Mike is a Plumber and looks for opportunities like this. It will be on display at Ameliasburgh next week so you can ask him.
This all started when I gave him a enlarged copy of a faded Scotty Fenn mechanical drawing of the early rails for Christmas. I figured he would just put it in what he calls his memorabilia room. A few weeks later he phoned and said "you better get down here" When I got there he had one of his spare 331 Hemis sitting on a crate and had duplicated the tubular dragster frame from the drawing around it in black PCV pipe. He played with the design for awhile but didn't like the 3 inch lower frame rail so subbed a 2 inch one. Once he was happy he bought the proper .120" wall DOM mild steel and put is all together. Not wanting to take any chances with the welding he just tacked it all and sent it to a welding shop in the county and had it professionally migged. He got the rear from Denis Kelly (another plumber!) and it appears to be a fork lift unit based on a 8 3/4 mopar. I did the math for him and had a set of 3.55 gears. He bought a spool and 28 inch Mickey street slicks (has to look original) The block was originally a 301 Windsor block aka Chrysler Spitfire but they are essentially the same block as the 331 hemi. the cylinders are THICK! so he took a set of stock 331 hemi pistons he had removed from the engine in his Willys when he built it as it was bored 060" and had the block bored for them. The conversion from Windsor to hemi is a fairly minor thing and after a short discussion on options he went at it a did it. Works perfect. He had the cam made by a friend of mine in TO who has made me many regrinds. It is an ancient 1950s grind and so is period correct. Mike doesn't want a old looking rail with a modern Power plant. He wants it as they were. And the performance as it would have been. He put the engine together under someones watchful eye but did a good job. Pushrods came from Manton and are adjustable. The cam is a hydraulic. At Roblins he found a first generation aluminum case PG and had Golka convert it for race use. Mike made the adapter himself. Using the front section of the original fluid coupling (torque converter almost) and the thick adapter that was always on 55 and later Hemis and Spitfires(poly) . My friend Frank Lupo (Frank Lupos Dynamic Converters) who is probably the best at it in the entire world, custom made Mike a race converter for his cam / car combo and that is a story in itself. Harry Wilson was sending a bunch of stuff for scrap and I spied a marine Hemi 331 intake. (two single barrels) I scored it and we went to Roblins and bought two GMC truck carbs. I had been involved in a successful vintage stock car build and had had one of these carbs on the flow bench so I knew when modified they would deliver 300+ CFM. Two gives over 600 CFM which is more then sufficient for a 331 at 5400 RPM so I knew it would work. Mike likes the look. The scoop was donated by Joe Hendricks (aka GTO Joe) and Mike came up with a neat way of using it but getting more airflow. Then the plumbing began. We were helpless to stop it. ;>)
Mike does not run a rad but a storage tank but it works fine. The body he fabbed from galvanized steel for duct work. It is as light as aluminum which surprised me. The ignition is the stock distributor but Mike had me convert it to Chrysler electronic. I machined off the points cam and installed a reluctor instead. A pick up was installed in place of the point and put in Phase with a cutaway cap assembly I made years ago when reworking 440 distributors. The distributor was recurved to suit his cam.
It is kinda of an ingenious car and works well. Last race he put Pat Doornbos in it who is very experienced in front engine dragster driving. On the last run Pat stuck it to the floor. He told me the tach was just past 6000 in the lights which if you do the math 3.55 , 28 inch tire 3 to 4 % converter slip (mine is 3 % so Mike's may be that or less being less stall) is somewhere around 140 MPH. I don't know about others but I am impressed. More then Mike ever dreamed of. He is not that comfy with it yet when driving so he may have to stick with a hired gun. That said he is enjoying it to the fullest. Myself I would much rather watch my cars run then drive them other then a check out pass so I understand that. for those who haven't noticed the copper here is the car when it was first pushed out in the sunlight a couple of years ago. Watching Mike build this and sort through the design and difficulties was a treat. He is a doer not a talker for sure.

don

 

HI DON : What a great narrative !! -- I " almost " understood some of it . I believe the car was at the last ARMDROP -- Correct ?? This again proves that the world is an unfair place -- Most of you guys have all the knowledge and the rest of us are still just muddling around --- But , I'll take it any way I can get it -- Thanks for the post -- GREATLY enjoyed -- LATER -- DON / fleet 51