Inliners International Forums General Discussion MOPAR Okay, let's get serious here!

These namby pamby Mopar flatheads in road cars... nice, but not the ultimate...

Do you know that Chrysler once contested the Le Mans 24-hour race with factory cars?

And on several occasions, flathead 6s ran in other races too. Not forgetting the one I know a bit about, the Australian Grand Prix.



This car, with an engine carrying twin carbies, probably a small ZSB engine, sitting on a tubeframe chassis over a set of 1940 Ford suspension and driving through a Vauxhall 4-speed gearbox, was at one time running third in the 1951 Australian Grand Prix. It faded to fifth, but it was a brand new car at the time.

I plan to build a replica of this car if I can find the Ford brakes.

There have been others, but my point is that the old flathead sixes did cover themselves with glory from time to time.

Who can tell of others?

Ray;
How about this Mopar flat 30 military tank engine of WW2 era.
Don Coatney

Too hard to fit dual carbs... sorry...


Yeah, I know, they're a real work of art. And wouldn't those dissy drives out the front of the timing covers be useful!

any more pics of that flat 30?

Any more on the topic of racing flatheads?

Here is another shot of the flat 30.




How about this racing Plymouth?




Or how about this 3 cylinder racer?




And if that is not enough here is a nice motorcycle for your riding enjoyment.
Don Coatney

Almost forgot. Here is a couple of shots of my Plymouth flathead racer.
Don Coatney

Great stuff Don... keep it up!

What's the story with the engine in your '47? 218 I guess, what have you done to it? Do you have the overdrive box?

I can't read that article about the 3-cylinder thing... can you either scan it larger and repost it, or e.mail it to me, or maybe type it up?

Sounds interesting... thanks.

No wimpy 218’s here Ray;
Got me a 53 Desoto big block flat 6. Two hundred fifty one cubes bored .030” over. Two hundred sixty degree duration camshaft @ .410” lift. Dual carter B&B’s, dual exhaust, dual points, coupled to a Borg Warner T-5 five speed overdrive transmission pushing a Dodge Charger 3.55/1 differential. Disc brakes up front for good stopping power. This is the car that will WUP that bronze 50 more door that my ARCH RACE RIVEL Pete (blueskies) Anderson is campaigning.
Don Coatney

The engine is running in this picture.


The transmission.


The distributor.


The manifold assembly.


Going home.

Hmm... I have to start with either a 218 or smaller... or with a ZSB from a Chrysler 60 when I get to work on the replica of the car pictured at the start of the thread.

It had twin carbies, but I'm fairly sure they were single choke models, don't know what I can get away with in the way of exhausts.

I actually have the Vauxhall gearbox, but I don't know how it was adapted originally and I haven't really sussed it out at all. I don't have a bellhousing for it, so I'll probably have to work with the Chrysler bellhousing.

But one thing's for sure... young Ben, my nephew, is keen to gasflow the block!

Hey Don,
What's that purple dirt track looking animal in the backround of your first picture - how about some shots of that ride?

Dang nice lookin' racer ya got there!

Flathead - Flat out, gotta love that!

Hud

I must confess. Here is the original (undoctored) photo. But it sure looks good in the race ready photos.
Don Coatney

Ray-

If you are starting with a 218, stroke it to a 230 with crank, rods, and flywheel from the 230 engine.

I did this with mine, I'm very pleased with the result. Click the link in my sig to read all about it, I've just updated the site with pics of the maiden voyage if you missed them elsewhere... I think building a little racer with one of these engines would be a gas. John Burke over on the P15-D24 site is just finishing up a Ford roadster with a MoPar flat six, looks really cool.









Here's a few of my fav's:









and John Burke's flatty powered funster:

Ah... some handsome stuff showing up!

Keep it coming!

You guys are bound to like this piccie...

It's the owner of the car pictured in the first post, Morrie Maurice, on the right. His helper is Hugo Ragosini. Dig the 'plug spanners'!

OK; here is some race footage from about as far away from Ray's Australia as you can get: This is the 1933 Winter GP is Sweden. You can see a least one Chrylser special as the go by (number 12)! I believe that this guy finished 3rd the next year.
Say Ray; growing up in the US we are always told that if you dug a hole deep enough you would come out in China.. where to hole diggers in Australia come out? It could be Sweden!
Anyway check this footage; it's great!(it takes a few seconds to load)
http://svt.se/svt/road/Classic/shared/mediacenter/index.jsp?d=29689&a=516262

We were told we'd get to China too... I guess they reckon China is big enough for everyone.

That film is simply fantastic! Thank you!

I've reported it to many known racing nostalgists... it will see many downloads in the next few days!

By the way, how do you download it rather than just play it?

Very cool Leif !! Imagine going that fast on spindley chained and cleated tires in the snow and exposed to all the elements.

I seem to remember that a 1950 Plymouth Driven by Johny Mantz won the first "Darlington 200"? maybe and Pa Pa Petty was in the fray also! They out ran the Olds,Hudsons Caddys etc. by not having to stop to change tires just ran around track wide open never stopping! I am sure I have the articles somewhere! (its heck to loose your memory)Since we are talking race cars!

triumphleroy, You're right on.Mantz did indeed win the first race at Darlington driving a light weight 50 Plymouth business coupe as did Lee Petty. Mantz started dead last but had the advantage of a light car on racing Firestones since he was already an Indy competitor.He had the only true racing tires in the race and averaged over 75mph for 6 hours never changing tires!

How about modern era Mopar engines? I've got a pair of single overhead cam Mopar 2.2 inline four cylinder engines that were used in Mexican Formula 2 open-wheel road racing competition held between the mid '80s to the mid '90s.

These engines have all the best high compression internal parts along with a dry sump oiling system, crank trigger ignition and side draft carburetors.

Full-bodied mid size Dodge race cars of the same era were equipped with dual overhead cam cylinder heads made by Maserati!

Sorry, no photos to post. Send me an email, dedonis@kans.com

*Note...Those "racing Firestones" were actually OEM truck tires. Race cars in that class were not allowed to use race parts...tires included!!

Hi Gerry, While you're bacically right, at that time because Johnny Mantz was an experienced Indy driver he had connections with Firestone in Akron and they provided the tires for him. He was the only driver in that particular Darlington race to have real racing tires. Almost all the other competitors including Lee Petty ran a Sears Custom then. Lee Petty complained vehemently after the race to no avail. A great read on this is found in the Petty history library of books on them.