In 1962, Ernie Landel was a 20 year old working at his father's container manufacturing plant. His family pretty much covered his daily expenses, so every dime he made went into one quest - going fast. That quest started with a 1957 Corvette. The lit... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Well I jhaven't seen one of those bicycle wheel thingys in a very long time. Genuine old world technology as is the entire car that it is bolted to. What are those wheels on the car or are they hubcaps. They look like something I have seen but I sure can't put my finger on it?
Ya know, BrandonB here on the HAMB just sent me a copy of this magazine a couple weeks ago out of the goodness of his heart. He thought I would enjoy is and sure as **** I did. That has to be the gnarliest setup ever on a Chevy V8. I kinda want it!!!! Love early Vettes.
I like how the thing saves space, looks like a V8 with a VW 4 cyl on top LOL. This kind of things make us think out of the box, specially if you have never seen something similar.
They actually still make the *Lathrum (sp?) blower only all updated. I was reafding about it a couple of months back. Pretty pricey but they still have the look and I guess they really pump. I always though they were a neat idea, sort of stealth blower. * Nope no where even close that would be Latham
*****en. That blower, pulleys, and wide drive belt look like they could be current parts! Really ahead of it's time for 1962. Pretty damn cool. 50 years later and 415 HP in a street car is still a high number.
I'd like to see some prints on that blower. I'll bet we could make most of the parts except the gears at the shop where I work. That is, if the boss would let us and he could make some money at it. It would be cool to adapt it to a Six or Four banger to give it a little extra push also.
420 stock HP in modern cars gets hi 12's in the 1/4 mile with the A/C on. Go fast entry level is 500 hp. But that old Chevy was cutting edge tech in it's day.
A '57 Vette, in '62..five year old car. Pull engine do some serious machining add on an outragious induction system, boost stock horsepower thru the roof. Fast forward to 2011, take a 5 year old car (an '06), pull engine do some engine mods, and bump up the horsepower..not quite the same, is it? I respect the era, the car, and the lucky kid, who had the motivation, and wherewithal to pull it off. Nice car.
What a great set-up. Would have loved to see the road testing at Riverside. Turn 6 was a "come to Jesus" off camber 180 with dirt shoulders. Humbled a lot of grown men. Hats off to the builder. No "off the shelf" stuff here. Real hot rodding at its best.
If you think gears would be a challenge then you're probably not equipped to do the turbine like innards.
"To support all of that extra air, the bottom end was stroked 1/8″ and bored 1/8″ to 327 cubic inches" If this statement is true... what cubic inch did this start out at? Most 327s I have seen are 4" bore and 3.250" stroke Just wunderin' ..
Oh wow- this is wierd. I'm building a 1/25 scale model of a '55 Vette..... and I raided the parts box for a Latham blower. And here I thought it would be unique. Goes to show you that no idea is ever really "original".
Some more info on Latham blowers from another thread. I have that magazine, it was an interesting article. My general take on it was that the car was severely overpowering the ch***is, and that it couldn't get traction dragging or in the corners.
Those look like 60' Bonneville spinners with 3 extra added. I had flat top 60' (4dr hrdtop) that had them. Big car ...fast factory 389 4barrel car.
Yeah they look pretty intricate, but the shaft and the end bells look pretty straight forward. I still would love to see the prints.
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