Thanks VERY much for the pictures.... Bet it makes you want to go home and wack ANOTHER 3 inches out of the top of yer sedan ?
Makes me wonder if Man will destroy the Salt before the Salt destroys all Man's Rides that dare to tread!? Might be a close (SLOW) race.
What is this! Chain driven flAthead with exhaust ports out the top! Sent from my SM-G965U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Exhaust out the top on Ford flathead isn't anything new. John Bradley did it on his world's fastest flathead dragster, and Landy did it on Ron Main's 300MPH Flat Fire.
That's Bob Wright's Cad flathead powered roadster. I think what you think is a chain drive is actually the spark plug wires from the front mounted distributor. Mick
Man that a huge looking ford flathead...even the heads look like those big wide Cad heads. Guys, what is the racing machine we are looking at? I guess @Jet96 took the pic. Seeing a couple of pics of that Bob Wright Roadster was worth the guess even though it's not a Cad engine...fooled again...
That's the only pic I got. I was intrigued by the engine orientation and chain drive. There was quite a crowd around so no other clear angles. I looked at a TON of cars, so I don't recall whose it was.
rich, I used to race Mini-sprints on dirt ovals. these are chain driven with a motor cycle engine. 1200cc methanol injected full mod bike motors that ran at least 200hp to the rear wheels. we would run as low as a 12 tooth front sprocket with no issues other than wear from the clay tracks. More often though we were running 13-14 tooth. in 22 races we would run through a couple sprockets a season. these cars would run upwards of 100mph on bigger tracks. I would imagine the salt would be much easier on the chain drive given a constant load. we were loading and unloading them as well as large suspension movements/twisting. lots of guys ran tensioners to help as well. the problem was never the sprockets, but good quality chain that is checked for wear often. tsubaki chain made locally to us was always preferred. non O-ringed so you don't lose power. wax instead of chain oil so it doesn't attract dirt (or salt) my biggest concern with this flathead setup is what does the front chain guard look like! it needs to follow the sprocket closely and be very heavy duty. we ran one made of 1.5" thick or so aluminum. chains tended to break in the straight line horizontal to the ground. they would either spit out the back or try to get sucked into the front sprocket. the guard would guide them around so the chain would still come out the bottom/back of the car. I would think the chain might be saving them some HP lost through a differential, while still allowing for quick gear changes. maybe something like a harley gearbox would be helpful though??
yup, I've seen them in old drag cars. aka "the sidewinder" but never anything modern. after having run the minisprints I have wondered if this might work on the salt with a lower HP car like a flathead.
little google work turns up that this is the bean bandits car. running in rear engine modified roadster classes with a 27 body. pretty cool
I rode around on street bikes. Not much knowledge other than that. I do know Rick Yacoucci had lots of problems on the NT2 'Busa powered car. But he was running in the 350-360 range
I apologize, I was talking about the Wright car and missed that everyone else was talking about the chain drive car posted earlier. It aint easy gettin old. Mick
I'm okay with it even being added just for looks...I can just see it now 6 pipes blue and 2 good as new. That some interesting trivia @Nobey . That started with RevKevs flathead and pipes out the top curiosity and my assumption it was a Caddy mill...that's twice for me in the last couple of days......getting old too...
Rick was running a little hotter than this flatty I bet! Not sure what kind of problems but when you push them there can be issues. Common one was 2 or 3 rod bearing had oiling issues. Make pretty windows in the case when you run 13-14k rpm for extended periods. Using stock oiling system can also suck all the oil out of the pan too. Sent from my SM-G965U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The engine seemed OK. The chains kept burning up. He tried several things to cool them and used the best he could find. Worked with in for a couple of years. i don't think he ever really solved that one. But it was plenty fast when it was working
How does everyone get all of the salt off of their cars? Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Spend a lot of quarters at the car wash and pray for rain on the way home. Sent from my SM-T377V using H.A.M.B. mobile app