Bill, I met Al Liest at the Sears Point Nostalgia Drags a few years
back
when I was eyeballing the engine he had massaged for a dragster there .......
as I recall it was a very interesting marriage of Ford & Chevrolet with the
block
and cylinder head(s) ....... I do not recall for sure, but it might have been
an inline six !!! I imagine 788 Jack and V4 Rich remember and know most
of the details. I could see right away he was one sharp cookie on engines !
I don't know if Al also had a shop in San Jose, but I went with
Darrell
two or three times to his shop in San Mateo ( I think .... It's hell to get
old ! )
and he did have TONS of stuff in his backroom !!! I remember there was
at least one full barrel of just old valves of all sizes, and some were so
incredibly carboned-up there was no radius from stem to valve edge ......
just a solid cone of black hardened crud ...... it was hard to believe that an
engine could run with such valves !
As to Allison engines ...... there was one, I believe, from a tank in
a lakester chassis at Bonneville Speedweek in 1987. I was told it was not
allowed to run as the inspectors determined that the chassis was too light
and flexible, and I never saw it at later Speedweeks, although possibly it
did run in a safer chassis . It was an interesting example of overkill and I
have pics of it in my 1987 Speedweek album .
I also seem to recall that two of our listmembers here were running
coupes that year, and both had terminal cardiac arrest of their powerplants
....... one a six in a red Deuce five window, and the other a Hilborn
injected
small block in a very radically chopped ( and Very Famous ) '34 Ford three
window coupe ....... a truly built for lakes & salt hot rod !
Both owners were topnotch competitors then and now, with very long
histories of drag racing and lakes / salt competition .......
Head full of memories, still, but some dates and details are
getting
a little harder to retrieve nowadays ........
Glad I'm still alive and kicking ...... Bruce, where we are supposed to
get 4 to 6 ' of the white stuff tonight
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