I had actually posted this in my other dragster thread, but then realized it would probably be buried since it's a totally different topic, so here it is as a repost. A couple of you might be interested in the other project I'm involved in- in 1964 a guy named Tom Dicktakes concieved of building his own quad cam hemi for top fuel racing, and he's been working on it ever since. Dedicated his entire life to it as a matter of fact. If you've ever seen "The World's Fastest Indian" he's kinda the drag racing version of Burt Munro. Tommy has done everything in his garage on a little Atlas lathe and small mill. He's retired now, but his day gig was as a parks and rec groundskeeper. Anyway, over time I've become his right hand on this deal in terms of helping him out. Here's a couple of You Tube vids if you're interested. These fireups are just on Alky. They look best with the "HQ" option selected. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zna3-x-AUZs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78DOfeG05-c I should have more vids posted with it on nitro in the future. Here's a tour of the engine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H53fSqjCvsM I know I said two plugs per head, when I meant to say per cylinder. The passenger car tires are only on it so it will fit in the trailer. Obviously at the track we have the big slicks on it. Last is an article I did for the long-defunct Rust Magazine, but Nitrogeezers posted it online if you care to read more about it and see pics of the inside. http://www.nitrogeezers.com/tom_dicktakes_innovator.htm I was talking to Garlits at the CHRR and he still remembers Tommy well and wanted me to make sure to tell Tommy that the engine belongs in his museum when he's done with it. We're also taking the car out to test and tune at Sacramento on the 7th. We were out there a couple of weeks ago, but Tom broke a blower belt on the burnout and they made us go as the last pass of the test and tune, so there wasn't time to replace it and try again. Tommy hasn't made a full run in the 1/4 yet. Well, he did one- but he started in one lane and ended up in the other. So the only times we have are a 240MPH 1/8 mile time. It's kind of a heavy deal because this has been Tommy's only race car, so not only is he trying to establish a good baseline, but he's trying to learn how to drive a top fueler without having the experience of driving slower race cars. I'm sure you can appreciate how expensive it is to do this deal, especially on a fixed income, so we only make it out once or twice a year- but Tom works on the car all day, every day. If you are in Nor Cal and the weather is decent on the 7th, feel free to come out to the track and say howdy. We'll probably put you to work too. ;-) All the best, Dean <!-- / message --><!-- edit note -->
THANKS! Having a featured post of its own was a great thing to do, I would have missed it in the other thread.
Tom is now on my hero's list......I can see him at a future Nhra meet, with a 30 year old chassis and That WONDERFUL engine putting all the big guns on their trailers.........I for one am going to fallow this story! Thanks Dean and thanks Tom, OLY
Working on a single project longer than I have been out of diapers Can he be invited and can he be talked into bringing it to the next CHRR?
Thanks guys! I would guess that after he makes a real good pass in the car he might be able to be talked into bringing it if he's invited. I think right now it would be a combination of feeling like he wasn't worthy since he hasn't accomplished what he set out to do with the motor, and probably more importantly, the expense to take it to the CHRR would wipe out his test n' tune budget for a year. But Tommy is 73 years old now and he's really putting pressure on himself to see what it will do. I think if he gets one good run out of her, he'd be satisfied. I marvel at the fact that the article I wrote came out in 2004- so he's up to 45 years on this project! The thing is really amazing to behold and it is ungodly loud-even for a nitro motor. One time they pitted us next to the oval track at Sacto and when we fired it up in the pits it broke out a window in the little ticket booth for the oval track. Dean
OK so tell me when and I got at least $50 for travel/tow expenses. There is no real $$$ reason something couldn't be put together, sticky, etc. I'm sure a couple HAMB "rulers" would make themselves to help crew/shlep gear...
I don't know if you read the article, but I brought that up to Tommy and he has absolutely no interest in Bonneville. It totally cracked me up- you would have thought I'd just insulted his mother's memory with the reaction he gave me- he kinda recoiled like "why the hell would you suggest that?!" and was quiet for a couple of beats and shook his head, no. The drags is IT for him!
