a Stan Mott drawing ( https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=Stan+Mott+ )
an article appeared in Road and Track in 1958
Schrafft went on to race the car here in the States a few more times, including at the 1952 12 Hours of Sebring, where it finished 14th overall and third in class.
In addition to supplying a letter designating Schrafft and Stiles as Crosley’s official representatives, Crosley agreed to sell the duo a Hotshot at cost and to introduce them to Paul Klotsch, the company’s chief engineer.
Klotsch was also the man responsible for developing Lloyd Taylor’s wartime copper-brazed stamped-sheetmetal stationary four-cylinder engine into the CoBra and later CIBA automotive engines for Crosley, so he knew his way around the potent overhead-camshaft design.
Stock, the 44-cu.in. engines were good for 26.5 horsepower, but Klotsch had a few tricks up his sleeve. From the back stock, he produced a forged military-spec crankshaft. He specified stellate-faced exhaust valves, polished ports, a bump in compression to 9.0, a pair of downdraft Carter carburetors, and a number of aftermarket items, including an Iskendarian camshaft, a Harman and Collins distributor, Braje cam cover and finned aluminum crankcase, Braje header, and low-friction piston rings from Grant. On the dynamometer, the finished engine put out 42 horsepower at 6,000 RPM, but as John Matras wrote for Automobile magazine in 1993, the Isky cam didn’t really come on until 6,400 RPM and the engine was good for 7,500 RPM, so “they would never learn the actual maximum bhp of the little engine.”
After the boat ride to France, Stiles and Schrafft quickly discovered that the stock headlamps were "about as effective as a pair of whale oil lamps,”
They found themselves forced to upgrade the headlamps first, then the generator to power the headlamps. The latter was easier said than done, considering they needed to find a generator that could also turn the water pump off the back of its shaft like the Crosley’s generator did; they chose a Marchal, either not realizing it had non-roller bearings that wouldn’t withstand race conditions or not having a choice but to use it.
It lasted only 40 laps.
At some point, the car lost its original Klotsch-modified engine, replaced with a standard Crosley four-cylinder, and Schrafft replaced the original Crosley transmission and torque tube driveline with a Fiat four-speed and driveshaft.
No comments:
Post a Comment