Urban myths? Somewhere in the midwest, an Olds dealership challenged a flathead Ford owner to a drag race - flathead Ford against a new Olds. Winner got to keep the opponents car. The Ford owner ended up with a new Olds - believe it? I've also heard of some flatheads turning some good 1/4 mile times. Does anybody have some flathead bragging rights?
have you searched :blown flathead: on you tube? there is a blown flathead on there that gives me a lump in my pants.
I suspect that the olds dealership verses the flat head ford is urban myth. However I have seen actual race results from the early days of OHV, and the truth is that flat heads did often win against early OHV, because of reliabilty issues with some early OHV motors at race speeds. But when it comes to making gees gees the OHV design is always going to do better, Combustion chamber shape, heat transfer and port shape, Every thing Henry and Harry tell you ( Ricaro and Westlake ) about engine design, tells you that flat head engines of the design used by ford and others are poor performers compaired to say a nice Arden OHV head slaped on the same block.
The Flathead Ford was a brilliant design for many reasons not the least of which was that an engine block that is 4 cylinders long is easier to package than an engine that is 6 or 8 cylinders long. Further on the Flathead Ford all eight intake runners were located near the fuel/air source. Contrast that with the challenge of feeding the end cyls on an inline engine. If the Flathead Ford did nothing else it was one of the best examples of "mass centralization", meaning the most power from the minimum physical size. This reduced the overall weight of the powerplant, lowered the center of gravity, and pushed the front/rear weight bias back towards a more neutral situation. These are some of the most important reasons, I think, why the Flathead Ford was a succesful racing platform. In my opinion all of the later American V8's were created to take advantage of this formula. The first OHV's, I believe, were based on what was known and tried by the innovators and hot rodders of the Flathead Ford in the preceding years. The OHV's quickley outclassed the Flatheads in the power department quite simply because starting in 1949 you could buy an engine design with all the hot rod bits from the factory. Personally I enjoy the satisfaction and feelings I get from the experience of tinkering with and driving an engine of an earlier era. It may not out run a healthy OHV but it will stay with a stocker, and provide lots of smiles per mile. Can't beat that!
My personal experience was that I had a new 1956 chevy powerpack and never had a flathead come close and I raced anyhting that would race with me. If I went to the strip I might have found a stripped down roadster or something that may have beaten me, but a full size sedan with a flathead had no chance against that little Chevy V8.
Depends on the lenght of the race. Stoplight to stoplight in town, 1 block, very possible for the flattie to win. If talking 1/4 mi that's a different story. I remember one time at the strip during time trials in my 53 Ford sedan w/5.14 gears I had a 406 Ford 4 spd w/trips for the first 300-400 ft. Worst part for him was he was pushing it so hard to get past me that he overreved it and blew just as he got by. My flattie was running in the stock class. I don't know why but his car was running Modified Production
Yes, there are many variables. Obviously, a 2200 lb. hot rod roadster or coupe with a built flathead could beat a stock '49 Olds 88 in a quarter mile contest. Flatheads also had the advantage of nearly twenty years of trial and error racing experience behind them, whereas the new OHV V8s were an unknown commodity at first. However, read Ak Miller's account of when he latched onto the first Olds 303 he could get his hands on in 1949 and, after making his own homemade speed parts for it, installed it in his '32 roadster and proceeded to blow off each and every one of his flathead loving buddies.
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