Harv's Norman supercharger thread

[NES304]

No words. Literally.
Awesome Harv


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[twin4]

Hi Harv

Picked up a Norman Supercharger for my FC Van to put on the grey motor. Would like to get some info on fabricating a manifold and what size  carbie to use and any other mounting brackets required to fit the unit. Any help and guidance would be much appreciated. Have a bit of history regarding what car this unit was used on. Thanks Dave 

[Harv]

No drama Dave - happy to help. I've helped out a few guys by emailing them pdf files that summarise the forum postings (eg a 4-5 page file just on manifold fabrication, or pulley selection etc). Shoot me a PM with your email address and we can get the ball rolling.

It comes at a price though - you gotta tell me the story of your Norman  .

Cheers,
Harv

[Harv]

Ladies and gents,

Sometimes a real gem shows up in the most unexpected places. While Fred was looking through some of the original Wray supercharger paperwork, he found the document below, stapled into an Arnott supercharger instruction book:



It’s a tune-up and dyno card for Mike McInerny’s Wray-blown FJ Holden ute, which I covered in my Wray anecdote. The car was dyno-checked by Mike and John Wray as the vehicle ran the prototype Wray supercharger, and it was somewhat of a guess as to what was going on in terms of output, etc.  At the time, Mike and the Wray team were discovering issues with cracking liners, breaking liners, oil lubrication, timing of ignition, blower pressures… often learning and improving the supercharger the hard way.

BP Marleston those days was run by Stan Keen, who had the only workshop on the south side of Adelaide with a dyno. The workshop was only some two miles from Garrie Cooper and Elfins at Edwardstown. Stan would go on to run Stan Keen Dyno from 1968, which later became Turbotune. Turbotune closed in the middle of this year, to be replaced by the High Performance Diesel Service Centre. During the run on the rolling road Mike’s FJ managed to wheelspin the rollers, despite running a big set of Dunlop L section racing tyres on the rear. The factory grey delivers around 70hp at the crank, so the 70hp at the rear wheels of Mike’s ute is perhaps 30% more power (driveline loss). Interestingly, the increase in torque is minimal - the factory grey motor 110ftlb has decreased slightly to 103ftlb (400ftlb at the rear wheels, though multiplied by the diff at 3.894:1).

As Mike points out, any new car would make the efforts on the FJ laughable. But at the time, it was a scourge to many… albeit an absolute slug alongside Wray-blown Robby's Cooper S brick.

Cheers,
Harv

[Gary C]

Good stuff Harv,
Looks like they used to get a bit done in 1 hr!

[Harv]

Ladies and Gents,

An interesting machine has appeared in recent weeks – one of Eldred’s Type 265 Normans. The machine was purchased by Peter from a mate in the late 70’s. The mate in turn had purchased the machine from a gentlemen west of Toowoomba, Queensland. The machine has seen some use, having wear on the belt tensioner pulley and some minor marking inside. The Type 265 has since sat idle, though Peter has been taking a look at it over recent weeks.

The Type 265 was manufactured by Eldred by bolting together two Type 65s. Peter’s machine is mounted on a red motor supercharger to cylinder head manifold. The carburetor to cylinder head manifolds are cast in two piece, and then welded together. The manifolds have bosses that can be milled/tapped to suit different carburetor combinations, either twin carbs or triples. It is possible that the configurations were
a)   manifolds run separately (no welding), with one downdraught carburettor per supercharger bank, and
b)   manifolds welded together, with three sidedraught carburetors into a common plenum.
Peter’s Type 265 is a water cooled unit, with the standard “Casting Number 22” cast into it. The serial number (535) is stamped under the front of the unit. This is the highest serial number I have seen on a Type 65. The supercharger weighs 118.4  pounds (less carburettors). The rotor is solid steel, weighing near 50 pounds on its own. The rotors bear two-piece vanes,  9.921" long (standard Type 65 vanes are 10”). The Norman is fitted with triple H6 SU carbies, though these were not on the unit when purchased. The unit has no relief valve.

This is a pretty unique unit - I know of only one other survivor (a Type 270), owned by Mike Norman.

I've got some photos, but having trouble posting them now that PhotoBucket doesn't want to play with me.

Cheers,
Harv

[Harv]

It is a very, very small world.
 
