History FOUND- Warren and Coburn AA/FD Supercharger - need info

A friend told my dad about someone with a 671 GMC blower and 4 port Hilborn injection. He said it had a Weiand front cover and intake and also came with a Cragar cover also. The guy had a reasonable price on the parts so we decided to look into it. After about a week and a half, we finally got around to driving over to look at the parts. Our intention was to buy everything, sell the blower and keep the injection for a future project.

When we finally saw the parts... the injection had been spray painted blue... and the owner had little knowledge of the blower and injection and he had no knowledge of any history. When he purchased the parts 15 years ago, the snout was missing from the Cragar cover, so he replaced it with a new Weiand. The rotors are teflon stripped and there is no damage to either of the rotors. His intentions with the parts were to put them on his rough old 66 Chevelle street car.

I knew after looking at closer at the blower, that it was in fact a 60s era Cragar 671 and something we would actually be interested in keeping. The injection was sketchy but worth a shot. A deal was struck and my dad and I spent the drive home trying to justify why he/we had just bought a blower and injection.

------ here's where it got interesting

We unloaded the parts and starting cleaning everything up. My dad carefully stripped the paint off the injection, while I stripped the Cragar front cover which had been painted silver. The injection cleaned up really well and was well preserved under the paint. Under closer inspection and cleaning of the blower case, I noticed a stamping that read Warren + Coburn. -Score!

I have already done reading on this and I know Warren and Coburn campaigned dragsters from '58 through the 70s. We are trying to identify which rail the supercharger was run on. Pictures, stories, and info would be greatly appreciated. I think it had to have been on one of their earlier cars. Possibly the 1st. Info on when this type of blower was available would help to identify it. I know these were being run in '65.

here's some pics

 

That, right there, is a keeper! Beautiful.

 

This may or may not be it but its all I got. Pomona 1964.



By weslake at 2011-11-22

 

I suppose it is possible that they ran this blower on the Hemi and changed the front cover to use the swing arm type idler bracket that is seen in most of the pictures. This front cover is definitely a match to the blower. It also has the same hardware as the rear cover, but it looks like it sat in the ocean for a while unlike the rest of the blower which is immaculate. They could have put it back on when they got rid of it and kept the swing arm front cover.

 

Von:
This may be of interest for you.
http://www.cacklefest.com/WCM.shtml
Man if I scored something like that , I , I.... well I dont know what I'd do.
best to you
Luke

 

Ok, just got a name and number of the guy who owned this 15 years ago. I'll try him again tomorrow to see if I can trace back the story any further.

 

Warren Colburn and Miller as I remember. I think they were also known as "The Ridge Rout Terrors" The "Rain For Rent" car as they were into irrigation around Bakersfield if my memory is at all close.

 

good find, but do your really feel the ownership history is significant and valuable?

other than for conversation?

you know what I would do? just use it and make some horsepower

 

This isn't about suggesting we struck gold.

Honestly, I don't think it really matters to us whether or not this info effects the value, because we are planning to keep it. It's cool for exactly what you said, conversation. I could see in some cases this being valuable to somebody who is restoring a cackle car, but in this case I think it is probably irrelevant to the value.

I find it amazing that things like this wind up in odd places. Rare cars in backyards... old speed parts with significance... They usually don't just disappear (scrap yard). They go somewhere to somebody. And I always wonder how they make it to their resting places.

People talk about cars having personality, and I feel certain parts carry that same flavor. For somebody who is 22 and totally missed the 60s era of drag racing, I find it incredibly exciting to see and tinker with the supercharger from possibly one of the meanest rails in '65 right in my old man's shop. And I would be lying if I said I felt the same passion towards a brand new billet blower.

It's like an autographed baseball... only this will make your car breath fire.

 

wow,been buying and selling speed parts just about my whole life and never really put that much thought into it but it sure is nice to know that there are younger guys out there that do.......that is a great find !!!!!!!!!! i sure would love to hear that roar again(and i don't mean idling in the pits and then everbody claps). i live 5 miles from a big track,"maple grove dragway". i use to find cool shit like that all the time in my area years ago but now it is pretty much all gone.

