|
|
Barry George photo
(This article was first published in the September 1970 edition of Custom Car magazine)
Nailing together a big A-Class fuel dragster can cost a lot of bread when the job is done properly, and there's always a good chance the whole shebang will bust its guts all over the strip just when you think it's running sweet. Ask Nobby Hills - he figures he's spent more on replacement Cadillacs than Prince Saud.
Seriously though folks' Nobby's Houndog rail represents years of hard work and proves that if you're a real serious racer a few setbacks won't stop you from getting where you want to go. Nobby thinks big (at about 12ft tall in his Stetson he looks big too) and after mucking about in the early days of dragging with a Jag-powered rail he decided that things long and chromed with Caddy power plants needn't necessarily be mobile cocktail cabinets for the uppercrust.
Last season, with regular chauffeur Movin' Mike Hutcherson pointing the tiller, Houndog howled to 146mph and a standing quarter time of 10.1 before, during only the second meet of the season, the Cadillac ruptured itself. But Nobby was happy 'cos he knew the engine had blown before all the bugs were out and that the potential was there for a big Caddy powerhouse.
Houndog's replacement is a 372-cuber - somewhere near 6 litres - from a '58 Caddy. These big GM engines are not generally held to be the best lump for dropping into drag machinery, but Nobby has a few goodies aboard. The block was originally a 365cu in design, though since it came out of Detroit it's been bored-out, modified to take a couple of Fram filters, and sports Jahns pistons on balanced rods.
Isky springs, rockers and valves were installed and Nobby switched to Glacier bearings and Autolite plugs. Lubrication is courtesy of Valvoline. Houndog uses a home-made fuel injection system in conjunction with a Hilborn 150 pump, feeding alky through a Marshall blower driven at 11 per cent overdrive. Sitting high up top is Nobby's home-made bug catcher scoop.
Transmission is direct drive through a twin-disc clutch made up by Nobby - a Schiefer unit is on order - to the 3.23-to-1 rear end, which came from a '55 Olds. And the steering box hails from a Mk I Consul.
Houndog's superlong frame - wheelbase 160in - is beautifully constructed in stainless steel, as is driver Mike's roll cage. Total weight of the frame, including tube front axle and torsion bar suspension, comes out at just 116lb. Ready-to-run the car tips the scales at 11¼cwt.
Apart from being something of a wonderman with a wrench, Nobby has creative talent as well - he was responsible for the hand-formed aluminium body plus Houndog's groovy paint job. Oh yes, that 14ft cross-form chute came from Nobby's deft hands as well.
There's a touch of Nippon up front with the 2.25 by 17in Avon cycle rubber revolving on Honda hubs. Rear boots are Firestone 7 by 15in slicks and Nobby reckons that gears out at 154mph at 6,000rpm. In April Movin' Mike did a 9.7 pass and Nobby says that when Houndog cuts a 9.5 second run at 155mph he'll be happy. That is if the Caddy mill hangs together at six grand!
Mike Lintern
|
|