Richard Lock, based in Melbourne owned an LC GTR Torana, with a port and polished head, 20/60 cam and extractors. Richard contacted Eldred Norman to enquire about a supercharger to suit. Elded indicated that he had several people waiting for new units, though he did have one used unit (a Type 110 Lightweight which had seen service on his son Bill’s LC Torana) that he could sell. This is the same vehicle that Bill was punting around Australian race tracks that has been discussed in the thread above:

Richard agreed, and travelled to Noosa to have the supercharger fitted. During his visit, Richard took a ride in Eldred’s Norman-blown HD ute, watching the front end rise several inches as Eldred engaged the supercharger clutch from inside the cabin. The Type 110 supercharger came complete with twin 1¾” SU carburettors and a water injection system, and was run at 9psi boost. The water injection system was supplied by the plastic bottle seen in the passenger front end of the engine bay, and used vacuum to automatically draw water into a box on the SU’s via brass nozzles. The supercharger’s twin SUs would not fit under the Torana’s bonnet, and a hole needed to be cut. Richard drove the completed car back to Melbourne, terrorising local GT Falcon owners for a number of years. The car made the occasional run at Calder Park, returning a time around 15.3 seconds. The car was taken to the Firth Motors workshop at Queens Avenue, Auburn (Melbourne) for a tune. Harry was not impressed with the water injection, and disconnected it. The engine began to suffer from pinging, and ended up blowing the ring lands from the pistons around Christmas 1971. The GTR engine was rebuilt and swapped into Richard’s early Holden, with a new GM parts XU1 engine going into the Torana. The Type 110 sat for some time before being sold around in the early 2000’s to a gentleman from Werribee who was aiming to put it into his HR Holden.

Apologies for the lack of photo... PhotoBucket still doesn't like me. Have uploaded on over on the FB/EK forum for those interested.

Cheers,
Harv

[gray chandler]

The Rowe-Wigzell WonderCar speedcar was later driven by various drivers including Colin Hennig, Steve Stewart and was then later powered by a Mazda rotary engine driven by Steve Hennig at Speedway Park. The vehicle is currently owned by Ian Gear, shown below driving the vehicle (back to it’s Norman supercharged Peugeot engine) at the 490-yard Exhibition Grounds Speedway (the EKKA) in Brisbane, Queensland.



Ian is shown below driving it at a historic meeting at the 390-yard Riverview Speedway, South Australia (also known as Murray Bridge Speedway, or currently the Murray Machining and Sheds Murray Bridge Speedway).



Rowe later went on to build two Norman supercharged Renaults. I am not certain about the first Renault. I know that Greg Anderson drove a supercharged Renault for Rowe, built in 1972 and fitted to an Edmonds chassis, until the closure of Rowley Park in 1979. I’m not sure if this was the first or the second of the Renaults, nor if it was the same car that Anderson won the South Australian Speedcar Championship in the 1973/1974 season.
The second of the two Rowe Renaults was bought by Cec Eichler and was raced under the Kevin Fischer of Murray Bridge South Australia banner alongside the Suddenly #88 Supermodified sprintcar.  The norman supercharged midget was also numbered #88 and painted in similar purple as the Suddenly #88 car – see image below. The midget was fitted with fuel injection and looked after by Fischer mechanic Ian Thiele.




Rowe later went on to build a Norman supercharged Volkswagon (which was susceptible to spitting crank cases). Rowe was also the owner of a Norman-supercharged FB Holden, fitted with a floor shifter of his own manufacture.


Bill Wigzell was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) on the 11th of June 1979 for service to the sport of motor racing, whilst Alex Rowe was similarly made an OAM on the 26th of January 1987 for service to speedway racing. This honour is one that they share with the likes of Allan Grice, Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife. Ian Thiele is alive and well in Mannum . At his place last week . he has a stunning Supercharged VW 1700 in his workshop office . cheers/

[ipg]

does the 1700 have a judson on it?

[grey nomad]

Is the silver “Suddenly 88” the ex Billy Willis car ?  AL.

[GreyFC]

It really sucks half the images don't load any more

[Harv]

Drives me nuts too. If you want a specific image, let me know and I can email it to you. One day I will PDF the lot. It’s written up, but needs proofreading.

Cheers,
Harv