Dual motored dragsters

[ejw 71]

In the 60s a few top fuelers ran two motors. These were generally mounted inline. Although, "TV Tommy" Ivo ran Buicks side by side and inline. I'm looking for info on how the inline mounted motors were attached to each other., ie. crank of 1st motor attached to crank of 2nd motor. I remember "Freight Train", dual SBC. It possibly being the most famous of the inlines. Believe it's in a museum in CA. Thanks, Ed

[SS425HP]

I remember a side by side SBC running at Beechmont Dragstrip in Cincinnati in 57 or 58 seems like My cousin took me to see it. Not sure of the name, but either was Howard's cam car or Chrisman?????????? I am sure of the SBC side by side, though.

Fred

[rwagon57]

Generally those multi-engine cars used multiple row chains as couplers, regardless of whether they were inline or side by side. There certainally have been exceptions but, even now multiple engined tractor pullers use chains to tie the engines together.

Inlines generally just run a flexplate on the front engine and no balancer on the front snout of the rear engine. Alignment is critical and one engine has to be slightly higher than the other. Side by sides are usually coupled at the flywheels.

A notable varaition on this is the TwinMill HotWheels car that uses side by side engines and transmissions driving a rear axle with 2 differentials in it. For info on that it was briefly described in either Hot Rod or Street Rodder earlier this year.

[ejw 71]

John, How is the flexplate on the front motor attached to the crank snout of the rear motor. Thanks, Ed

[bjburnout]

Let's not forget Eddie Hill's twin blown Pontiacs side by side......
This was a very successful twin engine dragster in the early and mid sixties......
BJ

[tripowerguy]

Tom Ivo's Buick twin used the flywheels meshed together, he had a problem of heat expanding them causing binding. One engine had a cam ground backwards because it ran backwards. I'm not sure but I believe that the Howards Cam car was the same. Jack Chrisman, Art's brother drove that car. I was at Lions the night that The Howard Cam car came out for shake down runs. It didn't have the blowers on the motors yet. It pulled up to the starting line and pulled the biggest wheel stand I've ever seen. He literally had all 4 tires off the ground, it was on the push bar, somehow it came down upright.
Freight Train and other inline twins used no flywheel on the front engine, just a sprocket on the back of the crank and a sprocket on the front of other engine and was stated earlier, a double roller chain locking them together. THey were in essence a V-16 engine.
The driveshaft on the side by sides ran to one side and the rearend was offset with one short axle and one long axle.
Is someone going to bring a twin 409 to the convention?:cheers Roy

[tripowerguy]

Dual engine dragsters had one thing against them, weight. Chevy small blocks or Buicks were the only successful ones. Did you know that Bob Muravez was the only one who could drive the Freight Train? Others tried to drive it but could not get it to go straight. Bob's parents found out he was driving and said they were going to cut him off financially if he didn't quit. He did for a while and they were going to cut up the Freight Train when he ageed to drive but no one could use his name.In all pictures you will not see him accepting any awards, only the car owners. An announcer needed something to identify the driver of the car and invented the name Floyd Lippencott Jr. Bob raced under that name for a long time. You never saw a picture of him without his helmet and firesuit mask on. Does anyone remember the first dragster to go 150 mph? It was a dual engine dragster called the Bustle Bomb, it had a Olds in front and a Cad hanging on the back. Both ran into the same differential. Clutch on the front engine and the rear engine was started when the clutch was let out and it got under way. Just a little trivia from the days of real drag racing. :p Roy

[IgnitionMan]

Chain hookups werre eventually banned by the NHRA, and another form of cooupler was used, a spherical splined male/female type, referred to as a "Greek coupler". These couplers were a whole bunch stronger that the cnains previously used, and didn't grenade like the chains.

Bob Muravez is alive and well, aka Floyd Lippincott, Jr., his family owned a large appliance repair business and apartment houses with their washeers/dryers in them, and Bob was the tech that serviced all of them, still is. His family was really against his doing any activity that was more dangerous than sensible, so, Bob just tried to keep the drag racing quiet.

And, yes, Jon Peters did collect all the trophies when the "Train won, because Bob didn't want to let his secrret out.

Bob is a member of the oldest car club in the So. Cal., area, the Road Kings. So is my pal, Dick Cohen. I spoke at one of their meetings a while back, lots of racers, both ex and current in that club, good group.

Years after the "Train was retired, somebody mentioned his driving when in the presence of all the familty, and his mother said she had known for a number of years that at the time, he was driving "that dangerous thing". Bob was amazed, he thought he had pulled the secrecy off all those years he raced.

Anybody remember Lefty Muddersbach? He drove the "Howard's Cam's Rattler". Yes, the "Bustle Bomb" was the first var to go over 150. There were a couple of other twin engine'd dragsters also, the Odd Couple, an injected early Hemi with a Blown small block, end to end, and later, the late Kay Sissell's twin Chevy inline 6 powered car as well, engines linked end to end.

[rwagon57]

Ed,

See Tripower Guy's and Ignition Man's responses on how the inline doubles are coupled.

[ejw 71]

Thanks guys for the info on coupling procedure. IM's explaination is one of the methods how I envisioned it being accomplished. What was first dragster to enter the 9s. Rephase: What dragster do I think was first in the 9s? Ed

[348NUT]

Is someone contimplating building such a monster? Maybe with W power? Some time before next September?:D