Vintage Front Engine Dragster with a Six!
July 12, 2009 by pikesan
Leaving hard at Speedworld's Nostalgia Drags, this inline 6 powered Nostalgia Dragster's different but so right!
I bumped into Wayne and this cool front engine dragster at the Nostalgia Drags here in AZ at Speedworld. Always on the lookout for something different, I couldn’t help but notice the the six cylinder, a not-so-obvious choice for an engine, let alone in a vintage dragster.
Travelling into Arizona from Alamogordo, NM for the drags, here’s some info about Wayne’s digger:
I decided to build an inline car because I raced my Flathead car with the Denver Flathead Inline guys and saw there weren’t many “Late inline” dragsters and when there were, they all ran Chevys… so I thought about the best engineered inline and came up with the Ford. (12 port head and very Strong bottom end).
- Chassis: 1968 Race Car Engineering (Woody Gilmore) 182″ wheelbase.
- Engine: 1975 Ford 300 cu in, bored .030 with Weisco flat top forged pistons with zero deck clearance.
- Crankshaft: is out of an F-650 which is steel.
- Rods: Crower H- beam.
- Cam and lifters: Crower (flat tappet)
- Head: From a 240 cu in Ford (much smaller chamber than a 300) that I ported and put in Chev. 1.94 and 1.60 stainless valves and added some BBChev. Crower roller rockers.
- Injection: Hilborn which came off a 351 Winsdor. Modified, by me to work on the six.
- Exhust: zoomies I made and are 1 3/4 X 18″ long.
- Ignition: Vertex Magneto with rare earth magnets
- Transmission: Powerglide with 1.82 ratio gears and 3000 stall converter and trans brake.
- Rear: Chrysler 8 3/4 with 3.91 gears with 11 1/2 X 31″ tires.
- Weight: 1190 lb. without fuel and driver.
Upclose with the 300 cubic inch, Hilborn injected mill that powers nostalgia cool FED
Cars best time was 9.34 @ 134.
I couldn’t run under 10 sec. this weekend at Speedworld because the Chassis certification had expired in Nov. 08.
Unfortunately, I did a dumb thing… when I built the car, I never took any pics, not until it was done. Looking back, I bought the chassis out of New Brunswick Canada in 2004 and had to replace the right top rail as they had bashed it out to fit a Big Block Chevy. After that, I ended up rebuilding everything on the chassis.
I don’t have any history on the car but through other Std. 1320 members we have pinned it down to a 1968 or 69. I found evidence of old Chrysler mounts and I’m sure it was high gear only with a double disc clutch. That Chrysler rear axle appears to be original.
I’m strictly into nostalgia cars and don’t like the looks of a RED.
Thanks for the info Wayne! The six looks great and a 9.34 ain’t slow! Good luck with future races…
Got a front engine dragster? Whether you know the history or not, let us know!
That is wicked cool! Naturally aspirated 6 going 9’s?! Straight up Rad!
Great car. FEDs and 6 cylinders were meant to be.
Mine is on my website. Are there others?
Thanks for your reply Don! I dig the 6’s and will be keeping the one in my Falcon wagon. Your 6-powered, vintage styled digger is cool! For everyone else to see: Don’s “Senior Dragster” What did it run?
8.43 in the 1/8th . I am hoping to improve on that but it has just 4 passes on it so far. It sure is fun though for an old fart to feel the wind in his face one more time.
I guess the build was as much fun as driving it.
All the best on you Falcon BTW.
Don
We’ve just finished a 6 cylinder FED and ran 8.8 on our first pass.
Here’s a link to some info.
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/127197-r-i-p-s-new-rb30-dragster-runs-under-nz-national-record-first-pass.html
Are there any other 6 cyl FEDs anywhere, whats the best time anyone knows of?