SMALL BLOCK

Members of the popular Christchurch-based team Alsop Racing were very busy over the off season making some serious changes to their already radical Willys coupe. After running a previous best of 6.78 at 196.50mph, brothers Johnny and Nigel Alsop decided it was time to step things up a bit. As soon as the car was returned to the workshop from the January meeting at Mike Pero Motorsport Park, the 10-71 supercharger was removed and sold, along with the injection set-up. With those out of the way, the car was essentially stripped back to the chassis, with bits being sent all around the country. Nigel said, “The first thing that was sent away and came back was the transmission. She’d been in the car for three seasons and never been checked, so, while the engine and trans were out of the car, it was a good chance to send it up to Auto Trans and get it checked over. Once we got the trans back, Murray Buckingham [from Buck Engineering, Nelson] sorted out some lateral bracing for it while on a trip to Christchurch, and [then] she was good to go. “The next step was getting the diff checked — again, too good of an opportunity not to. The diff gears weren’t looking too happy, so, after a couple of emails back and forward to Tony Marsh, a slight change of ratio was decided on. Gears were then sourced by the team at Silvester V8 Performance, and, once they arrived, the diff was set up then fitted back in the chassis. “The engine went up to Marsh Motorsport for an end-of-season strip down / check over, with the new blower and more power in mind. Everything looked good, and, apart from a new set of rods, it came back basically identical to how it has been run the past two seasons — from the intake manifold down, anyway! “While the transmission, diff, and engine were getting checked over, there was a new supercharger on order at PSI [Performance Systems Inc.]. At around the same time that Tony and Anthony [Marsh] got the engine back together, the PSI injector, fuel pump, and other fuel system bits were starting to turn up at Chris Johnston’s [CJ] workshop. CJ started crunching the numbers and working his fuelsystem magic, setting everything up. Once the supercharger arrived, he grabbed the engine off Marshie and mocked up everything, plumbing the fuel lines and setting up as much as possible before sending it all back to us in Christchurch. “Once the engine, new supercharger, and fuel system were home, we got them in the chassis, cut up the body where necessary to make it all fit, then it was off to Rob at Racefab to re-make the dash to fit around the new blower, as well as fabricate a new, larger fuel tank. “We threw a few other new goodies at it, like a nice new sticky set of 34.5-inch slicks, a few new and extra data-logger sensors to see what’s going on during a run, and — new for us — an RCD Engineering 48-volt blower starter. “The power difference between the old 10-71 blower and the new PSI supercharger is just insane. We ran mid-to-high 190mph passes all last season and then our first full pass with the new combination was a 6.62 at 211mph! We followed that up with a slight kiss of the wall down Meremere’s left-hand lane, then back out for a 6.45 at 214.50mph — a BB/Altered record, the fastest (mph) for an altered in New Zealand, and the fastest pass by a small block in New Zealand. “The car is still in Auckland, and will be looking to go even better at the Spring Nationals, and then at Nitro Shootout in January.” We know we’re not alone in looking forward to seeing what the coupe will do on an even stickier track.