[mgarblik]

I was over at the race shop today that we work with at my school. We have had a collaboration for 30 years. They have a new customer that is building a 4-cylinder Trailbrazer engine for NHRA Stock eliminator? Not just 1 either. They have 3 in process and this is a serious, high dollar effort. Those terrible overhead cam 4,5,6 cylinder inline engines are the ones I am talking about. Custom Darton sleeves, super light pistons. 16:1 compression ratio on gasoline. The blocks are super thin, light and flimsy. I just can't imagine a worse foundation to build a race engine on, other than maybe a Cadillac HT 4100. The poor little thing makes over 400 HP running the holy crap out of it. That's some serious dedication to something I guess. Anybody else know of a ridiculous engine someone is trying to race and win with?

[mgarblik]

Couple pics of the little Trailblazer race block? And I thought racing a 60 year old Pontiac was crazy.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

I was over at the race shop today that we work with at my school. We have had a collaboration for 30 years. They have a new customer that is building a 4-cylinder Trailbrazer engine for NHRA Stock eliminator? Not just 1 either. They have 3 in process and this is a serious, high dollar effort. Those terrible overhead cam 4,5,6 cylinder inline engines are the ones I am talking about. Custom Darton sleeves, super light pistons. 16:1 compression ratio on gasoline. The blocks are super thin, light and flimsy. I just can't imagine a worse foundation to build a race engine on, other than maybe a Cadillac HT 4100. The poor little thing makes over 400 HP running the holy crap out of it. That's some serious dedication to something I guess. Anybody else know of a ridiculous engine someone is trying to race and win with?

Bernie Agerman’s 357ci BBC Pro Stock engine from the late 1970s comes to mind.

[J.C.you]

Half the parts of a v8 when it swarms is a plus.

[Scarebird]

ah, thought that was the 4.2 I6 they had 2001-08.

Really liked that motor - powerful and smoooooooooth.

[chuckies76ta]

Was at the Mission Race track in B.C. this past weekend. Our neighbor Roger built this smaller rail, I guess you'd call it. It has a 4 cylinder engine with a blower on it. Runs in the 8's. He said it was half a Pontiac engine from I believe 62 or 63 tempest. Half of a 389. I've never seen anything like it before. Had an Edelbrock head on the one side. (The Trophy 4 engine) Here is a read on the Salt flats where he's run it. https://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/...poncho-banger/

[TAKerry]

Not in a car and I didnt get a pic, but was at a show a couple of weeks ago and there was a guy with a helicopter motor in his race boat. The entire motor only weighed something stupid like 400lbs. He fired it up and to say it was loud is an extreme understatement!

[Elarson]

Originally Posted by chuckies76ta

Was at the Mission Race track in B.C. this past weekend. Our neighbor Roger built this smaller rail, I guess you'd call it. It has a 4 cylinder engine with a blower on it. Runs in the 8's. He said it was half a Pontiac engine from I believe 62 or 63 tempest. Half of a 389. I've never seen anything like it before. Had an Edelbrock head on the one side. (The Trophy 4 engine) Here is a read on the Salt flats where he's run it. https://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/...poncho-banger/

Cool car! Brian Lohnes (Bangshift author/editor) LOVES Pontiacs.

Eric

[Cammer-6]

My first experience with a trophy 4 was in a 63 Tempest with 2 speed auto.
Slower than a slug in stock form.
It was GFs car I picked out because it was in fantastic shape and clean.
I used it as my tow car for the 68 Firebird I raced.
One night the Bird broke on first round,was bored so took the tow car out on the track.
I raced my buddy in his warmed over VW and he beat me.I barely got out of 1st gear.
70mph in the 1/4.
In defense I was instructed to not break it as only means of getting home 30 miles away.
So no power braking at the line etc. Fun times,wish I had her back(the car that is)

[sdbob]

Talking to John Herslow yrs ago about 4cyl Pontiacs. I had a 4bbl 4cyl. He wanted the block.He ckd 4bbl and 2bbl blocks for thickness here the 2bbl was thicker than the 4bbl.

