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Roger Phillips photo
(This article was first published in the November 1971 edition of Custom Car magazine)
Few drag racing machines roll off the trailer and do their thing properly first time out and many cars currently running near their theoretical limit have been developed over a number of years. Imagination 4 - the quickest British-engined altered in the country and probably the world - was first nailed together during the winter of 1968/9 and owner/driver Dick Fielding has rebuilt the car twice to get to its current winning formula.
Best quarter-mile ET to date is a staggering 11.47, which coupled to terminals over 100mph puts the car on a par with many V8-packing altereds and quicker than most rails of a similar capacity. The motor? A '65 Mk I Lotus Ford twin-cam with the original 1558 cubes.
Originally Dick's altered relied on a 1200 push-rod Ford and in this form turned 15.2 to take the win in the Junior Competition Altered class at the '69 BDR&HRA Championships. The following winter saw the installation of the twin-cam mill and the adoption of a lighter slingshot frame. Net result was a win again in the annual Champs - this time taking Middle Eliminator with a 12-second shot.
Then last winter Dick got the hammer and nails out again to raise the front end and add a new roll cage, 7½-wide home-made rear wheels plus a blown fuel injection system made up from aircraft parts. The squirter is in fact a converted aircraft fuel pump, while huff is provided by a modified cabin blower running at double engine speed. Sometimes the car is fueled with methanol, sometime five-star pump gas.
Dick's new fuel set-up has yet to be fully sorted, and 10-second ETs are confidently expected next season.
Imagination's motor is reckoned to kick out around 180bhp in its current form, which takes in 9.7-to-1 Hepolite pistons and rings, standard rods, Glacier bearings, Lotus valves and crank and Piper cams.
Champion plugs provide the heat, AC-filtered Duckhams Q20/50 the lube.
The clutch, protected by a 3/16in and ¼in plate scattershield, is a Borg & Beck 8½in diameter special, mated with a Ford 105E gearbox. On the strip Dick gets away with just 2nd, 3rd and top cogs. Immediately behind the gearbox is a 105E rear end, stock width and fitted with either 4.4 or 4.1 gears - depending on traction requirements.
Dunlop 7.00-13 boots, spinning on Ford hubs, dump power on the ground.
Up front Imagination 4 uses a homebuilt tube axle - fitted with 105E hubs mounted on E93A Anglia spindles - Mini wheels and Goodyear G8 rubber. Motorcycle springs and shocks provide front suspension.
Mild steel tube forms the home-made frame - a 72in wheelbase design mounted with Dick's own interpretation of what a Model T Ford ought to look like! The body was beaten out of aluminium and sprayed (blue, silver and gold) and trimmed by Dick hisself. Steering arrangements come courtesy of a Standard Eight box (the tiller is home-made), while braking (rear drum units) is supplemented by a 6ft diameter chute.
Dick's total investment in the 700lb bundle is in the region of £450, which shows that getting down to those low-ET brackets doesn't necessarily mean cubic inches or cubic money. Just a little Imagination.
Mike Lintern
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