I was just curious while I was dreaming about a period correct hot rod build. What years did the normal roots style supercharger and hilborn style injection come out?
Stu Hilborn was working on his fuel injection in the early 40's. Barney Navarro and Tom Cobbs were running GMC blowers on their flatheads in the late 40's.
The GMC type Rootes superchargers came from General Motors Diesel, AKA Detroit Diesel. GM Diesels were put into production in late 1938..And into buses by 1940. It's said the Spaulding Bros were the first users of Rootes type superchargers, a Mercedes built unit. One of their cars at the Dry Lakes had on just before WW2. And Navarro was said to use the GMC blower as mentioned above. 200,000 General Motors Diesels were used during WW2 and many were available for cheap surplus prices after the war.
As mentioned all that stuff was tinkered with fairly early on but as far as being common and having store bought stuff, other than the smallish S.C.O.T blowers, I'd guess mid 50s on for 4-71 with the 6-71 gaining popularity starting in the late 50s. Some of guys were still hanging on to carbs on blown race cars till the early 60s but anybody serious and in the higher up classes were injected by then. Also somewhat guessing as I wasn't around back then that Hilborn 2 ports were the norm on a blower till the late 50s when the added volume of the 4 ports were needed to feed the hungry Hemi's.
Sometimes there is no perfect answer. For example, superchargers. First supercharged car on the market was the Chadwick Great Six in 1907. Only a few were made and none survive. It had a multi stage, centrifugal supercharger. The so called Rootes supercharger was actually invented in 1852 and made in Connorsville Indiana by the Roots Blower Company. In the fifties, sports car magazines started adding the E, because they couldn't believe anything good could have been invented in America, and they wanted to give the credit to the English Rootes Motor Company. Mercedes made a supercharged model in the mid twenties with a Roots blower. So did Stutz, and Bentley. In the thirties, a Roots blower was used by GMC on their two stroke Diesel engines. It was these Diesel engine blowers that hot rodders adapted in the early fifties. Several American companies offered centrifugal superchargers in the thirties. They were far superior to any foreign supercharged car in simplicity, low cost, and reliable performance.
True story--- In 1957 we ran our little fathead-powered flatbottom boat at the Drags in Bakersfield, CA. One guy showed up with a blown Chrysler powered boat, the FIRST Potvin-type direct-drive blower setup I had seen. The knowledgeable people moved "way back" when the engine was fired---No one wanted to be close to a 6-71 spinning that fast!! If I recall, the boat was fast time for the day @ 82 mph.
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