|
|
| Differentials: | |
| The Cat (
AMT's '62 Pontiac Catalina kit--Ed.) rear is "right" as
to looks. I came across mine last night and it is 100% proper. I didn't
measure it but that would be a rivet counter's job and I'm only a realism
checker. <G> The GMC "floater" rearend (Revell's Willys/Anglia/Miss Deal) is appropriate for anything built for use in the 50s and through about 65 -- I'm sure there were a few in use long after that. They are still the chosen rearend for all wheelstanders. Wheelstanders of course have a specialized need. They need to apply LOTS of power and still steer -- that's where the "floater" comes in. These full-floating axles with a very stout double bearing on the outboard end. If you look close at the rear wheels on many early gassers, you'll see the bearing cage. On the SWC and other cars, a more standard bearing was installed. I couldn't begin to guess who/when the first 57-up Pont/Olds went in to a car but by about 1964, it was pretty much "it". In similar fashion to the 9" Ford today, rarely did you even look under a gasser to see what was there. Even the early FCs ran them. I would think a modeler cannot go wrong in building a gasser that would have run from 62-72 with a 57-up Olds/Pont rear. There are exceptions of course. Also, an asterisk, here; 98% of the dragsters run through about 1969 ran the smaller 49-56 Olds/Pont rear. I have seen on occasional 57-up Olds/Pont, but they are really big for a drivers legs to go over or under in a FED. When slider clutches came to be, and two-speeds were added, a little stronger rear end was needed and dragsters almost exclusively switched to 8-3/4" Mopars.The FCs, due to the extreme success of the Ford factory entries, evolved into the 9" Ford (AMT's Edsel has a nice one--Ed.) tho' many of the Mopar folk ran Dana 60s. If a racer already had a zillion parts for Olds/Pont, you'd find one in a FC, even as late as 71 or even 72. Back to the gassers, builders followed the lead to Fords and Dana 60s (The best kit source for Dana 60 rearends is still Johan's Sox and Martin 'Cuda--Ed. ) , the latter chosen often by the lower buck guys. They were easier for a normal guy to narrow in his own garage 'cuz of their straight axle tubes -- many were done with a hack saw and a buzz box. Because of their wide use in trucks of all sizes, Danas had a very wide gear selection STOCK. I saw one from a lumber yard truck once with a 7.14! As an aside, at least 50% of all drag race rearends in use today are built with Olds/Pont ends and bearings. |
|
| Twins and Top Fuel : | |
| Few strips ran “class” for fuelers. That was only at national events. So, a smaller cubic inch blown fueler (331 or 354 Chrysler for example) that math’d out (ci/weight) as an A/FD or a BB/FD ran TF or TE at weekly events. So did the unblown cars. For example, the most well known of the injected cars, the infamous Giant Killer of Logghe-Marsch-Steffey was always at least 389ci, often 402ci. On 100% nitro, this little thing was indeed a killer. Magazine articles called it a C/FD or a B/FD, but it never ran those classes, and would have been classified as a AA/FD had it run a NHRA national event. The twins were usually heavyenough to be classified as an A/FD, but as I said earlier, if you chose to compete in a weekly race, you would definitely run with the blown Chryslers in TF or TE. | |
| Blowers: | |
|
I was looking for a little history on when they
started using the front blower configuration as well as why. The second
question I had was that quite a few of the fifties lake and drag cars
were running without radiators, I wanted to know why and what they did
for cooling then? I know I am showing my mechanical ignorance here but,
don't know if you don't ask...Charles Bugatti and others began crank-drive blower racecars in the 20s, it just evolved into other forms of racing. The lakes/salt guys like the frontdrives to keep the frontal area to a minimum. And, Potvin drives were pretty adequate until about 58/59 on drag cars. They did have a few probs with larger fuel loads -- they tended to backfire the tubes off consistently. Drag cars didn't need the cooling -- didn't run long enuf to worry about so the weight was left behind. As to lakes/salt cars, they always had provisions for cooling -- they need it. But, many pulled radiators in favor of 30-50 gallon water tanks in the back for ballast and cooling...Flyin' |
|
 |
|
 |