 

It's things like this that really get true gearheads blood going. Ryan and I love the history behind the old drags and I can truly say it is not about the money, since we have put alot more into it than we have gotten out. Think of it, where has this thing been and what has it done. Drag racers many years ago charished it for what it could do. I am proud that my sons appreciate the heritage that we enjoy and honor it by collecting the things that we do. The experience has been priceless and the adventure of the hunt unending. It is so cool to bring things like this back from the dead. Most people don't even bother looking or caring. I have an LS5 454 block, a 427 crank and a set of ported and pollished Mondello 840 L88 heads that would be a perfect match for this blower. Now we are trying to decide if it would be the right match for a 66 Nova SS that I recently acquired. Either way it will be third in line to the Freakin A and a 66 Chevelle SS 396 that I shelved years ago due to the Handgrenade and the Abomination. Like Ryan said, I think we just might hang onto it for a while since this is just plain cool stuff. I appreciate the input from everyone that has commented on this thread.

 

Just curious, does the blower have a casting date on the bottom? The 6-71 I have on my 55 was cast when I was two months old....

 

Good question, I'll check it out and let you know.

 

The numbers on the bottom are as follows.

ABF M 3
20
R8
5155866

 

Stories like this is soo cool Backtracking Hot Rod history are one of my favorites.
On all Hilborn units, there are a serial number, send it over to Hilborn and they might find the original purchase. I did the same with my 4-71 2-port,
and they sendt me the original sales order! Guess what, Dean Moon had my injection!

Br
Kjell

..............................
Taildragger&fenderless

 

Hmmm...that doesn't sound too helpful. Some had the casting date as month-day-year, some did not. It is a big bore case though.

 

Too cool!

 

What's wrong with someone who relishes the ownership of a component that has great provenance? I get the impression that they just wanted to share a great story about a piece of history.

 

Hey that's really cool! I noticed the serial number on it when we were cleaning it up. I will have to check and find out. It would be interesting to know that also.

 

That is exciting Subscibed

Br
Kjell


..............................
Taildragger&fenderless

 

That is really cool

I'm getting a huge kick out of this. I know everybody on here at some point has said, "Man, if that Blah Blah part could talk... the stories it would tell..."

I got a voicemail from the guy who owned this blower setup before the guy we got it from, which would have been about 15 years ago. He said he couldn't give me much info on it, but gave a name of the guy he got it from who could tell me about it. He said that guy was into mini rod pulls, so it may have been run on one of those at some point.

 

http://cacklefest.com/WCM.shtml

didn't see a 4 port

 

Where did you locate this photo? I am also trying to find contact information for Mike Aaby the current owner of the Warren & Coburn & Miller AA top fuel dragster. If any one does, please let me know. We appreciate the assistance that everyone has given so far in tracking down the history of this blower.

 

I'll see if I can find a shot of the Warren/Coburn/Miller car from 1967 Winters, lost a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses under his slick as he went by in the pits................damn

 

Your point about the unit possibly being on a mini rod puller is a good one. Back in the 70's the "Sand Drags" were popular out here on the west coast, we used a lot of hand me down "obsolete" parts,blowers,injectors,clutches and such, from the big time Drag Racers. My brother had and wore Ed McCulloch's fire suit, from when he drove the "Northwind" AA/FD. Sadly all I have left of the suit is the face mask. BTW Roger Coburn used to show up at the sand drags at the "dry" river bed in Bakersfield, to tune cars for his buddies. That is quite a find you have there, have fun with it.

 

Any new information on the parts?


..................................
Taildragger&fenderless

 

...... Like the number stamped on the injector????...
Now ya got me all wound up...

 

I saw the "rain for rent" AA car several times. They did a lot of barnstorming back in the late 60's and early 70's.
PS they still are in the H20 business and they have a lot of equipment in my plant. One of thier specialities is portable water filtration for cooling towers.

 

I had a similar thread that this one prompted me to re-read.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229598

Sometimes you just have to follow the leads.