Ray Allen versus Jack Werst '1970 SS/EA Showdown'

[BadBanana]

X Tech Man: Where is Lake Placid, FL?
I just moved up to Wake forest, NC from The Villages, FL. going back for a visit the second half of Oct.

[X-TECH MAN]

Originally Posted by BadBanana

X Tech Man: Where is Lake Placid, FL?
I just moved up to Wake forest, NC from The Villages, FL. going back for a visit the second half of Oct.

Approx 3 hours south of the Villages. Im 10 miles or so from Sebring Race Track. I remember you when you raced S/S. I used to prep the heads and crew for Jim Morgan and Dikie Estivez on their 428 CJ's back in the 70's.

[Rich Biebel]

I did most everything at Crow's for over 10 years.......

Hot tank loader and unloader and rinser...Just rinsed the parts off in the driveway with a pressure hose and hot water from a coil that ran thru the hot tank....Brown water ran downhill...Not to cool in todays world.....can you say DEP or EPA

Glass beader.....Did every cylinder head unitll it was spotless.....

I did most of the headwork.....everything but the VJ on race car stuff( Bill did them all), and tons of VJ's on roadcar stuff.....

I CC'ed and milled all the heads including everything for T/K's....That included some LS-6 SS heads.....


I bored blocks on a table we had and used a Kwik Way FN bar......Counterboring was a PITA and I f'ed up a block or two be retracting the bar in the wrong position......Actually happened once when I went to answer the phone and I think it was Ralph....Hit retract and never rotated the bar to the right spot......It was MY BLOCK and it put a nasty stripe in it but I ran it anyway..Hey is was just a 454 for S/G and brackets......

I ran the Storm Vulcan 85-B Block Master........Often had the mill running and was boring a block at the same time.....

Did pistons......rods by the ton.....Assembled almost all the heads and the list goes on and on........

We had a Go-Power Dyno....and a Dyno session usually was very eventfull.....

Those dynos were far from a modern day unit and it was time consuming and often we had "issues" develop during the testing.....

We did dyno quite few engines.......and at one time the current head of Toyota Racing in America......Lee White......used our dyno to test the engines he built for the team he managed locally.... A 924 Turbo Porsche Trans Am Team......Pretty wild little engines....Well over 500hp at about 130 cubes and the sound was deafening if you were anywhwere near the dyno when he tortured it....

I loved my days in that machine shop for the most part.........It's a shame so many small shops shut down......

I could go on and on about that but lets just say times change.....

[Paul Ceasrine]

K-Machine,

That Kwik-Way Model #FN portable boring bar was another good unit.
My father bought his new in 1971, for $1900.

Then later the Rotler.
If the block deck was square, that FN bar made a nice bore when using the low-speed, and of course a sharpened bit.
I still remember the hold down device, with the '3' thrumb screws,,,,,,
it loosened up on me a few times,,,,,,,.

Kwik-Way,,,,made very good valve grinding equipment too,,,,,

Rich Biebel,,,,,,,,,,you guys must have bought your Kwik-Way equipment off of
Lacey Williams also,,,,,,,,
pc

[Paul Ceasrine]

Jack Werst,,,

According to Jack,,,,,,,after the Superbird was 'specially treated', it was taken to ATCO (south New Jersey) for testing,,,and ran sub-11.00's,,,,,,well below the 11.51 SS/EA National Record.

It set a track record at ATCO, but what class was not mentioned.
If it was SS/EA, it was not in a 'legal car', as Jack had stated it was
'specially tricked up'.

The photo of the car at ATCO does prove that it was there.

A week later it was brought to Indianapolis.

When the car got to Indy for the 70' Nationals, Jack did state that the word was out,,,,,,,,,and that the Tech Inspectors for the NHRA gave him a terrible time during tech,,,,,,,but the car did pass, and was entered into SS/EA.

pc

[Rich Biebel]

Originally Posted by Paul Ceasrine

K-Machine,

That Kwik-Way Model #FN portable boring bar was another good unit.
My father bought his new in 1971, for $1900.

Then later the Rotler.
If the block deck was square, that FN bar made a nice bore when using the low-speed, and of course a sharpened bit.
I still remember the hold down device, with the '3' thrumb screws,,,,,,
it loosened up on me a few times,,,,,,,.

Kwik-Way,,,,made very good valve grinding equipment too,,,,,

Rich Biebel,,,,,,,,,,you guys must have bought your Kwik-Way equipment off of
Lacey Williams also,,,,,,,,
pc

Yes we did buy from Lacey Williams.....

We did buy a VJ machine form Charlie Cockey......The guy was relentless and hammered us to buy the machine.....

I did a lot of heads with it.....Neway.....damn thing worked great and when I did heads for Ralph at T/K's he loved it....Chrome seats he called them.....

I used a stone for a top cut as the Neway carbide cutter blades were not radiused and left a sharp edge....

I bought out a guys small machine shop from Pa. after I left Crows.....

I still have some of the stuff including all the KwikWay seat grinding equipment......

I did a lot of engine and heads at home for many years....

[Hemi Moose]

Here's another T/K customer.

[davidhuff]

Sound like you guys had a great time in those days.

[Paul Ceasrine]

Rich B.

Charlie Cockey,,,,,a smooth talker,,,,,he was from Maryland.

The NEWAY carbide cutter set-up,,,,,,,,,about $1800 or so for the kit,,,,
worked great for the foreign head soft seats too,,,,,,

Charlie Cockey, one pressure salesman,,,,,,,,,his commision base for
NEWAY was 50%,,,,,,,,,,$900 per unit,,,,,,,,not too bad for those
early-to-mid 1980's salesman,,,,,,
My father threw him out,,,,,,,,but still bought one anyway,,,,,
They did serve a purpose,,,,,,

Sounds like Jack Vogel may have been to your shop too,,,,,
he was the rep for Winona, Storm-Vulcan, Rottler and Tobin-Arp,
Goodsen, K-Line and few other companies,,,,,,

Winona FG-5000 Flywheel Grinder,,,,,,,,,,,,,another great money maker
for the shop,,,,,,,

pc

[Paul Ceasrine]

Tom,

According to Jack,,,,,,,,,he purposely lost in the 3rd round,,,,,,,
to avoid reaching the SS/EA Class Final.

As per Jack,,,,,,,,,Ray Allen had lost earlier, so there was no need to
continue,,,,,,,,,,and they never met..

1970 Indy Photo,,,,,,,,