Reply With QuoteOriginally posted by V-DRIVE VIDEO
Ford also built a "Tunnel port" and the infamous SOHC "cammer" that came in a over 600 ponies stock.
I'll jump into some of dads hipo ford books from the 60's and dig up some more tech.
Don't forget the Ford Indy motors from the 60's. Ford approached Louie Meyer, 3 time Indy 500 winner and co-owner of Meyer-Drake Engineering. Meyer-Drake had purchased Offenhauser after the war and was turning out race motors by the hundreds. Many years all 33 starters at Indy had Offy engines.
Meyer sold out to Drake and joined the Ford project. The first year (1963) Ford didn't engineer an all new motor so a modified 289 was used. The fateful decision was made to run the motor on gas instead of methanol. Jim Clark drove a 255 CI pushrod Ford powered Lotus to second behind Parnelli Jones in a front engined Watson/Offy roadster, and the rear engine revolution was launched.
In 1964, the methanol fueled 255 CI DOHC Indy motor made its debut. It powered the Lotus team cars of Jim Clark, Bobby Marshmann and Dan Gurney. Several other cars in the race were fitted with the year old gasoline powered pushrod motor. On the second lap of the Indy 500, Dave MacDonald's Sears/Mickey Thompson/Ford swerved into the inside wall, his 75 gallon gasoline tanks exploded and sent a huge plume of black smoke into the air. This caused more cars to crash. Eddie Sachs, driving the American Red Ball/Halibrand/Ford hit the Thompson and it too exploded. Both drivers burned to death. 5 other cars were damaged. The race was postponed for almost two hours. Gasoline was banned as a fuel shortly thereafter and rules regarding fuel tank size were implemented.
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In 1965 Ford engines powered 16 of the 33 starters. The Offys were able to keep up by running insane amounts of boost. The little 270 CI four banger based on a Harry Miller design from the 20's was stout enough to run 50 inches of boost over ambient. During qualifying a bit of nitromethane would somehow find its way into the tank and the venerable Offy would respond with power outputs of over 1000 HP. The little motor was competitive all through the seventies.
Ford scored 500 wins in '65, '66, and '67. The 1967 win was A. J. Foyt's third victory. Bobby Unser won with an Offy in '68, then Ford won three in a row. In 1971 Ford withdrew from racing.
As an interesting sidelight, two of the 255 CI DOHC engines found their way into a AA fuel dragster entered at the 1971 Winternationals by road racer Jim Busby. The car won the best engineeered trophy but failed to qualify.
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The Indy motor program had produced many engines and parts. In 1972 Foyt purchased the entire lot from Ford. Foyt made hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling the "Foyt" DOHC engine to Indy teams in the ensuing years.
Foyt won his fourth 500 with the engine in 1977. The next year Ford introduced the Cosworth DFV. The end of the line had come. Outpaced by modern technology and handcuffed by a diminishing parts supply, the Foyt engine faded into the background.
Now, I want someone to tell the story about the "cammer", and Connie Kalitta's ability to regularly send the development motor into low Earth orbit via nitro propulsion.
I miss that car.