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Bill Taylor photo
(This article was first published in the February 1971 edition of Custom Car magazine)
Who's the new holder of the International Class D FIA record for the standing start quarter mile then? OK, so you don't care. Well you're a miserable lot of bums because it's a real nice bloke named Tony Anderson, and his beautifully-engineered Zodiac rail took a long time to get sorted. When he turned up at the ISO World Records Weekend at Elvington last October he was without a pit crew and yet he struggled through and got himself a record. An average time of 10.755 seconds and an average speed (not terminal speed) of 84.46mph over a two-way course in gusting conditions can't be bad.
Actually Tony has done better than that in drag competition, clocking a best ever 10.24 and 140.2mph terminal towards the end of the season. But it's taken a long time to obtain that sort of performance because the three-litre Zodie unit isn't the easiest to work with - that's why Tony calls his digger Trouble.
Trouble was originally put together during the winter of '68-69, with a short frame, standard Zodiac clutch, Cortina cogbox and a twin-choke American Ford carb feeding the V-mill straight methanol. In that trim the car ran low 12s at 110mph. Not really quick enough. So, at the end of '69, Tony screwed on a Wade blower with a couple of 1¾in Strombergs - enabling Trouble to record a new low of 11.2 at Woodvale before the first of four Wade huffers wound itself in all manner of knots, with vast quantities of alloy swarf deposited in the engine.
It was immediately prior to the start of drag season '70 that Trouble took on its current form and headed for the tens. Wheelbase of the Harold Bull frame was stretched 18in to a total of 144in, the powerplant set back five inches and the Cortina gearbox heaved to one side. Tony installed a beefy 9½in diameter clutch with Borg & Beck discs and relocated the distributors at the back of the camshaft to enable a Wade blower to be mounted on the inlet manifold. A fuel pump is now operated by the original distributor drive, delivering a nitro-methane mix.
Tony produced his own fuel injection set up - broadly similar to the Hilborn design - together with Anderson patent bug-catcher, butterflies and injection nozzles. The heads were milled to reduce compression to 6.8 to 1 and copper O rings set into grooves in the Ford block to replace head gaskets.
After a couple of shake-down runs in the mid-tens, Tony fitted port injectors to overcome problems with uneven fuel distribution and the car immediately started to get down to its current low-ten times. All seems reasonably well with this set-up as far as ETs are concerned, though Tony cannot figure out why he gets through almost one Wade blower a month! Despite extensive modifications to tolerances, the blowers don't last.
Tony has had more than his fair share of trouble trying to feed Henry's lump the correct quantity of juice, but up till now has managed to keep the block in one piece. Most of the mechanicals are stock, with the exception of Glacier bearings and a billet steel flywheel. A combination of Wynn's and Valvoline keeps things lubed.
Trouble's 3.55 rear end is an old '55 Zephyr unit, narrowed obviously, and running home-made hubs with Electron wheels and firestone F200 boots. Up front is a torsion bar tube axle set-up with friction shocks and Dunlop tyres.
Steering box came from a Standard 10, Harold Bull was responsible for the body and Tony for the sano paint job. Last but not least is the very necessary item that most of Tony's competitors are used to facing - an Irving chute.
Mike Lintern
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