British Anzani A & B Stock & Alky Racing Engines

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I know there are things I missed like 2 carb crankcase, other carbs and other things here and there that would still need unwrapping and storage de-greasing (what looks rusty isn't, it the dirty grease and farbric coverings mess left behind prior to cleaning). At some point I might add things that come up from time to time as they happen in the future.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

This British Anzani B- Stock gasoline racer may be the only one if the world left that has never been started. I hope it it never will be! for its value is just that.........never been started.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

It might turn out small from the print it was taken from.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The clarity may not be too good as they were scanned from a Polariod instant print.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

These two pictures are from another part of this website and are an excellent representation of what was going on withe these engines. Pictures courtesy of this BRF site (Jeff Lytle and the late Ron Collins (I understand)). They show the DelOrto fuel bowls raised high above the flywheel is the exact way Bill Tenney spec'd his engines. His did not use the remote fuel pumps and return spill over systems back to the fuel tank like the later Hallum and Anderson versions seen out West. They came mostly one or two bowled required to still use the single float gravity needle and seat float system in the Vacturi carbs. Why one or two and sometimes three DelOrto remote bowls?? They were simply to give the engine the fuel it needed gravity fed without overflowing and they ate it, methanol and more than 20% nitro fuel drinks voraciously as an A or B versions with the like wise number of DeOrtos feeding them gravity fuel.

I heard some time ago that stinger pipes were being tested by the late and great Bill Tenney as well as the movers and shakers out west too but when you compare todays computerized formulas that bag off a set of pipes specs and manufacturing specs off your PC or laptop, these people were already thinking far in advance of where this was all going. The amazing part was that they were hitting the century mark of 100 mph by the 1980s without stinger pipes/expansion chambers. What would computer designed chambers do for their design now? They had some CD ignitions by the 1980s but had not strayed into the flat slide or round slide carbs at that point yet the original carb for these engines was a round slide carb called an Amal Monoblock that you find a whole host of on British motorcycles. Obviously the technology to take slide carbs to the next level using methanol and nitro mixes was far behind volumetric and butterfly throttle opening technologies.

[Mark75H]

John, where did that picture come from?

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Both of these engines, the one with the DelOrto bowls held high and the one with the stinger expansion chambers are already on this site, under "coolest racing egnines of our time", So I copied them to this section to honor their contributors with the alignment of those pictures on this thread too to give readers the most perspective possible of their evolutions as part of the British Anzani thread. I hope nobody minded?? They fit real well as does this 4 carb version that came through Charlie Williams of CORE website.

I have some older pictures of the DelOrto high mounted bowls somewhere in storage here until all the renovations are complete to get them and post those as well. I had a picture book full of these beasts running against Quincy Flatheads, Harrisons and Konigs at races here when I was a teenager, pitman and DSH driver, but, a friend of mine in a marital splitup lost the whole thing negatives and all were sleved in with it. That is one loss to me and would have been great for this site too.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Prior to 1980 Roger Wendt campaigned this true hybrid Anzani based Hallum - Anderson version in Flathead Lake and North West Alky competitions. Though it was a 2 carb with one small carb over the rotary valve (Tillotson HL) and one real big one (Vacturi) it was simple in terms of overall form and remarkably fast and reliable with running 40% nitro in the methanol fuel mix.

*Described fully it was: Anzani cast iron loop block, crankcase & pistons.
*Next generation crankshaft and rods where the earlier used bronze bushings in the small end of the rod, this was had caged needle rollers. The big end crank pins where straight instead of tapered into the top and bottom crank components to crank component alignment.
*Phelon flywheel ignition.
*Harrison rope plate.
*Mercury clamps and saddle.
*Konig gearcase.
*Fabricated pipe tower housing.
*OMC high volume fuel pump for return to tank fuel system.
*Well proven bell exhaust system.
*Mercury steering adapter and steering bar system.

[smittythewelder]

After Ron built it for him, Roger (previously a BSH driver from Montana) (I think), ran it on a very pretty Goff hydro with which Ralph Thede had previously set a CSH competition record. All of Larry Goff's boats were beautifully-made.

The picture with the ram's-horn bounce-pipes (expansion chambers) is of one of Ron's own engines. Since it is on a runabout, the likely driver would be Ron's brother Don (who also built a number of successful Dart-Craft boats, and made pipes, too), or Chuck Walters, or maybe Lee Sutter.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

This crankcase I understand is typical of the Anzani Alkys developed in the North West by/for Hallum, Anderson, Sutter and for people like Roger Wendt and The Strains (Gene & Bill) where 2 carbs were applied. The Primary Carb, A Vacturi not seen here sits on the cast iron block's piston ports and where there is a torturous S passage from a block port to the crankcase cranshaft rotary tunnel, the block rotary valve passage was left to work too and also a Tillotson HL (quite small for velocity reasons) self pumping carb was positioned on the Crankcase outer wall directly across from the crankshaft rotary valve opening area as well. This created multiple major streams of air fuel, one original via the big Vacturi carb and the others bent from the vacturi through that tunnel and from the HL carb direct on, to the crankshaft rotary valves making for such air/fuel feeding that included the piston ports with modified piston skirts too, there was virtually no part of the engines single revolution where some port was opening and some closing with all the overlaps that the pulsations at the intake normally associated with piston port and then also piston port and rotary valve combo engines became near steady streams of high velocity air/fuel that really power packed the engines to do the speeds they did. These engines were breathing and more was to come!