In 1979.



he he

Found this pic in the archives.

They look like small fuel lines for a supercharged engine

Those are the normal high pressure lines for each nozzle in a mechanical system.

I recall seeing some time cards Henry showed me for this combo.
I think it ran 11.7@117.
From memory, Henry told me it reved to 10,000 real easy.(stock crank).
I think it was 1835?...or perhaps it was 90 pistons?
Was it the red car Henry?

Geez. What was done to the crank to withstand 10k?

Lots of TEM i would say,

and a little dose of Spicak magic.

Cheers Col

Wow Dave, That was in 1981 just at the time that group 3 began and the only group 2 class was DD/G @12.5 lbs per cube - no driver included so I has a go at it.I was about a second and a half off the national record which is why it didn't last long
The engine was the 1835 out of the original Ghia
The blower was from the Thornley brothers VW drag bike that they never got round to fitting to the bike
The body was the red oval
The only problem with the engine was the conrod bolts. They kept stretching. The fix was a set of small block chev 3/8 SPS bolts centreless ground to fit the VW conrod. The fit was so tight after the rods were fitted to the crank, the rods didn't come off the crank without destroying the rods. New bolts, rods and it was going again
PS Thanks for the memories and the pic.

Hi HS

Was it Rick Thornley who ran the VW drag bike? He used to work in the planning department at my local council, i went in to get something approved wearing a VW T shirt and all we did was talk about VWs.

So which oval was the black one with orange windows?

Steve

hahaha, got me there dave, good work... great pic, i love looking through all the old stuff, see if u can dig up any more

Steve, Rick was one of the Thornley Brothers however I don't remember how big an envolvement Rick had with the bike (I'm somewhat embarrased about the memory).
The black beetle (with orange windows) was my first venture into Drag Racing in 1977. It had a roller crank 2180 and ran mid 13's
iI can still remember hammering seized rockers off the shafts on a post at Castlereagh Dragway at the 1977 Chesterfield Nationals. I vowed after that I would never do "open heart surgery"at the track ever again
It only lasted 5 months as a track car before it was sold back onto the street. It is still around sometimes at shows with kidney slot Aunger mags and flaired guards (still black).
Ithink it is still owned by Barry Warne

I am pretty sure it was Rick (or was it his brother?.....I think it was Rick) that used to sporadically work from the industrial unit next door to my workshop (pest control stuff) - he relived a lot of memories and was always happy to chat vw's - he often asked how you are Henry. He must still be around the area somewhere here on the gold coast as he dropped by a month or two ago.

Cheers
Al

Hi

I found some horrible photos of Henry at Castlereigh with black Oval.

Steve

great pics steve :P

Henry,i too ran a vw powerd bike in those days{oh so long ago} Sam originally rode it,but opted out after disagreements with Jim who owned the bike,Rick, youngest of the three,started riding,then later Peter Osterio,rode i'm prety shaw with a blower on it,think i have a photo ? cheers pete

Doh,sorry Henry,Steve, its PeteMuhm ,

Hi Peter

Good to see you on here, anybody who rode those bikes had big gonads.

Henry's photos in latest ZOOM as well.

Steve

Yea taken me awhile to get up to speed with all this stuff,allways was a bit slow ,explains maybe why i built n rode a Hilborn injected 1835 vw dragbike at age 20. Thats when i met Henry, I pulled the bike apart IN 78 an sold henry the injection.

Pete

nice to see you one here u have some stories to tell

Yea those days at castlereagh were great days allright,henrys cars were allways imacullant,as u all know, allways people looking around it,or under it trying to figure out why it went so quick for a vw

Pete, My memory is hazy, but I thought that the Thornley bike dabbled in nitro (low percentage) rather than a blower especially when Peter Oz rode the bike.I think that's where the injection went.
As far as the Ghia and beetle goes,I think I just confused them (mainly into red-lighting).The fun part (not really) was giving some of the V8's and 6 cylinders a head start due to the lopsided records at the time. How times have changed. The only thing that hasen't changed (as I found out recently) is the comradery, friendship and compassion that true racers have toward each other
As you can see, I finally found a photo worthy of a avatar

Adam, in regard to posting pictures, I'm not that good with technology- it taken years to get the first one up. Maybe some of the guru's on the forum could advise/help. It's better in real life from the driver's seat

How's these? - hope they turn out

tried it - didn't work sorry

Another, that will do for now

last one

Thats for sure Henry...........I like it a lot ! Will dig out this photo

brilliant Henry!!! good work.... great pics, did Matt take those? launches very nice, pretty straight for a car still running a pan, but i guess this isnt your 1st drag bug rear shot is my favourite, looks fat! 1st pic is great too, looks like you have a massive grin on your face too

Mmmmm fuchs

Fantastic Henry!!! Getting it nicely wound up and unleashed ...