British Anzani A & B Stock & Alky Racing Engines

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

This engine post is going to be one large one when done. (some 30 pages) I wish to thank Smitty-The-Welder, the late and great Bill Tenney (Mid-West) and Gene Strain (Calgary, AB Racing Assn.) for all the materials concerning these engines that will date all the way back to 1959. By 1965 these engines as Alkys (Todays Pro Class engines) were already going in excess of 80 miles per hour and by 1981 were going in excess of 100 miles per hour, setting records where some runs were going up to 107 miles per hour hitting raceboat, prop and other technological barriers in the process.

The first feature will be some introductory materials to the British Anzani racing outboards that will shortly be followed by the complete type written 1959 manual produced by Bill Tenney himself in 1959 for racers purchasing his engines and modifying them for Alky themselves if that is what they wanted to do. Enjoy one of the first "cast iron" blocked loop charged engines that was part of that technological revolution that also produced the Quincy Flathead Loop, The Harrison Loop, The Konig Loop and other hybrid racing engines producing amazing horsepower before there was really the props and raceboats to handle that kind of output.

Enjoy the start to this thread, the entire 1959 Bill Tenney British Anzani manual will follow this opener in a short few days.

In the meantime if there are some posts of pictures and stories you may want to add into this thread, please do. Everyone will be pleased to share your pictures and your experiences.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Putting this together for BRF readers and writers was no mean feat. Mark 75H mentioned that I had to get larger but then 50kb size is the limit. To do this with generation re-copied status was quite trying. Thanks to the late and great Gene Strain (Calgary, AB. division of the Alberta Racing Powerboat Assn. of the day) made this possible. Not only did he sell me his well run B - Alky Anzani way back in the early 1980s, it came with this 1959 Bill Tenney's Special Instructions For British Anzani Motors too. When I got them they were terribly faded so there have been so many enhancements done to bring them to their resent hard copy state, I suffer from severe eyestrain!

In any case keeping in mind that there is a 50kb limit to each posted Jpeg, remember they are downloadable from this site and you too can enhance them some more to make them even more readable or get some steno with good googly eyes an old typewriter to redo them fresh save for the wavy lines that are so original.

Enjoy the late and great Bill Tenney's works now following this narrative.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Next Ba Batch

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

More Of Bill's Manual

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

And More Of Bill Tenney's Ba Manual

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The Last Pages Of Bill Tenney's Manual

[BBaron]

Grahan Holmes and his son Bobby had some of the first A&B Anz.in Tex.
They were from Lubbock
Glad I found this page have raced for a long time
Benny Bob Baron

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Greetings!! It is very nice to hear from a kindred spirit on these engines from the other side of near Highway 59 concerning these engines. Seems that at least 3 corners of the continent are identifying with these amazingly early engines into the Loop Charged world of outboard racing we take for granted today. All my XXXXs live in Texas! (my wife of 33 years might say something about that! LOL!)

When I was little in the late 1950s these engines really came on strong and by the mid 1960s if you didn't have a A or B Anzani, Harrison, Quincy Flathead or Konig loop engines and most were, by then in Alky you were in deep deep trouble. I woud sure like to see some postings here of pictures from that era where engines were developing gobs of power with prop, raceboat and safety racing to change futuristically to what the engines were producing power wise.

If anyone does not have the scan equipment to post pictures here from albums etc. I do and can do that will be returned by mail to the holder once scanning and posting with your story and picture are done. Anyone with pictures and stories for posting Anzani engines at work???

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Here is a novel approach a racer at some point took to control 2 banes of the Anzani B Alky engine with their heavy cast iron blocks and traditional problems of weight added from the overhanging exhausts systems.

One bane was to get water in the bottom pipe from the backwash as a racer would come back into the pits. Water would come up the bottom pipe and frequently wet down the cylinder unless the driver almost vaulted over the cowl keeping weight as far forward as possible to prevent this condition that would require purging and a fresh sparkplug to do anything more. There were some reports of water getting into the cylinder from the backwash causing hydralic damage to the engine that would require engine teardown and repair.

The second bane was the overhanging weight othe exhaust system with its pipe support struts added to this overhang that could break the top off the cast aluminum and machined midsection tower and could and frequently did case cast iron block mounting flange cracking. The midsection tower no one could re-weld successfully and were replaced. Cast iron block brazed back on block to crankcase mounting flanges seemed quite common and proved reliable.

The following class B Alky Anzani pictures following shows a simple exhaust system instead of sweeping back in the classic crescent shape were made to fire 90 degrees opposite piston travel throwing the exhaust to the "crowd side", so spectators could literally hear it blasting at them as it came by on the race course. Because the pipes were set to 90 degrees off piston travel the extra weight to the overhang was largely eliminated and in fact concentrated forward and on the opposite side to the big Vacturi carb, extra exhaust pipe bracing was eliminated and the pipes in the pictures never had any vibration cracking requiring extra welding to show repairs. Truly a step in the right direction.

Enjoy the pictures.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The Anzani B Alky with offset exhausts.