Hey everyone, Can anyone help me out? I'm looking for pics and any history of vintage nitrous systems. I was curious where the first ones came from? Medical? Diving equipment? Welding tanks? My understanding is that Nitrous was first used on WWII aircraft engines, so I would assume the first use in cars would be very soon after WWII ended. Also, who used it? Would it have been a top fuel only kinda thing or would some guy in the 50s-60s have it on his street racer? Thanks, Jordon
nitrous oxide was (and still is) used on unlimited pylon racing. I'm guessing that's where you got your wwii engine reference. as far as when it was first introduced, I have no idea. I know that in the 40's and 50's guys on the dry lakes were experimenting with pure oxygen injection. I remember seeing a picture of the top of a motor that caught fire and turned into a torch as the oxy jet was pointed right into the throat of the carb.
Certain German engines/planes used nitrous as a performance boost during WWII....the GM1 "option", on certain FW190s & Ju-88 nightfighters, after 1943. 29Bowtie, nitrous has occasionally been used in T/F by certain teams...notably "Double A Dale" Armstrong in his capacity as crewchief for Kenny Bernstein. The first systems I have knowledge of (homebuilt) would be from the late '60s/early '70s, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that it was used earlier. Jordon, to directly answer your question, the earliest bottles I've seen were medical ones. Another thread...http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=218471
I believe Micket Thompson experimented with nitrous on his floppers. Neither his cars or my roadster were hairdresser cars.
I think it was Car Craft that published a pic of a compressed gas cylinder purported to be Nitrous that had a 1937 date code and a swastika...
I think Ron Hammel at 10,000RPM speed equipt. was one of the first to experament with nitrous. I know that I bought medical nitrous at the welding shop and they would put it in any bottle they had that I wanted.
my x wife's uncle who was a fighter pilot in wwII, saw an old nitrous system i have here and told me about a plane he flew that had nitrous on it, he was in the british air force. the system i have is an old marv miller never installed.
Mickey Thompson tried pure oxygen on a funny car in the late 60's. The german airforce used NOS in WWII as posted above. They also tried exotic fuels for help at high altitudes[they ran some really exotic stuff in their pre war formula race cars, auto union and mercedes].The need for these power adders diminished when engine mfgs figured out superchargers, simple and compound, and turbos. First off the shelf kit I remember is 10,00 rpm mentioned above.Love NOS, we run a600hp set up on our race car.What a lot of people dont understand is the torque NOS makes. Our 600hp tune up adds 825 ft lbs, instantly and throughout the entire rpm range.
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