Smokey Yunick wow that's a great name from the past,
Smokey also was a miracle worker when it came to aerodynamic tricks.
Cman66

This is a feel good read, TKO.  Thanks.

Yep!... Always a big fan of his "back-then"!
Never read the book butt........have read most of the stuff on the net about'em. (gotta be true....its on the internet!)
He was TRUELY a genius! (literally) A lot of stuff self taught. Still has a few "things" the so-called-experts can'figure out how it works.  The Chevy cross ram manifold (he invented) I think HE was the only one who ever figured out how to make it perform right. (Epoxied popcicle  sticks in the bottom to divert flow for optimum power!!!) Such stuff as that.  His "tricks/gray area stuff" he used to build NASCAR stuff with. Laid back the windshields a few degrees, used the roll bars to hold "extra" fuel to make less pit stops the the other guys!! 
Like so many of the "guyz" back in the 50's/60's we took them and their knowledge for granted. Now that they are gone(many of'em) we realize what "wizardz" they really were. Amazing!
6sal6

They started out with stock tanks.  When guys figured out NASCAR wasn't checking them for volume they would buy two tanks, cut a section out of one, split the other tank in half, and weld the section into the middle.  Instant extra 5 gallons of fuel.

NASCAR got smarter and started measuring the volume, so Smokey but a bladder in the oversize tank.  Inflated the tank held stock capacity.  Deflated it held significantly more.

My favorite stories were about his days racing the Hudsons.  He was using all kinds of tricks to skirt the rules (if the rule book didn't expressly forbid it; I had to assume it was legal).  No porting and polishing.  Fine, never said no painting.  Layer about fifty coats of Glyptal in the ports, sanding between coats and you end up with a glass smooth; perfect port.  Had to run a stock cam.  Fine, what can they really check though?  Lift?  Cool  just add more duration.  Lift & duration?  Change the LSA, or change cam timing.  The best was when they DQ'd one of his engines.  Back then there were no trucks and trailers.  The race car was flat towed to the track with another car.  Well Hudson was serious about racing (first to build factory parts designed for racing, and actually gave racers parts and support; the early days everything was done on a shoestring budget; nothing like today).  They'd given Smokey a tow car and a car to modify for racing.  The tow car had the same basic engine as the race car, so Smokey pulled the tow car engine, tore both engines down side by side and used a vat of gasoline to clean the parts.  The gas turned black from all the oil, and old Smokey did some switcharoo stuff in the gas.  In  the end he basically rebuilt the race engine in the block of the tow car engine and went on to win the race. 

Heck, back then I'd have gone to the racers to see the qualifying and tech inspections alone!  That was 2/3 the show when Smokey was involved.

You really want to see his genius, check out the Hot Vapor Engine.  That thing's amazing.  If Delorean hadn't been set up by the FBI it might well be what's powering our cars today.  I'm still puzzling through a couple problems that obviously Smokey figured out (he built several running examples).

I’m not so sure how much of self taught is true. He was a B17 pilot during WWII which meant he went through military aviation engineering schools to be a pilot. But he still was a very smart man beside that.

Some of his other intrepid attentions to the rules. They weren’t allowed to run belly pans but nothing in the rules said how low the floors could go so he made them flush to the bottom of the frame. On the Hudsons he would also pump a abrasive fluid through the intake and exhaust tracks to port them when porting wasn’t allowed. When done, everything had a rough factory casting appearance. They weren’t allowed to lighten the flywheel but Smokey would remove the ring gear and radially drill the flywheel to lighten it. Once the ring gear was on you couldn’t tell. He also would use a reverse grind cam as the reverse engine torque to body aided handling in the left turns.

On his 67 Malibu that people called the 7/8th car because he modified so many details, when NASCAR put a body template on and it didn’t fit, he made NASCAR try the same template on another completely stock factory car and the NASCAR didn’t fit that either!

Last edited by Huskinhano (10/29/2018 5:47 AM)

TKOPerformance wrote:

In the end, I'm not sure how much you could be classically taught about automotive engines in those days.  Surely the military aviation education helped, but he discussed reading books on engineering, chemistry, etc. to gain a better understanding of theory, as well as talking to people he considered experts in their fields.  Then he took a very scientific approach to testing his theories.  He built his own flow bench for example.

That hot vapor engine is still ahead of its time!  I really want to build one, but I can't figure out how he was keeping the oil from breaking down.  With the kind of temperatures he was running on the intake side the heat in the cambers must have been insane.  I'm actually surprised that an aluminum piston could withstand it.  I remember reading some vague reference to piston oil squirters, but that's about it.  That's how it is trying to reverse engineer that engine.  The genius of what made it work was mostly locked up in his mind, and that, sadly, is gone.  There's lots left out of the patent documents, hist book, various articles, etc.  I'm pretty sure I've read everything available on it, but without a bankroll and a lot of testing it seems an impossible riddle.  It almost certainly points to a conspiracy as to why no one has picked up the technology.  He was making over 2HP per cubic inch, AND passing emissions in the '80s with a carb and points ignition, AND getting 40+ MPG.  The Prius can suck it!

Key word....."conspiracy"!  (no kidd'in)
6s6