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By PF Arcand - 4 Years Ago
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Not sure of what's documented here, but I know an effort has been made to record various accomplishments done with our favorite engine, in Y-Block Magazine.. But to get to the point, I believe an earlier one was missed. According to an article in "Rodders Journal", dated Spring 2019, a modified, McCulloch supercharged '56 T- Bird, owned, prepped & driven by a L.W."knot" Farrington of New Oleans, apparently in 1959 (the article wasn't clear about that date? nor what class he ran in?) at Bonneville, ran a then best of 173.00 MPH.!. Apparently it was featured later in Hot Rod magazine, in a July 1960 article, when previously used as a Drag Car... Later runs in 1961 were done in A.Sports, but with a supercharged Hemi engine. (Mr. Knot was 99 yrs+when the article was written)
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By Ted - 4 Years Ago
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In doing a quick internet search for Bonneville records and/or top speeds for the various classes, there appears to be very little information detailing those for the early years. While there is a substantial amount of information for events starting in 2000, I find very little information on class speeds performed before that. If someone comes across any of those sites with early information, feel free to put links here for those.
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By Lou - 4 Years Ago
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What about Carol Miller's record run in 1956 with his 56 Victoria?
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By PF Arcand - 4 Years Ago
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Lou: That information has been written about & documented fairly well... although I don't think the "Bow Tie" crowd ever saw it...
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By Florida_Phil - 4 Years Ago
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The book "Ford Y-Block: A Performance History" by Charles R Morris details a lot of information about Carol Miller. It's available on Amazon. It's a great book for YBlockers.
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By Ted - 4 Years Ago
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Here is a link to Tim McMasters’ site with a reprint of the 1962 Ford Performance Handbook article about Karol Miller.
http://www.yblockguy.com/articles/KarolMillerStory.html
And here’s a link to the HAMB site with a Karol Miller thread.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/karol-miller-and-y-blocks.274604/
Doing a search on the various forums will bring up more.
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By DryLakesRacer - 4 Years Ago
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Old results are usually in private collections, meaning the reports sent out to participants. A friend of mine has an extensive collection of Bonneville and El Mirage results and on occasion I have looked at them when I was making the timing tags for the SCTA. Old ones were made for families requesting replacement tags. Everything had to be verified. I made additional tags for Karol for his 56 as he had the originals.
The man who has the collection is currently unable to look up anything but the next time I go to see him I’ll ask to see the 59 Bonneville results. I’ll check 58-60 also.
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By DryLakesRacer - 3 Years Ago
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Finally had the opportunity to look at the results. Knots 173 was with the Chrysler hemi at that time in 1959. His class was A for larger engines or smaller with a supercharger. Sports became Sports Racing when I started going to Bonneville and got so far butchered later that it became Gas Streamliner but not when he ran.
I looked from 1956 thru 1960 and never found him running a Y-Block. Knot entered the 200 mph club in 1960 with a 671 blower on top of the Chrysler and the car still resembles a early bird. Knots final record for the car was over 242 and the only thing that you could see that was on the bird was the indentation on the front fenders.
The engine was set back and the car was streamlined front to rear. Knot, at 101 just beat back COVID 19 proving how tough he is. There are a lot of photos on the net by googling his name. I have a photo of me with the car in the museum where it is on display You can see how far the engine was set back by the air intake for the blower beside the windscreen. I am 6'-1" so you can figure its height.
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