Racing Head Service (RHS)
 

I've tried to contact Racing Head Service in Memphis, TN., but the answering service is announcing as , Elderbrock? Has anyone dealt with RHS ? I recently acquired one of their shortblock. Trying to get some information about what their "455 Magnum " shortblock consists of.

Edelbrock bought RHS among other companies. Then IOP, (Industrial Opportunity Partners), bought Edelbrock among many other companies. So RHS is a tiny holding in some investment portfolio. About all you can do is call them and hope someone who still works there knows anything. Good luck.

Wow ... I remember buying a cam and lifters from them in 1977 when they were just a little shop out at the Memphis airport ... right down the road from me.

RHS only has a short list of LS stuff only on current website, that Pontiac receipt looks 40 years old.....

The engine had been in a climate control environment for several years, and I'm unfamiliar with the RHS term "455 Magnum " , and I'm not getting anyone from the RMS/Elderbrock site. Was hoping someone was familiar. In 1991 almost $3k for a Pontiac shortblock would seem extremely pricey.

'91 they were still across the parking lot from Comp Cams and I think Ivars Smeltnicks was still running it. His brother Russ was at Comp and they both were involved in the start up of the NMCA. Machine shop was really nice,we got a tour of both one Memphis event.

Since they used Comp Cams stuff maybe a "Magnum" cam as the 270,280, 290 Magnums were their best sellers back then. There were no good forged rods for reasonable price back then so probably cast, unless they used Crower or Carillos. Or maybe the heat treated early forged rods Butler also used.

I was going to say the same as Skip , a Comp Magnum cam in it for sure

305 Series maybe?

https://www.compcams.com/magnum-drag...c-265-455.html

RHS was big back in the 80-90's best way to find out IMO is get some old Carcraft or Hotrod magazines from that time period they ran 1/2 and full page adds with all details.

I purchased a set of RHS heads from them in 90 for a 383 Chebby small block for my 1969 Chevelle back then. Really great heads.

One of the things i remember about RHS is they were among the first commercial shops to paint the internal surfaces of the blocks and heads with a dull red material that reportedly improved oil drainback. That was kind of their signature look for years. I think I was on that same tour with you Skip in Memphis with the NMCA. Both Russ and Ivars seemed to really care about quality back in those days.

I had one of their High Energy series cams in a mild 400 build and remember all the big ads in the magazines. Also remember the early days of NMCA and ran the circuit in 1995. I won Stock ET Championship that year. Broke a side gear in the 8.2 posi during time trials in final at Memphis. Found a unit in swap meet and the guy had tools to open it up. Took the side gears out and put them in my unit. Finished the event with highest point total. Also "won" the bracket race they had with 164 cars. Saturday night we were the last pair of cars to run. It was almost midnight and I dialed a 13.64 and my opponent did the same. I had a fender on him the entire race. When his win light came on I figured I broke out (very rare for me). When I picked up my ET slip they had put my dial in wrong as a 13.69. That was a $1,000 to win screw up. I received $500 for runner up. That sure hurt as technically I beat my opponent. But rules say once you stage the car whatever is on the display is what you are dialed in at. However their display was missing some bulbs that made it difficult to read. Oh well the consolation was I won the Championship that weekend. I was sponsored by BF Goodrich when they first brought the drag radials to market. I won at the first event of the season at Gainesville so they gave me a set of tires to run. My car was in their national advertisements that ran in Hot Rod and Car Craft as well as their book of Champions they publish each year for the winners they sponsor in different racing categories.

To me, there is no greater satisfaction than running an event and having some trouble. Solving that problem, like you did with the rear end and then going on to win the event! Great job and great story. The dial in saga still causes some trouble today. I heard a racer had a similar situation at Norwalk just this year. Good times with the NMCA. The constant, never ending changes to the classes and rules every single year is what drove us to leave and begin our match racing career.

The NMCA soon turned into the Nitrous Nationals and moved further away from the original grassroots musclecar crowd. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed watching Tony Christianson, Pat Musi, Annette Summers, etc duke it out. However soon they were dropping classes to accommodate the growing nitrous classes. Then it grew too big for the original promoters and they sold it.

I had another "issue" at Norwalk during a NMCA event. My last time trial the transmission was whining bad and I barely made it to my pit. I figured it was the pump making the noise. I dropped the pan to find it full of debris and the filter clogged. I went to the track announcer and he put out a request for a Turbo 400 filter. Another racer had a spare transmission and said I could remove the fiter and have it. I sent my dad to the vendor section to pick up trans fluid. I cleaned the pan, installed it and dumped in the fluid as they were making the last call for my class. I fired up the car and put it in gear, no noise and it jumped. I told my dad I was heading to staging lanes and at least would get a few points staging for one round. I pulled in the back of the staging lanes as the last few cars were left. Put my dial in on the window and checked to see who I was running and if they were faster or slower. Knew I had to do my normal routine and hope for the best. I did my burnout and everything seemed fine. Staged the car, left hard, hit second hard, hit high hard, and won that round. I made a couple other rounds and scored enough points to stay in the lead. Got home and had the transmission completely gone through.

I was in Memphis for that very first Fastest Street Car deal where they made them run about 30 laps around the track and return road. Good racing good folks usually all help each other out in the pits. That was when getting spectator count for $ kind of changed it. Amazing what some guys would do -illegally-to win class just for a trophy! One of the Buick GS guys on tear down had aluminum rods. One of the Pontiac guys was so much faster with his 61 black bubble top SD car he had to come torn down to the race in Memphis. Class winners got P&G for cubic inches, vacuum check at idle to factor cam HP, carb venturis measured. Then the rare heads off tear down if protested.

I remember early on a guy with a 69 GTO claiming he was running a 400 in one of the classes. It was a 428. It took a few races for them to start sorting out the cheaters!

Here are a couple from Memphis and Atlanta. Prostars a lot lighter. Wt/Factored HP for classes. Classes heads up.

I did not have to worry too much about rules. I ran in a bracket class Stock ET. There were rules regarding engine/trans/axle having to be GM parts. Car had to be licensed/insured and run street legal tires.

Back to topic,
68wardog did you ever find the info you were looking for?