Thought you guys might like to see a flathead that ran at Bonneville and dry lakes from 1948 through 1955. It ran in both a roadster and bellytank. It last ran in the Shipley and Johnson bellytank. Jeff Shipley and Don Sproul rebuilt it for us and we hoping to run it in our roadster soon. It is a 24 stud with a Bohnalite blower.
@Todd553 Haas - Very cool flattie! Do you have any (pre '55) pics of the Roy Fjastad / Shipley and Johnson bellytank with the flat motor in it? ... 'cuz I was under the (obviously mistaken) impression that this particular "Car Craft Machine" Lakester had always been HEMI-powered:
i will call Jeff and see if has any pics. He rebuilt the motor for us and is the crew chief on our streamliner. www.haas-racing.com
OK, I'm trying to understand the cooling. Looks like the stock head and pump outlets/inlets are sealed. Then there are the black horizontal pipes plumbed into the cooling jackets below the exhaust outlets. I guess there is some holes drilled into the block up front for the coolant to enter. Is that right?
The Johnson-Shipley tank and not under the control of Don J.or Jeff S. Did run a flat motor and it was nothing to write home about...Maybe Hmmm let say It ran a couple hundred miles per hour Under the record
For the record: In '79 the Flattie that was in the old J-S tank #48 did in fact run a 293 ci flat motor! It did run a 61.274 mph and never ran again...... Ol Deuce
Thanks Ol Deuce. Agreed, and didn't mean to imply that Don or Jeff had anything to do with the prep (or the outcome) of their old tank when it ran with the flattie. Trying to help Todd553 close the history loop, and we've both connected offline.
OK I don't want to start a argument... But the motor in the first post was originally built by me in England for my drop tank lakester and rebuilt by Don Sproull after I spun a bearing in 94 at Bonneville Don was my crew chief & motor guy for all of my years at Bonneville. The motor is 276 c.i. With a 653 gmc supercharger with half a big block algon injection stack, endele barrel valve and hilborn pump. The car was sold to Disney in 95 & is now in the gift shop at California adventure theme park in Anaheim California. At this point don sold the motor to Keith Shipley for me who wanted it to rebuild his original lakester. Don & Keith went on to build a beautiful streamliner. Don was a great friend & mentor to me right up to his death on October 15th last year.
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