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Roger Phillips photo
(This article was first published in the September 1971 edition of Custom Car magazine)
Watching jet aircraft being catapulted off the flight deck of HMS Ark Royal while floating about the Far East as an Air Artificer in the Fleet Air Arm gave Ray Hoare the germ of an idea for keeping himself out of mischief when his term of duty was up. It was just over two years ago that Ray left the service and even before setting foot on dry land he had started to gather bits for his project - a small-block Chevy dragster running on pump fuel. A junior gasser, as they call 'em Stateside.
When it came to debuting his new rail - at a BDR&HRA 'on tour' meet back in April - Ray could not have picked a more appropriate setting; the HMS Daedalus naval air base at Gosport. At Daedalus the rail went 13.2 seconds with the power applied for just 200 yards of the quarter-mile strip and later runs have shown the car to be capable of hitting the 9-second zone.
Ray, who in the not too distant future hopes to earn a living making parts for racers, spent upwards of £1500 in building up his machine - dubbed The Saxon. Most of the rail's American goodies were shipped in via Croydon speed equipment merchant Mike Knapman, whose knowledge of small-block Chevy gear proved to be invaluable, says Ray. Other suppliers included Allards, John Woolfe Racing and Brabham's the Balancing Boys.
Saxon's centrepiece is a 1959 Chevy 283 block punched out to 292 cubes (or a fraction less than five litres) and set up to produce a healthy 450bhp - give or take a pony or so. Rods were left stock apart from polishing and balancing and were slugged with 11.5-to-1 Jahns forged pistons plus Perfect Circle rings. Competition rods are on the way. Crankshaft is a stock '64 Chevy item, while the bearings were supplied by Glacier (pause to wave Union Jack) and the roller cam came from the American Crane factory. The heads were brought up to Mondello spec and Cran springs were fitted by one Jack Pollard. Castrol Competition Oil, plus a shot of Wynn's, provides double protection for the motor.
The Saxon's fuel system is based around a Hilborn large-juice injection kit mounted on a cast-aluminium manifold from the same company, with ignition in the hands of a Scintilla mag. Ray is still experimenting with plugs and has yet to settle on a brand.
A Schiefer forged steel flywheel coupled to a dual-plate Schiefer clutch that's fitted with a Lakewood scattershield and direct-drive unit shifts the power through to the Saxon's '61 vintage 4.56 Chevy rear end - narrowed to 30in and hung with Woolferace wheels and M&H Racemaster sticky slicks.
From slicks to front axle - a tube design produced by Ray hisself - the car's 18g T45 tube frame stretches 140in. Front suspension consists of a modified Morris Minor torsion bar assembly damped with nylon disc snubbing, while a lot of the wheel gear is Allard equipment. The hubs are alloy Allard items mated to E93A spindles and carrying Allard Dragon wheels with Dunlop Roadspeed 17in rubber.
Brakes, operating on the rear wheels, are Chevy parts, while steering is based around an E93A box mounted upside-down and reversed. Ray made the tiller.
The Saxon's super-neat body panelling was created in 20g aluminium and treated to a trick gold/red/metallic blue paintjob by Pat Cuss - part of the 'Old Smokey' drag team now crewing for Ray and the guy responsible for the Hillbillies' new glass fibre Topolino shell. There's not much chrome about at present, but the front axle assembly will get the treatment once handling bugs are sorted.
Ray produced the hot seat in 18g sheet ally and trimmed it off himself. Apart from an Irvin chute, there's no more soft furnishing. And the car's sole instrument is an oil pressure gauge.
Ray says a lot of help in the building of the Saxon came from Bert Knight - of Knightmare II, the Jag rail - from Alan Ing and from the Hillbillies crew, who like Ray are based in the south west.
Once The Saxon is completely de-bugged, it's possible that Ray will switch to a more exotic fuel - like a drop of nitro. Meantime, he's thinking even further ahead and by next season plans to debut a second car with a longer and lighter frame and a banzai (win or bust) motor packing Howard aluminium rods and one or two other tricks. Yup, the Saxon chariots are ready to meet the hordes from the north.
Mike Lintern
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