History Flathead Cheater Manifold-L.O. Stanley of Virginia

Get a load of this sneaky sumbitch! TWO hidden carburetors UNDER the manifold in the valley!

From the "Full Throttle" site (http://www.vaautoracing.org/oval6.htm)

[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]L. O. Stanley was Southwest Virginia’s most innovative engine builder. Born in Carroll County, Stanley opened his garage in the Meadows of Dan community in 1948. In 1950 he attended his first oval track race in Concord, North Carolina, and returned to tell his wife, “I can build a motor that can outrun any of them.” Within a year Stanley’s first race car was competing. The famed Floyd County racer, Curtis Turner, drove some of Stanley’s first stock cars. Stanley’s engines were strong racing performers, and he later worked as an engine builder for the Holman-Moody racing organization in Charlotte, North Carolina, and for the Ford Motor Company.

Among his innovations, L. O. Stanley invented a cross-fire engine, in which two cylinders fire at the same time. In order to build such an engine, he had to turn his own crankshafts and rework practically every part of the motor. Stanley even had special pistons cast at a Marion (Smyth County) foundry. The cross-fire engine was eventually outlawed in racing. At another time, to skirt a rule limiting oval track engines to one carburetor, Stanley adapted a Ford intake manifold to hide two carburetors inside the motor.

Both drag racers and oval track racers used Stanley’s engines, and two of his 420 cubic inch flathead engines survive today. L. O. Stanley’s reputation in the Southeast stock car racing world became legendary, and the mechanic known as the “man on the mountain” is still remembered as the genius of regional engine building.[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

cheating bastard ! that's some cool history

 

420" Ford flathead ???

 

Damn! Now THAT'S lateral thinking! What a clever guy.

 

Thats cool as they come. A 420 inch flatehead> Is that for real?

 

Is there any pictures of that 420 inch Flathead.

 

There was no shame in that game!
Like King Richard (Petty) said, "If you cheat on 100 things, and they catch you at 50, then you're 50 ahead."

 

Looks like the bottom two carbs are off an old Ford tractor, got to love that ingenuity, and from a home town guy none the less!

 

Flathead guru Dave Thomssen, who built the motors for the Garlits owned Swamp Rat 33, built a 326" flathead that had a 1/2" stroker crank and pistons the size of coffee cans. It made lots of power, but had longevity issues.

 

There's one like that at Speedy Bill's museum- very cool!

 

I would like to know more about these mountain guys and their moonshine and tracker tricks, lots of good old-fashioned ingenuity.

 

Here's a good story about some of the most famous runners of them all, namely Junior Johnson.
http://www.hotrod.com/thehistoryof/113_0510_moonshine_runners_cars_history/index.html

 

Hard to imagine, a circle track racer cheating? I wonder how he routed the air to them.

 

You know I think it was Smokey who said, "It's only cheatin' if you get caught" or was it "Cheat till you get caught, then lie"

either way...

 

He's drawing it in the fuel pump stand and the draft tube opening.

 

You gotta love an innovative "cheater", or one who just slightly skirts the rules.