Hey Doug. Smokey and Dean Murry are from Atascadero and I tease them
because Atascadero means MUD HOLE in spanish. That's even lower than big
ditch. Wish I could go to b-ville this year but just can't make it
happen. Good luck to to you and have a safe trip. I'll keep up on what's
going on with landracing.com.
Doug Odom about 40 miles south of mud hole
ARDUNDOUG@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 07/27/2000 6:15:03 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> landspeedracer@email.msn.com writes:
>
> << List
>
> OK, any of you vintage engine guys ever try a Packard flathead straight
> eight? Looks like a Behemoth but weight ain't the issue. Could run XO/ or
> XXO/ depending on which block you had to start with.
> From what little I know about flathead design the inline would have some
> advantage on the exhaust side, but then again it wouldn't be running against
> a Ford-V8 anyway. Not Crazy about the Siamesed intakes however.
> Then there's the Buick straight or the Hudson 6. Hey and they actually
> used to race Hudson's fifty years ago.
>
> John Beckett, LSR #79, E/GCC
> >>
> I don't know why no one has tried the Packard straight 8. They produced
> them into the 50's I believe.
> The Buick straight 8 has been used very successfully. Mel Tull from
> Atascadero, CA (40 miles up the road from the "Big Ditch") ran one a few
> years ago in a street roadster at Bonneville. His best one-way was somewhere
> around 176 and the average (record) stands at about 169. Mel (an old Buick
> guru from LA in the 50's) worked the stock head over considerably and had the
> displacement above 325 ci, putting him into XXO engine class.I don't believe
> any vintage engine street roadster has ever gone that fast, not even Jimmy
> Stevens in his Flatty.
> Mel most recently started work on a Buick Straight 8 block with a
> welded-on deck to accept 2-Toyota cammer 2000cc 4-cyl heads grown together.
> He did a billet crank for it and then stopped the project.
> He's a welder at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near Morro Bay Ca.
> and the work is somewhat seasonal and spotty, especially for a guy in his
> late 60's who is employed as an outside contractor.
> I thought the new engine was a great idea when he offered it to me. I
> just couldn't see changing horses and starting a whole new engine concept in
> my 60's.
> Doug King
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