[Drag Star Le Mans]

Originally Posted by chuckies76ta

Was at the Mission Race track in B.C. this past weekend. Our neighbor Roger built this smaller rail, I guess you'd call it. It has a 4 cylinder engine with a blower on it. Runs in the 8's. He said it was half a Pontiac engine from I believe 62 or 63 tempest. Half of a 389. I've never seen anything like it before. Had an Edelbrock head on the one side. (The Trophy 4 engine) Here is a read on the Salt flats where he's run it. https://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/...poncho-banger/

I was there did we meet? I had the 64 Tempest Wagon. Wait was that you with the 68 Firebird?

[Drag Star Le Mans]

Rogers car with totally new frame compared to Bangshift article. Only the body and mechanical remains. Major salt corrosion in the original frame.

[chuckies76ta]

Originally Posted by Drag Star Le Mans

I was there did we meet? I had the 64 Tempest Wagon. Wait was that you with the 68 Firebird?

Hi Craig: Yes that was us. Nice meeting you.

[misterp266]

The most unique engines still appear at Bonneville. I posted before about someone splitting a Pontiac Edelbrock head and putting it on a dodge four cylinder block.

I really enjoy seeing people think way outside the box.

[b-man]

And then there are some who consider an air-cooled flat-4 designed in the 1930s worthy of building into a drag race engine…..

These pictures taken about 42 years ago of my 1966 VW with a 12:1 compression 1835cc (112 cubes), .600” lift 274 @ .050 cam that ran in the mid-12s.

Last picture was taken In December 2020, same engine with a few external changes in a different car looking a little cruddy due to poor storage. The car (a ‘57 that I first drove in high school) had been sold to a friend, I was lucky enough to rescue it after his passing before his heirs let it deteriorate further.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by b-man

And then there are some who consider an air-cooled flat-4 designed in the 1930s worthy of building into a drag race engine…..

These pictures taken about 42 years ago of my 1966 VW with a 12:1 compression 1835cc (112 cubes), .600” lift 274 @ .050 cam that ran in the mid-12s.

Those are some of the cool responses I hoped to see! A mid 12 second Beetle is really cool. We had a local VW racer with a car lettered up "Lightening Bug" which I think ran in the similar ballpark. Saw it shut down many V-8 race cars over the years at Kill Kare Dragway in Xenia, OH. Keep them coming.

[b-man]

A few of the ‘57 the last time I raced it back in October 1981 on my 22nd birthday. The ‘57 was purpose-built and much lighter than the ‘66 by probably 150 - 200 pounds even though it was all steel, the ‘66 was my old street car used as a test bed for the new 1835 race engine. Without driver maybe a 1250 - 1300 pound car, they weighed a tick over 1600 when they rolled off the line in Wolfsburg.

The 1835cc engine uses a 69mm stroke crank that was a stock forging used in all 1300, 1500 and 1600 engines, stock cranks were non-counterweighted so I bought one with counterweights welded on. Connecting rods were reworked factory forged 1600 with ARP SB Chevy bolts. Flywheel was a stock VW chrome vanadium unit lightened from the stock 17 pounds down to about 12 pounds. High quality steel and forged components are not what many would expect to be standard issue in an inexpensive economy car engine.

The magnesium engine case was bored out to accept 92mm cylinders, up in size from the 85.5mm cylinders used in the 1600 (1585 actually). I was unable to afford a stroker crank (82 and 84mm were common strokers) at the time so I did what I could using the largest commercially available piston and cylinder set. By no means was this a big cc VW engine, but it definitely held its own.

Last pic is right after the rescue. I’m currently spending way too much money bringing it back onto the streets all for the sake of nostalgia, now building a 2276cc stroker engine (94 bore x 82 stroke) since I have a little more money now. I was an avid street racer in the ‘57 after my high school graduation when it ran in the low-14s with a 1756cc engine (90 x 69) as a 17 year old.