Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

[russhill]

Boatmark59, Nobody who knows me would ever start by saying, " Tell me---" . It could cure insomnia. First, thanks for asking. I did not have a career at Drake Engineering.

I spent 13 years at Mattel Toys where I was Data Processing (Computer) Chief Honcho. It was from there that I went to Drake. After Drake, I spent another 13 years at Northrop Aircraft on the B2 Stealth Bomber project. I ran a 7 acre computer room operation, the largest IBM installation in the world. I had about 400 people working for me.

Back to what you asked for, Drake. John Drake and I had hung out together and raced with or against each other since about 1950. After about 1970, we didn't see each other too often. Ron always liked John and stopped by occasionally to see him. In about 1978, Ron called me and said John is really in trouble, business wise. You should call him. I did. The following is my interview:
How you doing, John? Fine. How's business? Bad. What can I do to help you Take over. OK.

So I quit Mattel and for about 4 years was President of Drake Engineering. Things were bad. USAC had lowered the boost limits to where a Cosworth normally aspirated V8 Grand Prix engine could withstand the reduced boost. The four banger Offy could no longer compete.
So under the engineering guidance of Hans Hermann, Drake built a V8. It broke the company. That's when I arrived.

The V8 was a pretty good piece, but no engine has ever come off the drawing board and out of the machine shop ready to race. A lot of dyno time was necessary. We had a good dyno and a good dyno man, Stewart Van Dyne (Van Dyno), from the Penske stable, but we didn't have any money.

I'm tired of tired of typing and I'm sure you're tired of reading, so I'll continue with chapter 2 later.

[russhill]

Chapter Two
Maybe I should tell you a bit of the Drake Engineering history. It all started in 1920 with a guy named Harry Miller. I think he was a man of some money, but I'm not sure. He set out to build a boat engine. He copied the dual overhead cam concept from a 1909 Peugeot. A Peugeot had won Indy in 1913,16, 19.

Somehow (there are several books written about this), I don't know how but his engines got into car racing. Then, beginning 1923 his engine won the Indy race. They subsequently won a total of 12 Indy races.

You may recall reading about it, but in the early thirties. our country had a pretty big recession (as we call then today). Ultimately in about 1933, Fred Offenhauser, Miller's shop foreman took over the company and started producing "Offenhausers". Offenhauser engines subsequently won 27 Indy races.

In about 1946, Dale Drake and the first three-time Indy winner, Louie Meyer bought out Fred Offenhauser. They called themselves Meyer-Drake Engineering but kept the Offenhauser engine name. Dale and Louie's friendship went back a long ways. Dale actually rode in on Indy race with Louie when two men were required. Dale was an accomplished wing walker and glider builder/pilot.

My first real girlfriend was Yvonne Meyer, Louie's daughter. I think I was 19 and she was 17. It didn't last long.

The engine built under all these name and owner changes was a basic four cylinder, four valve, dual overhead cams. Of course changes and upgrades were constantly being made. The first I remember was the 270 (4.5L), then the 254, 4.1 liter. Ultimately the turbocharged version was 2.8 liters - 171 ci. Over the years the valve angle was reduced several times.
Sometime in the thirties they built a "Midget Offy". On my opinion, it was obsolete when it was built; however, it raced in and won a lot of Midget car races. I think it was 91 ci, 1.5 L, It was very sturdy and reliable and it beat more Ford 60s than it ever lost to. It was an iron block, 3 main, 2 valve, SOHC.

We (I was in the company by then) built several championship Mini-Indy engines. They were based on the new VW Rabbit water cooled engines. We won the national championship two years in a row, with different teams.

We also built a 4 valve head for Carroll Shelby for the 2.2 liter Chrysler 4 banger. That's another long story.

Sleeping yet? Later.

[david bryan]

saw this 4 banger at claton ny

[Ron Hill]

I modeled much of my life and a reflection of John Drake. John was always called Johnny in our family. Dale and Louie ran Offenhauser and their engine won Indy year after year. The Hill Family only made the trip to Indy in 1952, but we never missed the race on the radio for 1947 to 1951, then we never missed a race from '52 until 1960 when it was on closed circuit TV.

John was an only child and I always felt he wished he had a little brother like me. Though he was ten years my senior, he treated me as an equal.

John never wanted for stuff as an only child, but he took h life in stride. He always said a Plymouth was the best car, because it was the hardest to tear up...and how did he know, He'd torn all his cars up.

