We have made a lot of progress over the years and have certainly had a great deal of fun:TU:. I was told to put together some information and or article of the Supercat FED so I will try to do both. For about 20 years we ran and showed our 66 Wildcat GS from Maine to Kentucky. Always going faster and meeting more and more people (which is what this hobby is about, to us). But the years of racing were showing their effects on the Cat so we looked into other ways to have fun and go fast in a way we could afford. We found our 200" front engine dragster in Michigan in 2007 and brought it home. Below are a few pictures of how it looked when we got it. Brand new with a 6 second certification. Plenty fast for what we were planning with the Nailhead.
When we got the dragster home we pulled the engine from the Wildcat and proceeded to start the building process. A great deal of parts were found and bought on Ebay and other web based sites. We spent the first year buying and making parts to get what was in my head onto/into the car:grin:. We were invited to become members of a vintage drag racing group on the web called the Standard1320. This was great for us as we got to meet so many interesting people from the sport of drag racing. We even got to have lunch with several of my childhood Heroes including TV Tommy Ivo:shock:. They showed us how the car should look as we went along.
Our first outing was at a vintage racing event at SpeedWorld in Phoenix, AZ. in the spring of 2008. The car was together but we were waiting on the input shaft in the transmission. We were just display, but we met even more racers of the past, so it was a great time. Below are a few shots from the original build stage. We planned on using a stack injection from Hilborn on our 425 Nailhead with a powerglide. This meant we had to get an adapter to run the trans with a Nailhead and save up to get the injection along with some sponsor support we made it work.
The next outing was the GS Nationals in Kentucky. We drove straight through to get to the Nationals without ever trying to start our creation. What could go wrong we thought. It was raining when we got there so we were able to rest up and finish a few last things on the car. At this point we had not run the engine and the car had never been on the track. It was currently Certed to 6.0 so many people were expecting a miracleo No:. The next day we spun the engine to see if we had oil pressure and had fuel to the injection. We did so we tried to start it. We shocked a lot of people (ourselves included) when it lit off. We checked the timing and looked for leaks, all was good. We then put the car in gear and the wheels spun in both direction, applied the brakes and they even worked..... It was time to make a runray:. Lets just say we learned a lot at the Nationals even though we had a few trans problems. Overall we had a fun time out with the dragster, we even ran some nitro in the tank.
Very awesome John. Been waiting to hear more on this.Did you get any head work done? Really like the adaptor plate:beer
We got home and pulled the trans and found a valve body issue that Len Freeman fixed up for us. Thanks for the help Len:TU: We needed to put some paint on the body before the next time out as it looked too square.. Pictured is our 13.5 hour paint job start to finish. Kids love the cowl:laugh:. The next time out was the California Hot Rod Reunion 2 days after the paint job. What a great time that was. Jenn and I got to meet even more people. Many of them are still in touch with us checking on our progress with the car. Attached are a few shots of that event. We were still chasing a trans issue and learning how to tune a Hilborn.
Wow you have to have a awfull lot of faith in that Pumpkin, I've never seen a setup like that, its alot of power between your legs Looks like fun
The next time out was at Tuscon for the Pass Time tv show. After the pass we found the issue with the transOur convertor was absolute toast), just more money:ball:. But again we still had a blast. We ended up being number 2 on their dragster contest. We were invited back at another time to make another pass. Pictures attached. We also ran the car in the heritage series in NE3 and finished 3rd at SpeedWorld. My little sister wanted to sit in the car soooooo the last 2 shots are her in the car. What a big grin she had:laugh:
After that long winter we had a crazy idea "lets put a supercharger on it"ou: and so it began. A few pictures of the evolution of that thought. First shot is the size difference in the fuel pumps from injected alcohol to blown nitro. Don Hampton built our tunnel intake for the 671 and let us be a part of it. Way cool time for us. We bought a 4 port Hilborn and all the parts to run blown fuel(nitro) in our nailhead. A few shots of that assembly. We even got to be part of the John Force Holiday car show, that too was great. We even won best engine at a regional car show.