You know, in the back of my mind, I always thought it would be helpful to do "Twin Cam Tommy" (the nickname that a lot of the longtime local racers have hung on him) T-shirts to help him with funding. But I'm not that much of an artist to come up with an illustration for a T-shirt. I'll let you know what happens after the 7th- it can be a whole different ballgame. The only thing that bums me out about the CHRR now (warning: impending rant) is that I think they've screwed it up by making it a NHRA heritage meet. It's now just like any other nostalgia race, only with the cacklefest. In the past there wasn't such a tight race schedule so you could see plenty of guys with cool old, or more pure old style cars make passes- Bruce Dyda's Surfer's Paradise, the Rollin' Rice Bowl, that guy from So Cal who has a blown repop of the Dragmaster Dart, the flattie fuelers, Charlie's Business Coupe, the Sissel 6 cylinder cars, and on and on. It was more of a living museum then and now it's all gotten squeezed out by the damn "series." The Rollin' Rice Bowl was there as was Charlie's Business Coupe, and I think the Kaye Sissel Jimmy altered- and I saw them each make exactly one pass, and it was at 8:30 in the morning. I don't know that I'd want to pay what you have to pay to get in and run to make one pass on the weekend, mainly to get rid of some of the dew off the track, in front of empty stands. Hands down, the best class out there was the A/FX guys- and I'm not even much of a doorslammer guy. I don't have a problem with the race series, I just wish they would have left the CHRR alone. The hardcore racers have the March Meet. The Cacklefest is fine, but to be honest, I'd rather see Surfer's Paradise run a 7 flat at 200 on alky than watch old nitro cars idle. And that's not a dig- all of those cars are neat, and I'm glad so many have been restored. I also understand the risk of trying to run them even on an 1/8 mile squirt. It's just that watching cars run never gets old, and with this being my 6th or 7th cacklefest, the rose is sorta off the bloom. I enjoy the fireups of the old cars in the pits much more than the cacklefest. If that ain't the lap dance of all drag racing, I dunno what is. I hope that Rod and Kulture's Drag Fest takes off and becomes more of what the CHRR used to be. I know, I sound like a cranky old guy. Get off my lawn!!!! ;-)
I'm sure it will spend its whole life powering a top fuel dragster. When Tommy is done with it and retires the car/motor, Garlits expressed interest in having it for the museum, but Tommy hasn't really talked about that stage of things. I'll let everyone know how things go on Saturday at the track. Have a good week- Dean
I just now read the story on the last link you posted - I had thrill chills the entire time. So Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sigh... the car sounded AMAZING on the fire up today. I posted the video so you can hear what it sounds like on nitro. Turn your speakers up as loud as they will go! <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QF8wPTUXxnw&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QF8wPTUXxnw&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Sadly, gremlins bit once again. On the burnout not only did it shear the oil pump drive shaft clean off, but the tranny went south too. Had to undo the coupler in order to tow it off the track. We're done for the year- the car gets completely torn apart this winter and we'll hopefully be back out there in the late spring/early summer. Thanks for being interested in this deal. Dean
Really cool stuff! The engine sounded awesome on the warm-up. Hopefully you guys can get things sorted out over the winter and be ready to run next spring. I know it takes TONs of money, relentless work and more time than anybody has to do this - I have total respect for this project . . .
Total dedication is what its all about and this guy has demonstrated the ultimate dedication. Thanks for posting .
Dean sorry to hear about your bad luck - that totally sucks! I watched the video - loved it!!! I do have a question though (forgive my nitro ignorance) but when you shut down the motor what/why are you squirtin' in the injector? Just curious. Please keep us updated - would love to see as much of the inside of the motor as you're willing to post. Thanks!!! Racin'Jacin
40 years of bringing the picture in his head to reality; you can't blame him for not wanting to switch to bonneville now. I would bet you could sell tickets to see his car make a pass. I'll be the first in the line.
Jacin- There is gas with a little bit of Marvel Mystery Oil in the squirt bottle. With a nitro motor you don't kill it by switching off the mags, you shut off the fuel. So with the squirt bottle it allows me to bring the motor down gently after the fuel pump has been switched off. The volume of fuel a nitro motor takes, if you switched the mags off you'd just be filling the cylinders and could hydraulic the engine, either then or when you went to restart it- at the least you'd have to "bar" the motor (meaning using a breaker bar on the blower drive to manually crank the engine backwards to clear the cylinders) before you start it again. At $20 a gallon, you're just wasting money. Just to give a little narration to all my "thumbs ups" during the video. The first one was to Andy, the starter, that the engine was lit and he could let go of the starter button and remove the starter. Then I move back to check the oil pressure gauges to make sure we have enough oil pressure. One gauge is for the pressure on the top end of the motor (we have a separate pump that feeds the heads) and the second one is for the bottom end. Then I've got a portable tach in the seat that allows me to check the RPM readings on each mag. I'm looking at one, flipping the switch and checking the other one, and looking at them both against the tach on the dash to make sure they read the same. That's what the second "thumbs up" to Tommy was all about. Another quick look at the oil pressure, and then I motion Tommy to grab the brake to make sure we can make the clutch slip. On dragster clutches, it's almost like a big go kart clutch. You only use the pedal to first get going and to put it into reverse. The rest of the time it operates like a centrifugal clutch. So when you creep to the line to stage, it's at idle and you control the car with the hand brake. You want to set it so the clutch is "just" engaging so it will roll slowly with your hand off the brake at idle- but you have to set the engine idle at an RPM that will allow the motor to come up cleanly at the hit of the throttle. Too low, and you'll bog the motor and with nitro, and dump more fuel in it than it can burn- which usually means hydraulicking or grenading. Too high and you won't be able to hold the car on the line or get it into reverse. When the brake is full on, the clutch needs to slip. If the clutch is set too tight you'll kill the motor, too loose and the car won't move at idle or go at the hit. After that I point to Tommy to turn the fuel pump on full- which is an 88 gallon per minute pump. You do the burn out on about half pump and then when you get ready to stage, you turn the fuel pumps full on. After Tommy does that, I check the RPM- you usually drop a couple hundred- and I check the fuel pressure. It all checks out, so Tommy gives me the signal to shut her down, and I grab the bottle. He kills the pumps and then I bring the motor to a safe landing on the squirt bottle. With the nitro deal, it's a black art and you have to forget everything you know about the conventional gasoline powered internal combustion motor. She's obviosly a very unforgiving mistress... and yeah, nitro is most definately a "she."
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