2600 in Drag

[Alfasixnut]

Wow a whole empty section!
- Back in 1976 I was drag racing a 970cc modified Frogeye Sprite and a friend showed me a 6 cylinder DOHC engine and said "Why don't you put that in your Drag car" I realised it was not the usual Jaguar engine and saw it was an Alfa with triple twin choke Solex PHH carbs.
Anyway we built a new car around the engine......

[Alfasixnut]

There was a damaged piston and so we bored the liners and put in a set of modified Jaguar "D" type pistons (Much cheaper than the Alfa set and lighter). The crank was tuftrided and flywheel lightened with the ring gear also removed - the cars were all push started in those days.
The cams were reprofiled by "Newman" to give more duration and lift.

[Alfasixnut]

It used a column change BMC Westminster gearbox (with a "T" gate shifter) behind a home made steel bell housing. This was connected direct via a UJ to the "C" series back axle No prop shaft to get the engine set back as far as the rules allowed.
By now I was firmly into Alfas and so bought a Sud!

[Alfasixnut]

After failing to get the Solex carbs to run well - I had de- siamesed the inlet manifold and changed from the vacuum operated secondaries to make them twin choke and run on Methanol.......badly! I bought triple Weber 40DCOE carbs .
I also had the back axle narrowed and bought SH Wolfrace alloy rear wheels with M & H drag slicks.

It now went a lot better and I needed Wheelie bars!

[Alfasixnut]

But I still kept pulling the front wheels up....

It ran a best time of 12.15 seconds and 0 - 110 mph. on petrol.

However a change in the rules said that all cars had to be self started and that meant a new flywheel with ring gear - which in turn required a new bell housing and starter motor.........So I changed from the Alfa to a Rover V8 as it was lighter even than the all alloy 2600 and was an extra 1000ccs...

[Johnboy]

Great story and write up

[PETROLHEAD]

OOh Phil!

I don't know what was bigger,



your hairs or your flares!





Great car and story, and i'm so glad someone can put something in these lounges too,

cheers mate

[Alfasixnut]

Just to finish this tale (But Off Topic I'm afraid) I put the Rover V8 in the car and raced it as "Muscle Sprout". Then I thought it might get more sponsorship if it was a more up to date body - rather than the early 60's Frogeye. So I put together a TR 7 outer skin and created a TR 8 "Vicious Trait".
Then BL cancelled TR production so I had another obsolete BL/BMC Sportscar.......
I initially used the triple 40DCOEs from the Alfa, with another SH 40 ( a much cheaper option for me than a 4 barrel plus manifold) on a home made cross over manifold. This ran into the 11.7s. I then got some big valve ported SD1 heads and changed to 45DHLA Dellorto carbs and got a best ET of 11.45 and 0 - 128mph

The car was then sold in 1985, briefly bought back with three friends a year later ......And still owned by one of them now!
It was on show at Shakespeare County Raceway in 2010 but sadly in need of attention.

[KevJTD]

brilliant story and pics mate, check out the hair!

still, you've still kept a lot more of yours now than i have

[Alfasixnut]

Just to add a bit more to this
- I was very impressed with the 2600 engine. It had a duplex chain to drive the cams, which had a vernier adjustment on the cam pulley wheels to set the cam timing accurately.
The distributor had dual points.
The finned aluminium sump (had a crack which was welded up) had a broad, not deep, sump section with baffles and flaps to control oil surge.
The clutch had "Long" style levers which gave more clamping pressure as the revs increased.
The valves were about Jag 3.8 size, with sodium cooled stems, dual valve springs.
The connecting rods were beefy with forging marks polished off the sides and chunky con-rod bolts.
The crank had seven main bearings with deep forged aluminium caps which sat deep in the block.
Thus the engine had a fine racing spec as standard and would go to 7000 rpm with ease.
And it sounded absolutely fantastic with six open header pipes. Indeed the chief starter at Santa Pod (Stu Bradbury) did say that he knew my car from its sound alone.......

However, I had thought that the "Six" would be just a regular Alfa 1750 with two extra cylinders, so spares would be easy to find. In fact the 2600 was, in many ways, different. After changing to the Rover V8 I did sell the Alfa engine, with spare block and head, to an Alfa enthusiast (Chris Monk??) together with the 3 x 40 DCOE Webers (later on).

[junior]

Great stuff, thanks for the whole story.