a vehicle with out of state plates , lets do this and get gone!!!!!! faces not shown to protect the so called innocent so a little piece of HAMB history has returned home, almost two years after the idea began............is this the end of my little story.......maybe........ or it might be the start of chapter 2
Waaaaa?? Me? Yep boys, the Raffle motor is going HOME... I had this URGE to take the heads off... put some different heads on it with less CHARACTER and HISTORY... but then I thought "hey, this is an important part of HAMB HISTORY!!! I don't want to **** that up!" So when Fred showed up at my door step... I knew it was meant to be. FWIW, Fred has plans to build us a WICKED 283 "wee-motor" short block... I can't wait to hear her SCREAM... Sam.
very interesting... what did this little motor do when it was out in the big world? is there a thread of fact to any of the rumors? what will happen to this little gem now? please remind us what is in the little jewel? Paul
Oh yea, Fred. I found a 289' that was rebuilt 6 years ago from a 66' stang and the guy wants $150 for it. Good deal? Oh and it has the ****** also. Thanks, Chris
sounds like a good deal chris.......... yes i have heard the bonneville story also, the motor was missing , the distributor, which Sam had donated back for the following years raffle motor, which turned out to be Ford, so it wasn't used ,its still here Boones donated intake and the Scribe donated carb, which i believe were sold i believe the finned valve covers were sent to the winner LA32 the roller rockers, sfi flexplate, and oil pump found their way back into service in the 283 that replaced it the long block was basically intact ,and i have asked Sam to send me a note about where it ran and how fast at each place and NOBODY will ever understand how happy i am to have the heads back, they have an incredible amount of drag history in them , they have soul, i took off the original heads that were planned for the build and put them on when things started getting heated between Sam and the Great Gordini, i knew they were going to get given away, but i have an intense competetive spirit i build these to hopefully help someone get a project on the road quickly and cheaply, this one is going to do just that, it is going in my coupe, i am not going to dis***mble it at all, new oil pump,fuel pump, i dropped in a set of pushrods tonight and a set of comp roller tipped rockers, and checked the rocker arm geometry, .........perfect, this ENGINE has soul now....its been "place's" i have been walking around the house giggling, the wife thinks its from no sleep in the last 2 days Fred
Very cool! HAMB raffle engine # 2, proudly hauled home 6 months ago, bagged, very well protected, is on an engine stand in the shop,with the C4 sitting on milk crates beside the engine. And it is not going anywhere except in one of our cars. The 50 Ford it was going in has been moved out of the shop & is stored because a 27 T roadster build, started by a deceased friend who got me hooked on this insanity 43 yrs ago, with the 57 Chev 283 bored to 301 that was in his 23 T 43 yrs ago, (rebuilt 10 yrs ago but never started) is now between the rails of this 27, has taken the 50s spot in the garage & should be running/driving by Roundup. This roadster has a lot of history for me personally, my friend had the body apart in his attic when I was in the 8th grade so me being able to finish what he started before he died 5 yrs ago means a lot. Been trying to buy this car for 2 1/2 yrs. I think the HAMB Ford engine deserves to be in a lighter car, something will let it more easily reach its potential. I think it will go in my 32 instead of the 50. Plan on starting back on the 32 rebuild as soon as I get this roadster driving so should fire this puppy off for the first time by early summer. Can't wait. fred, I will be calling you when it is running. Still can't believe I won. Sorry for the hijack but just wanted everyone to know the 2nd raffle engine is staying with the proud winner & going into a HAMB car and will show up at the HAMB drags, someday.
Damn, if I woulda known that engine was right in my backyard it coulda been in my El camino and made a road trip to the Round-Up!! Probably would have put at least some miles on that engine to keep up with how many miles that engine has traveled in trucks, on trailers and in cars on trailers! Lucky if that engine has 10 miles actual driving on it....... That engine would/is a great street engine, not mild, but definitely not too much for the street. And far from stock. It was about 400-425 hp at the crank.
Sacramento Raceway- 8/8/03 6:35pm The BFD made its first run with that motor... 10.857 @103mph Shut off at the 1000ft to check things out. 10.508 @ 119.163 10.631 @ 109.643 Loaded it up, went to MOKAN Friday Night, Pre-HAMB Drags 8/22/03 11.797 @ 80.04 (who knew the K railing ended at the end of the quarter mile!) 10.902 @ 108.04 (who knew it would be that damn dark at the end of the track) 10.921 @ 107.70 (still trying to sand bag for Gordons sake... so I blamed it on the lack of lighting at the end of the track again) Saturday at MOKAN 8/23/03 10.767 @ 122.44 10.944 @121.68 10.901 @ 122.18 (to Gordon's 13.508 @ 97.10) 10.826 @ 120.93 Bakersfield 11/1/03 15.616 @ 56.39 (pulled the front wheels 20" off the ground and headed towards guard rail) 10.614 @123.66 (broke tires loose at 1/8th mile, got into the marbles, wet right, left, right and then left again... brother said right rear tire almost got air when I went to the center line, got it straight and hammered it again) 11.314 @ 93.62 (red lit and lost) LACR, Palmdale California Made 4 runs... only saved one time slip (win) 11.530 @ 105.313 Caught the guy at the 1/8th, kept a fender on him for the win) Ran low 11's in the high desert for the other 3 runs. Sacramento Raceway- Terry ran the car and has the timeslip for his two runs Tim, I believe, has his time slips for that day's runs also. 4 runs total So, all in all the motor made 21 runs down the quarter mile and about ten more blasts down my street. And never skipped a beat. Sam. pics from Bakersfield and that first night...
My first p*** was a 1/8 mile then coast, to get the feel for the car and the launch, don't have that time slip. My next full p*** was a 10.51 at 114.99, in which I lifted when I saw the shift light in high near the end, which was set lower than the actual redline, just an instinctive reaction. By the time I figured out what it was, I was at the end and no use to get back on the throttle and just coasted through the speed trap. So my mph is a little lower than it could have been. Although my memory is fading, I think Tim's runs were in the 14-15 second range, it was throttle stopped to about 5/8 throttle and also Tim was not using the trans-brake. He is still getting used to the trans-brake and also the speed of the car. The open roadster is much different than a closed car, not to mention Tim's previous experience is with slower 12-13 second cars.
damn Fred that is so cool, glad it found it's way back home. thanks for the numbers, pictures and driver's seat description Sam, impressive- both of you, builder and driver! Paul
I have to take the blame for talking Sam into starting up that motor at the Bend in the road. What with the VW engine roast and all the usual saturday night at the bend partying it wasn't real quiet around there anyway. All Sam did was fire it up, rap it a couple times and shut it off. I was alongside and it blew my hat off from the header blast when it fired. By the time I found my hat the guy was jumping on Sam to keep the noise down. Sleeping Saturday night at the bend before 2 am is about like surfing Waimea without getting your trunks wet. Not very likely... Anyway, here's the engine the next morning about the crack of noon.
smokin joe, that is one cool picture...... thanks for the times, dates and places Sam eddie,eddie, eddie, , i can't remember who exactly it was in your group, but they looked across at me when we were loading it in the truck and said,. "i will bet you a hundred dollars that this motor does not make it in his wife's car"......... i refused to bet please do call anytime you need to... Fred
Fred, glad to see it come full circle. I think that letting the motor go was one of the hardest decisions Ive had to make but it enabled me to finish my roadster and get it on the road.Thanks again for all you hard work.Louie
The Jalopy Journal
