when did blowers show up on hot rods?

Around what year did blowers start ending up on hot rods and drag cars? To be period correct what time frame of hot rod was this starting to be used?

 

The very first issue of Hop Up (Aug 1951) shows Beatty's "Rust Bucket". 41 block w/ Navarro heads & what looks like a 4-71. The little model A ran 154.63!

 

Not real sure of the time line but the were standard equipment on the 1935 Graham- Paige autos.

I know they were adapted to a lotta early flatheads,,,S.C.O.T. blowers. HRP

 

My Dad had one on his 39' Ford Coupe with a 48' Flathead. It was a 6-71 using 4 bicycle chains. The gas tank was sealed and pressurized. Had a hand pump on the steering column. This was in 48'.

 

Bently used em standard on the 4 1/2 L Blower cars.

 

For anyone interested in History the first car to be factory equiped with a blower was the 1907 Chadwick, also the first car to ever be supercharged.

 

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Superchargers have been around a long time, but didn't become common until the mid-late 50s. Cragar had two series of kits available by 1961.

 

HRM had an article detailing what modifications needed to be made to the GMC blower for performance use in '55-'56.

 

Garlits ran Top Fuel without one for a while,'57-'58 to be exact.

There is a pic of Swamp Rat 1 on his site www.Garlits.com

454 cube Hemi,with 8 carbs.

 

There were Paxton units, Italmeccannica, whatever Mercedes(they call 'em "Kompressor") and Bentley used on their engines, and many others. The 3-.4-.6- series GMC blowers were in that mix too, but I don't know the time frame for them.

 

Does anybody have pics of a blower running a chain drive. I've never seen that.

 

here you go, but neither one is actually "running". The Howard setup would be tits....if you can find one....

 

detroit Diesel- "4-71" 4 cylinder engine, 71 cubes per cylinder. "6-71" 6 cylinder engine, 71 cubes per cylinder and so forth

 

When Adam and Eve got kicked outta the garden of Eden.

 

They were readily available in the 1930s. Optional or standard on Mercedes, Duesenberg, Auburn, Cord, Graham, Alfa, Bugatti, and others.

 

Didn't T-Birds have a rare blower option in the late 50's ?

 

That is true, however since these cars came with superchargers, they probably don't qualify as hot rods, and what I think we're trying to figure out here is "when did blowers show up on hot rods?"

There were a few pioneers that put GMC blowers on cars in the early days of hot rodding (late 40s), but it seems to have taken a decade for enough of the bugs to be worked out that blowers would become relatively commonplace.

 

One of the '49 HRMs shows a V8 with a GMC blower and two 97s at a Rusetta meet, I believe.

 

heres is my fav engine..a roots blower on a cadillac flathead. must be late 40's.
the italmeccanica blown is mine.
palle

 

There is just something about the look of an SCOT blower. If only they weren't so rare.... and so expensive.... and so little.

I know from my early hot rod reading there were a bunch of guys experimenting with the GMC's in the early fifties. There were even a few experimenting with oxygen systems like today's nitrous. Can you say melted parts?

 

When I think "chain drive blower" this image pops into my head. It's too purty to shrink any smaller.

 

My guess is that chain drive blown nailhead was still in the mock up phase...since the blower runs the wrong way....

 

In the book How to Hop up GMC and Chevrolet 6 cylinder engines (1951), they talk about supercharging being the next big thing

 

Barney Navarro's generally regarded to be the first guy to stick a GMC blower on a flathead Ford V-8 - on the Beatty bellytanker, the one that D.W. mentioned. But yeah, other blowers, like the McCullochs (http://www.vs57.com/index30s.htm) were around far earlier than that.
dan

 

The Navarro setup.

 

It has been said Barney Navarro was the first to use a roots style blower on the salt in the area of 1947. R.I.P

 

Chain drive, dangerous as it may look and be, would be quite efficient. No belt slipage. It's basically steel on steel and with a tiny bit of oil there's almost zero frictional losses.

Now-a-days some 520 O-ring motorcycle chain would be better. Maybe even incorporate a Scott Oiler (a device that keeps the chain properly lubed on bike).

 

Cord had them in 37, T-Bird in 57.

 

Barney Navarro ran one at the dry lakes, and Jack Gillis ran a 6-71 on a Flathead the same year, on oval track in 1947. This was before Hot Rod Magazine, so neither knew what the other was doing. Here is the story I wrote, on the subject.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/the-first-gmc-blown-roadster-jack-gillis/