We met Ken Betts along this journey shortly after he received his new TA Tomahawk solid block. At first we talked about what we both were up to with our projects. Then we realized we both had the same vision to promote Buick unlike anything anyone had done in recent years. We also knew it would take a lot of support from both of us and several others to do this. Our goal is to run a Buick in Nostalgia Top Fuel. That said we partnered up to make it a reality. Many of you have seen the Tomahawk build thread so I won't rewrite that. The link to that... http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?234211-Tomahawk-Dragster In 2011 I got my Top Fuel license in a friends car. While crewing and driving that car we learned a great deal, Thanks Dan. Then we crewed on their TF funny car for a year.
While we wait for the parts to be built and finished along the way we have all been needing to go to the track with our own car. When we realized that we were looking at this winter for the Tomahawk to be finished we made a decision. Ken told me to come pickup his 462 and squeeze it into the Supercat dragster. That was about week and a half ago and today I just have a few last plumbing and mounts to do and we are ready to fire it. We were hoping to get to the BPG event in August but that is a bit shaky at this time. Kens family and ours are both in the middle of relocating. We will be at the GS Nationals with the dragster and we will post up how we do in a few weeks at Las Vegas. Here are a few shots of the current work
The heads for the Nailhead are at our machinists shop at the moment. That engine is in Jenn's 1971 rear engine car. Pete if the housing were to break the parts would go out the bottom through its design. We do have a ballistic blanket being made though for the new combo. I'll post more as I get it or take pictures. I am finishing up on the 4 port adapter for the intake today.
Johnny a Nailhead looks good anywhere it sits:grin:. It just doesn't always look like it belongs, but in her car we like it.
John, there are a lot of great pics in this thread, but I would like to see a few of the 455 iron running down the track. What's the hold up! lol
For just a little over a week I thought I was doing good. Things I had to fabricate or alter; The motor plate corrections to use the Buick bell, and machine the new starter hole so that would work. I cleaned up the block to remove some of the casting edges so it would fit easier in the narrow frame. A new trans mount as the car never had one before. New side mounts for the front of the engine. Made a new 4 port mount to go to a large square bore intake. that will go to powder coat Tuesday Serviced the rear axle assembly to stop a slight leak. Flushed the brake fluid. Designed the exhaust plates to bring the header flanges up and out 1.5 inches Drilled the intake runners for the Enderle nozzles Measured the 8 fuel lines to go from barrel valve to Jets/Nozzles Swapped barrel valves on the 4 port Ran all the fuel feed lines to the barrel valve from tank Made a battery box if we run the MSD. Came up with a base plan to run my 10 amp mag no need for a battery Put in the new seat belts Ran all new steel line from the 2 fire bottles to the 5 nozzles Ran the 2 new cable actuators for the fire bottles. Made a template for a new dash panel and backer to clean it up a bit Cleaned and serviced the front spindles and wheel bearings Removed the oil pan and marked the piece to be removed that will be done Tuesday. Measured and designed the dry sump tank and will get that going later today. Ordered a new throttle cable I'm in the process of making a new mount for the dry sump pump I also ordered the fuel pump mount and have a spot on the block for that. I reversed the rotation of the Hilborn fuel pump to have it belt -vs-cam driven I will just be using a tach, oil, temp, and possibly fuel flow/psi gauge. This car has no timers,throttle stops auto shifters or that kind of electronics. We will be using a Race-Pak data system to record the engine functions so we can better tune and not blow it up. I have also been working hard to find a class to run in at the GS Nationals. If I can get things done in time I will try to get to the BPG event as we can run in a few classes there. We may just end up putting :dollar: on the car and see if anyone will race us for the money at the GS Nationals. I do have a real job also:grin: Ken where is the distributor hold down? Stop sitting on the beach and get to work:laugh: On second thought you can relax for a bit longer as you will be plenty busy/stressed soon enough.
Thanks for the update John! Good to see you making progress. Are you going to be gone before Firebird, I mean Wild Horse Pass Raceway, opens back up in October? :laugh:
Craig we are just here until the house sells. I plan to go to Las Vegas in a few weeks to have the new Cert done on the chassis and then over to the track for a few night runs to shake it out. It shouldn't be to hot then Hoping the new Hans comes in in time
Hey John, I just remembered that the hold down is with the four little screws for the distributor cap. Find one and you find the others! After reading the list of things you have done you should be ready for the track before I get back Friday!:laugh:
