The Harrison Racing Outboards - Legendary Birmingham Metal Products Alky Outboards

[RichardKCMo]

Tim, sure hope you get your mag. going soon. Will sure read with in. i've only seen an issue or 2 in yrs. gone by. I didn't take much int. in foreign race motors at that time ,or foreign anything for that matter.
I guess when that's all there is you get a new perspective.!!
Anyways, can't wait.
RichardKCMo.

Kay Harrison has given me eight 4 inch thick ring binders of Harrison Racing archive scrapbooks dating back to 1927 for me to post on the internet. Some I will be posting when I get Hydroplane Quarterly.com up and running again. Other material I will be posting here as time permits.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Tim: From the brochure pictures already posted here and since then pictures of Harrison components from other readers since passed over to me there seemed to be some kind of evolution at work for some time as the amounts of Anzani parts left to consume wound down as Harrison engines evolved and spread out. Back in the late 1970s when I got my first Anzani, I always questioned why the cast iron blocks? From that some information came up where it was mentioned that aluminum blocks with steel or cast iron liners was tried but not that they were the HRP Harrison products but they must have been the HRPs. The other point is that they were tried but could not take the high nitro loads full cast iron blocks could time after time and stay in one piece. Still, Harrison set fast competition records. Will this information in the form of binders from Kay Harrison shed light on the HRP design, production and evolution of the blocks and then the crankcases as they evolved for Harrison racing engines?

[Tim Chance]

Tim: Will this information in the form of binders from Kay Harrison shed light on the HRP design, production and evolution of the blocks and then the crankcases as they evolved for Harrison racing engines?

John - I'm leaving this coming Thursday am for the USTS race in Raleigh. In the meantime I'll go through the info in the binders and find what I can about the motors. Kay should be there at the races and I'll try and find out as much more as I can for you. - Tim

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Being able to rub shoulders with the man that was doing it and having the binders to refer to in all this is going to make one great story. Please don't read the binders while you drive or race, the cell phone companies might scream unfair competition!

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Its one thing to have donated Harrison brochure copies to post on this thread, that started something. Soon it will be possible to see actual Harrison era engine components here too thanks to some un-named history buffs making that possible. I never got to see one up close from any mechanical perspective but they were around out there roaring around the racecourses amongst Anzanis when I was a teenager. I hope as the components pictures get posted anyone having some knowledge on them will lend comments to what is seen.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The question of what the term "Lodite" meant on some pistons castings undersides seems to be resolved. I believe Mark 75H indicated that it had to do with a particular alloy mix used as the casting material some time ago. That seemed in isolation until some Harrison (HRP) products turned up and had the same casting marks on different major and minor items in addition to the "HRP" (Harrison Racing Producs symbol. The same "Lodite" marque appears on HRP produced pistons, exhaust elbos, cast aluminum racing megaphone exhausts and now too on Harrison aluminum class A and B engine blocks. There must have been some qualities to this type of alloy being used in engine and engine parts castings that made it the alloy of choice for some reasons remarkable?

[Mark75H]

The alloy referred to before was "Lynite" ... I've never heard of "Lodite"

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I suppose I have Lodite imprinted on me pretty bad because now that I am looking for it its found as a single imprint on the Harrison HRP cast aluminum outboard racing products. Sorry, but I thought it was you that came up with the name association and alloy explanation to it. I kind of remember that other alloy a bit too but that was a while back in posts.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The following 2 pictures are the Harrison Class B Loop Scavenged 3 carbuettored Alky by Kay Harrison, of Birmingham Metal Products - HRP (Harrsion Racing Products)

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The following picture is a Harrison Class B Alky with expansion chamber exhausts.