Has anyone else on the board drag raced a flathead Model A? My transmission needs new synchros, so I was having a hard time shifting, and I was only using 2nd and 3rd gear, I ran 80.55 mph and 16.937 was curious about what other cars like mine might have run. Thanks, Roy ROAD ROCKETS
This is a great post. As I'm not familiar w/ flatties I'd really like to know what one can do unsupercharged in an early coupe, say a 27. W/ good pump gas & decent compression, good heads, good intake and carbs, a lumpy cam, and a good tune would it be possible to run low 12's, or would I need to go to a Y-Block or nailhead? I'm pretty much into 50's stuff right now...but have thought about building a nasty fast, coupe. Had a 69 Camaro that dad and I built that went 11.90's w/ a 427 & 3:73's. I'd love to have something more classic that will do a similar time.
Low 12s with a flatty would be a fairly tall order. Possible, but you would need a helluva motor,and a gearbox and rear to hold up. Heavy dose of fuel woud do the trick!Sound like fun, the dude who raced!
Here's a summary of a circa 1954 drag project that I posted here about a year ago. Can the '40 Merc and put the engine into a roadster 1,000 pounds lighter--add cam--headers--extrapolate..... Here's a dyno/drag test from about 1954, excerpted from the 1955 HRM annual. Real numbers from these times are scarce, and even E.T.'s were rarely reported. Most drag results were strictly MPH. Note a few things about these tests: They are modifications on an existing used car, not a full build up. They are entirely bolt-on mods on a stock 239 short block, without even a cam change. The HP numbers are rear-wheel chassis dyno numbers, NOT flywheel HP. Onward: The car involved was a stock 1940 Merc club coupe, which would have been a typical back-row-of-the-used-car-lot teenager's car in 1954. The engine was a commercial rebuild, described as "in neither excellent nor in poor shape" with 12,000 miles since rebuild. The pictures show it to have a Stromberg and a dime store chrome aircleaner, probably giving a slight power loss from stock. Stock with distributor freshly strobed and new plugs (H 10), it pulled 69 HP at 50 MPH on the rollers and turned a blazing 17.23 @65.47 MPH at the Santa Ana dragstrip. Test 2 added a Sharp super dual with two 97's, stock except for .048 jets (I would think a bit rich?). This produced a 16.56 @ 71.01 MPH, power peak moved to 80 at 55MPH. (Power was tested at speeds from 30 to 60 in high, with practically all mods showing improvement at all tested power levels, by the way). Test 3 was with the addition of 8.5 to 1 rated finned heads; They carefully avoid stating or showing brands, I would guess because they had so many advertisers to offend. They were R type heads requiring changing out the shorter studs. This produced 84 HP at the wheels at 55, and went16.07 @74.99 at Santa Ana. Test 4 added dual exhausts and a pair of Hollywood Deeptone mufflers, used with stock manifolds. 86HP, 16 flat @ 75.01. Test 6 added a Harmon-Collins dual coil, which produced only trivial gains over the fresh stock distributor. And that was it for that issueonly modifications that an ignorant teenager with $5.00 worth of tools could have performed in dad's driveway on Saturday. I really wish they had gone on to a cam and headers, but no such luck. Bruce.
[ QUOTE ] Low 12s with a flatty would be a fairly tall order. Possible, but you would need a helluva motor,and a gearbox and rear to hold up. Heavy dose of fuel woud do the trick!Sound like fun, the dude who raced! [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, I figured. If you throw enough cash at something it'll go fast...but it won't always run well on the street. A Y-Block roadster would be kind of cool in my mind. You don't see them out there too often and it's pretty easy to get 300 hp. out of one, more w/ a bunch of head porting & a big cam. Again, I have zero roadster experience. You guys think three hunert would get you into the twelves in a roadster or coupe? If not, I guess there's always the blue bottle
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