Engine
The engine I selected was largely based on the concept of the car. The plan was to build an outrageous
street rod, almost a cartoon character of itself. It had to look cool and be as powerful as it looked. Maintainability,
reliability and driving comfort were other important issues I considered. Fuel economy and my investment to build the car
were not factored into the choices.
The engine is a blown chevy small block professionally built for optimal performance with the Holly 250 supercharger
(Formerly a B&M product). I selected a small block Chevy because of its dimensions, availability of aftermarket parts and
my comfort with working with it in previous projects. In 2007 the bottom end of the engine was professionally built by
Cardelli Motor Sports in San Mateo,California
It is feasible to squeeze a tuned port injection (TPI) unit under the bonnet but that wouldn’t have satisfied the almost
cartoon like look that I wanted, so I decided on a big bad polished Holly 250
Blower that would emerge out of the bonnet. To top off the supercharger,
I selected twin Demon 650 cfm polished aluminum carburetors, mounted
sideways with parallel linkage. That is 1300 CFM of cold air and fuel traveling through the supercharger geared at
8 pounds of boost. Fuel economy? I know, I know, but I stared this project when gas was $1.69 a gallon, and this was never
intended to be an “economy” car.
Bolted to the heads are a pair of Sanderson QP1000 cast headers, I selected
these for their tight size (no other header hugs the block like these) and their high performance. Attached to the header
collectors are a pair of 3” polished stainless steel side pipes, two mild bends and than straight along the rocker panels
exiting right in front of the rear tires. The side pipes can run as a straight exhaust or can be inserted with a three-disk
collector insert or glass pack, any way they are muffled, they allow the exhaust to flow without restriction, produce a
rich deep tone and look very cool.
The engine features numerous other trick components including forged pistons producing the 7.5 to 1 compression ratio
necessary to fully utilize that 8 pounds of boost produced by the blower. A Crane Cam 287º/114º has been installed which
is still streetable while giving the engine that nice lobe at idle.
A lot of "go" and some "show"
The engine provides more RPM and Torque than most people can imagine. The car stays planted on the ground
snapping your head back in first gear and tires break loose in all gears. But it isn’t all “go”, there is plenty of
“show”. Here is a partial list of bright components:
Polished Aluminum pieces include the carburetors, blower, alternator, water pump transmission cooler and all the pulleys.
Polished stainless steel was used for the side pipes and virtually all plumbing. Most of what you see from the bottom has
been chromed including the starter, oil pan, fly wheel cover, transmission pan and virtually all the brackets.
