Early funnycars..magneto or distributor?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Follow up questions for anyone.  I see from the pics above and many other pics online that HEMI's were widely used regardless of "nameplate" and body?

Yup.

And a followup on the magneto thing...magnetos were in widespread use from the very beginning of the internal combustion engine.

The wildly popular and iconic "Vertex" or "Scintilla" mag was introduced over here in 1935. Note the dates in this ad.

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[Force]

Follow up questions for anyone.  I see from the pics above and many other pics online that HEMI's were widely used regardless of "nameplate" and body?

In the Nitro and Alcohol classes you don't have to follow brand and use engines from the same brand as the body, the Hemi design works well, both Donovan and Keith Black made Hemi's in aluminum and they were an instant hit with the Nitro and Alcohol racers when they became available, the Donovan engine was based on the earlier 392 design and Keith Black used the later 426 design.
But in the 70's and early 80's some racers used Chevy Big Block, Arias, McGee Quad Cam, Ford Boss 429 and 427 SOHC so everybody didn't use the Hemi.
Nowadays there is only one engine design allowed in the NHRA Nitro classes and it's the 426 Hemi so you can't use anything else, and 500 cui is the upper limit for engine displacement, John Force Racing did a "Ford Boss 500" engine but it looks pretty much like the the other 426 based Hemi's, the JFR engine has some internal changes tho'...mostly reinforcements inside the block.

As for magnetos, they have been around for a long time and has been used in aviation almost since the very beginning, a magneto generates it's own power and you don't need a battery or any other source of power for the engine to run...as long as you can get the engine started it will run until it gets out of fuel or you shut it off.

Edited September 21, 2017 by Force

[Muncie]

here's a pic - by the mid-70's, in the Monza funny car era, the Mallory Super Mag II magneto was the most popular ignition in funny car and top fuel.  Mallory mags used an external coil (transformer)

The Super Mag II had a regular socket terminal cap.  Plug wire retainers came later.

The magneto in the '70's Revell kits is a nice part, the coil is molded as part of the engine block behind the blower drive.

Edited September 21, 2017 by Muncie

[Rocketman]

Thank you guys very much for the info and pics.  The Jungle Jim Monza Funny Car is my second crack at a funny car,  my first being the Grrrremlin snap kit over 40 years ago.  Lots of room for detail and at minimum Mag set up is a must in the build. 

[spike morelli]

...Just for additional reference, and, to throw a slightly different slant into the conversation, I currently own two legitimate sixties drag boats....both originally built in '65...magnetos were standard faire by then on modified and racing engines. The double inline Chevy powered boat uses Joe Hunt converted Scintilla-Vertex mags, while the blown Hemi uses a Scheifer/Cirello style magneto. The Vertex mag caps were kind of a Rustoleum brown color back in the sixties, today, most Vertex caps are black, some are blue, but the brown caps are treasured by restorers for correctness of era on a sixties engine. The Scheifer/Cirello caps are black. My Chevy Vertex mags pictured have black vinyl waterproof covers over the caps in this instance.

Edited September 26, 2017 by spike morelli

[Rocketman]

Thank you for the follow up info

[10thumbs]

Guys, this is an old topic, about 6 years.

Soooo, I'm gonna do a slight hijack now.

@Spike,  do you have any more pics to offer from these insane boats?  Love them!   SoCalBoats....your site?

Sorry for the interruption.

[Crizila]

A bit of off-topic, but here goes: I'm not used to people apologising for their mistakes so this last post was a real candy to read Realising you're wrong and saying:"I'm sorry." - sometimes I have the feeling that's something that died with the last of the knights a few centuries ago...

10-4 on that!  U Da Man Wayne. 

[Metaldrumm]

You could use either one ,but to be accurate you should use the magneto unlike the the distributor the mag generates its own power doesnt need an outside source. Old mags didnt produce alot of power ,as the magnets got better so did the power, hope this helps.?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Buncha info on mags...

And how they work here (including running them on the street)...

http://cs.scaleautomag.com/sca/general_discussion/f/3/t/113284.aspx

And a little on the old Spalding Flamethrower that looks kinda like a mag but isn't...

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

A little sumpin' else to remember..."funnycars" evolved directly from A/FX cars through the intermediate step of S/FX cars...super or supercharged factory experimental.

A/FX cars were put together with bits that were theoretically available from the factory. Batteries were required, as well as battery / distributor ignition systems (depending on how you interpret the '64 NHRA rules, and whether or not the factory listed a magneto as a factory option). The cars were NOT supercharged, so a hot battery-coil-distributor could be used effectively.

For '65-'66 in NHRA A/FX class, altered wheelbase cars were coming in, batteries were still required, and the engines were still NON supercharged.

BUT...a pair of wild supercharged gas-burning Dodge exhibition cars ran as S/FX in '64. Essentially top-gas dragster engines, they ran Scheifer / Cirello style mags that looked like this...(and as on Spike's blown Chrysler engine above)...

      

AND...Jack Chrisman's Sachs & Sons Comet ran B/FD in '64 with a nitro-burning supercharged engine. Considered by many to be the original "funnycar", it also ran a mag. Naturally.

Eddie Schartman's tube-frame flip-top Comet became the NHRA's first official Funny Car winner in 1966.

                                                                                                           

 

 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[Dave42]

Well, I learned something here. Thanks guys, love this site.

[Ace-Garageguy]

There was a lot going on in those heady days of rapid innovation and development in all kinds of racing. 

For an overview of Ford's direct involvement in the birth of the Funny, read this...

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/birth-of-the-flip-top/

Edited November 11, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[10thumbs]

Thanks Bill for the great info.

I'm thinking right now one of those 66 Fords just might be my next model project.  All metal with a resin body.

I like 'em.

With a magneto too.