Chapter 1 Introduction

First, a bit of explanation about the team name.  We use centrifugal superchargers in our engines in the Studebaker tradition of big power from small displacement.  If you look at a centrifugal supercharger from the intake scroll side you will notice the snail shell like appearance.  Of course, Snail Racing wouldn't be all that exciting, so we looked for a hook to create that double take moment. Making that snail rabid was just the touch needed.  Taking cues from the Super Bee and Mr Horsepower characters we worked out a crude logo and "Speedy" was born.  As our mascot, Speedy needed to represent Studebaker proudly, so he wears a helmet with the Lazy S logo.  And that gave us the team motto.

 Watch That "S" Car Go !!!!

  We would love to find a good Photoshopper who is excited about giving Speedy some improvements and bring him to life.  If you love creating graphics, have the talent and would like to contribute to our team effort, please contact Jim at jim@rabidsnailracing.com

 

 

  Our current race project is a 1964 Studebaker GT Hawk being prepared for the Bonneville Salt Flats to compete the C/CPS which means an engine between 306 and 372.99 cu. in. competing in Classic Production Supercharged.

 

  The race engine in it's final form is 362.6 c.i.d.  Of course, it must be supercharged by the same type of blower originally offered by the manufacturer.  In our case that means no turbos.  The blower must be a belt driven centrifugal piece.

 

   Over the next few days I will be adding information in a compressed time frame to catch everyone up to the point the project is at currently.

 

  Some pictures of the car as we acquired it below.

 

 

 

 

As you can see, this is an extremely good body without rust or mangled panels.  The interior is better than it looks.  The sun simply ate the seat upholstery and carpets, but the underlying material is solid.  There is not much happening with the body and chassis, but the engine program is moving along nicely.

 

Starting with a 1959 259cid block that was abandoned in a pine forest, the block came to us by way of Dan Miller via Matthew Burnett from the Atlanta, GA area.  The bare block was so rusted that we had to cut 0.040" in the cylinders just to get a sonic reading of the wall thickness.

On the same trip to GA, I stopped by Jeff Rice's DeepInHock Acres.  Jeff had a rolling chassis from a '63 GT Hawk, so I picked that up as well.  This allows me to build on the chassis before pulling the body from its original rolling stock.



 

 

 

In the next installment I will take you through the block's transformation from boat anchor to real racing bones.  You will also learn of an amazing coincidence that allowed the addition of another 103 cubic inches to that 53 year old block.