Dale Drake was a humble man and was a"Hands On" person. He build Lee Wallard's 1951 Indy winning motor. He turbo charged the Offy for Bobby Unser. I think I could say Dale was never motivated by money, though he made quite a fortune.

Dale would run John "KR A" on the Offy Dyno and castor oil would get in the muffler. So, when the ran the Offy's on the dyno, the dyno would catch fire from the castor oil...Dale and Louie argued about this often.

Johnwas a pretty good driver, winning high points in several classes. He started driving Harold Guiddy's F Hydro DeSilva. The boat wanted to "Blow Over", so John bolted 20 pounds of lead to the nose. John was one of the first to realize the importance of "Balance" in a boat.

I once rode along with my brother and John to a race in Phoenix...John could preach and sing. He could do both, while driving, but not well.

When I was going to college in Flagstaff, Arizona, I called John and said I wanted to go to the car race at PIR in Phoenix. He got me tickets, Offy won, great weekend.

After I graduated from college and was racing for Evinrude, John and Bob Leach (Eliminator Boats Bob) were racing a Drake Jet at the Parker Nine Hour...

When John and I would see each other I would remind him of the Clock Drive-In in Bellflower....

After Lee Wallard won Indy in '51, Bardahl and Mercury Marine, which had been Lee's sponsor gave John like 200 cases of Bardahl and a new Mercury KG-7 H.

John had no idea what to do with the Bardalh, so when he and my brother would go to the CLOCK DRIVE IN, John would pour a can of Bardahl down the carb on his '54 Plymouth while it was parked. After we'd have our shakes and burgers, John would "FIRE UP" his Plymouth and that Bardalhl would smoke the whole CLOCK DRIVE IN out...I mean the air would be BLUE for about 20 minutes....Now days they's arrest us for air pollution..then, it was all good fun..

[russhill]

A couple of interesting add ons to the 1951 era Ron was talking about: Murrell Ballanger owned the '51 wining Indy car. He was a Chrysler (and Mercury Outboard) dealer in Crown Point Indiana. He gave John the KG7 to race on his A (Alky) hydro.

In the spirit of real men don't race those damn Mercurys, we just played with the engine. When Goulrocks (Tom Gouldstone, 1100 runabout national champion years later) would come over, before he got there, we'd take the spark plugs out and fill the cylinders with some of that Bardahl Ron mentioned above. We'd tell Gouldrocks that this was a super special high compressioned engine--try to pull the starting rope. This baby has compression.

J. C. Agaginian was a Southern California garbage collector and an indy car owner. He won in '52 with Troy Ruttman driving. He had hog farm , to eat the garbage and had a 4 inch tall picture of a pig on his car by the cockpit. So Murrell Ballanger, mentioned above, put a similar sized ear of corn in a similar place on his race car.

Then he told Aggy, "You never see a ear of corn chasing a pig."

[Ron Hill]

I many respects the Drake Family and Hill Family had little in common, really, except for the love of engines and racing. My dad was a painting contractor or a painter as he called himself, my mom was home maker who probably made 200 Racing Life Jackets for boat racers across the country, most were sold in Region 12.

Dale Drake was a "Craftsman" and engine manufacturer. Dale's wife was kind of a Socialite, whose South Gate Women's Club sponsored a boat race at Long Beach marine Stadium in 1953 (Circa).

My dad loved coming home from work and going to his "Shop" where he build many a winning engine.

John Drake loved to come to my dad's "Shop" and work on his race motors. I loved John's approach to work. Every time he'd come to our house to work on a motor, the first thing he'd do is take nap in our yard swing. I've pretty much taken this same approach to life, since I first met John.

When my dad bought John's Mark 30-H (Made into a C Alky) my brother bought his Howard Thompson boat. My dad turned the 30-H back into a Stock C, as he wasn't one to "MOD" Mercury motors, he thought they should be Stock.

Dale had made a "One Off" steering wheel for John C Alky Hydro. It was a Midget Race Car wheel with a THREADED Spool. My brother raced the Thompson for a few years until it met its demise on the way home from Salton Sea, when it blew off the trailer.

I ended up with the steering wheel in my new "Kilo" DU. This pictures say, May 1967. This was our most "UNLUCKY" Hill runabout.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This picture must have been taken about the time you were rigging it up Ron. The floorboard, the bottom between the stringers and everything looks like it had not been in the water yet, and started on the "Lucky" streak. I'm glad you are a packrat too. It's good to see pictures from those days brought to life again.

