Lancia Beta Forum

Hi everyone ,i,m a new member based in cornwall . The unusual thing is i dont have a car /  But i do have an engine , its in a Dragster i built in 1980 ,its a slingshot Dragster and we were lucky enough to get sponsorship from a French magazine in 82 so the car has been to Le Man . I sold the car to UK Drag Racing Magazine in 83  and bought it back 4 years ago ,i joined up to gain access to parts and info for the re-build i,m about to start . The motor came out of a Beta and ran on Methanol through a blower , on the re-build i wont too modify a few things like oil pump and ignition ,as well as re-build the motor . Cheers for now

Welcome to the forum, certainly an interesting use of the "Twink" putting it into a dragster.

Did you use the standard 2000cc Volumex engine and blower and modify the fuelling?

What sort of power was it generating when run on methanol?

Certainly for parts you have come to the right place and there are a good number who have upgraded & enhanced the performance of their engines by various means - so this should make for interesting reading.

All the best,  Matt

Hi Matt , look at the numbers mate ,we built it in 79/80 we approached Lancia but they told us the engine would,nt take a blower ,so we put a Marshall Cabin blower directly above the motor and fabricated a manifold to suit , two 1 3/4 S U,s were modified to act as Constant Flow fuel injection ,they came off an E type . Custom made flywheel held a paddle cluch plate under a Ferrari Boxer cover and this was wrapped in a bell housing made from 1/4 inch steel plate ,the gearbox was a Borg Warner 65 Auto modified by a friend of mine, the cluch was dumped on the line then forgotten about till the end ,simply pulling the gear lever through without dipping the clutch on the run, it fed into an Austin Westminster back axle with MK 4 Zephyr ends grafted on ,the chassis was made from c d s tubing ,home made front axle holding moped rims laced on too a hub turned by me using honda 750 spokes . we never had any idea how much power the 1800 almost stock motor put out as it never had water in the block ,only block filler ,and as such could not be run on a dyno     

john

Ahh so it's a 1800 cc lump then, well there ain't too many of those around John so be warned.  You'll mostly find 2000 or 1600's around most people say the 1600 is best as they are a bit more spritely!

Odd that Lancia said the engine wouldn't take a blower, as they put out the VX powered cars which had the 2000cc lump and a Roots blower on top.  The VX did have different valves & head so it could have just been that they were referring to the 1800 engines.

So whats the plan are you going to run it in the dragster again soon?  Got any pictures of the car/engine?

Yes 1800 ,Odd that Lancia said the motor would,nt take it ,then 2 years later they bring out thier own ?? And we used a rootes type Hey ho , tried to up load some pics but the files were too big so i,ll have to find out how to compress them . Planning a full re-build and trying to get it back out for Extreme Wheels day next June it was held at the Haynes Motor Museum last June and a load of us met up for a great weekend ,a week later my best mate ,and crew chief on my Top Methanol Dragster ,died suddenly .So i,m geting it back out as a tribute to him ,I,ve modified the chassis a little and thinking of running the dizzie off the back of the cam and maybe adapt the S U =,s a little to run better Found a video last week of the car in Albi which is in the south of France ,we ran it there in 82 for the Magazine that sponsored us  . Chromme e Flamme was the mag .I,ll see if i can send the link to the video ,its on a site called Vimeo   
  John

Chromes&FlammesWorld (1982) (http://vimeo.com/3413540)


Right i managed to get the link to the video shot in 82 @ Albi ,the first half shows a V 12 Trike that Patrice wanted me too test drive @ the Paul Ricard circuit ,but the guy building it took it for an impromptu spin on the trading estate near his workshop ,and stuffed it into a wall . The second half shows 3 runs of the Lancia engined dragster and the car they gave us as a tow car .