[Ron Hill]

I had this Racing C Morehouse Runabout boat that was given to my brother by Ed Karakowa, my brother had blown it over at Parker, October, 1955.

Lee Morehouse had repaired it and by September 1959, I had converted it to a DU. I had decided the boat had too much "V" near the bow, so I had cut the bottom off and re placed the "V" with 1/8 plywood and fiber glass.

I set the motor back and added a little plastic windshield. The 1959 Marathon started at the Needles Marathon grounds. I think this was the start of my 7-8 straight Colorado River Marathon wins.

he picture is from the Needles Marathon grounds, cria 1959, photo by Sue McConnell, via Cathy McConnell.

Anyway, I won the Colorado river Marathon in '60-'67 including the 1966 Marathon Nationals.

My dad and I had replaced the plastic windshield with a wooden cone. I broke the DU Kilo record several times with this boat beside sinning the Marathon every September.

We made a rack to put this boat in the garage rafters, as I only ran it at kilos or the marathon. In th spring of '67 or the fall of '66, we had an earthquake in SoCal. This Morehouse boat fell out of the rafter and landed on my mom's car.

The insurance company paid us a bunch of money for my mom's car and a few hundred for the boat's damage.

The Old Man and I decided to build a new Kilo boat as Billy "Racer" Allen had broken my record. So, with the insurance money, we started to build and new marathon and kilo boat.

The boat with the Dale Drake steering wheel was brand new, and I had not added the cowling to it yet.

My dad had built Miss Bellflower before I was born, but had never built another boat until 1964 when I started building my first boat a CU. This CU broke the kilo record in CU, the record had been 60, we upped it to 64.661 MPH.

[russhill]

From the early Forties through the mid Sixties, The four banger Offys ruled. They won every race except 1946. They had evolved into to being virtually bullet-proof. But in the mid Sixties Ford came along with a V-8 and started taking over. Eight cylinder engines, though not necessarily more reliably could pull more horses.

So, the Fords won in 1965, 66, and 67. It became obvious the a traditional Offy could not win, if for no other reason, all of the winning teams had Fords. So, a rule allowing smaller engines to be turbocharged was either made or was noticed. Meyer-Drake then built a smaller turbocharged 4 banger. They won in 1968, Ford's momentum carried Ford for three more wins.

Ford tried to make turbo engines, but failed and the Offys began to again dominate. At that time "boost" wasn't even being talked about. The Offys were running about 90 inches of boost and up to 120 inches to qualify. The inherent toughness of the Offys allowed that, whereas the Fords couldn't take it. The Offys then won the next five Indies.

I don't want to insult anybody's intelligence, but I'm going to tell you how "boost" is measured. It is pressure measured by inches of mercury that can be pushed up a glass tube. Atmospheric pressure by that scale is 14.7. Since horsepower is directly proportion to manifold pressure, Ninety inches of boost, therefore, is 6 atmospheres. Of course, the greater the boost, the more the engines had to be de-tuned to survive. Turbo production cars today measure boost in pounds per square inch (psi) and that starts at atmospheric pressure.

Initially there were no boost rules and therefore no waste gates. As time passed, boost rules were made and waste gates were required, and USAC pop-off vales had to be installed on the plenum chambers. The pop-off is another story I'll get to sometime later.

As I had mentioned as the boost finally got lowered to where the normally aspirated Cosworth Formula I engines survive, the inherent goodness of the V-8 s prevailed over the 4 bangers.

[Ron Hill]

First picture is really not of the Hill's but it is the Needles Marathon in the OLD DAYS, when it was a HAPPENING. Mobil Gas gave everyone gas and stickers, Champion Spark Plugs gave out plus, that is Dick Jones with the Champion shirt. Mercury gave out motors and Speedline gave out boats as prizes.

19-C is me getting around Bob Willard at the Puddle. Why did I say, "Getting around?" Well I only lost two heats in the TV races. Broke a rod once, and borrowed a motor once. Other than that, they called my "Silky Sullivan Hill", as I didn't lead the first lap, but led the last lap. Great "SHOWMEN, those HILLS," Dick Lane would say on TV!

C-6 in the white boat is Junior's C-D-F-X Swift, and the brown boat is Junior's Thompson he bought from John Drake when my dad bought John's Mark 30-H.


Bob Willard is driving the "Cab Over" D Hydro, one of the few D Hydro races he ever ran. This Cab Over was a REAL DOG!!!!