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Old 04-30-2006, 12:56 PM
Hal Heindel Hal Heindel is offline
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Original Shelby Owner


 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Webster, NY
Cobra Make, Engine: CSX2019 (sold) - First Factory Dragonsnake, Ford GT
Posts: 99
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Actually, Excaliber, after 39 years of ownership and self-maintenance (I spent a year at Fort Hood working on M-48 tanks), there isn't much I don't know about that car.

The ignition consists of a plain vanilla dual-point distributor. I added, in 1968 I think, a simple transistor system so I could lower the idle despite the hot cam and the Webers. Didn't get much use out of that because the following April I started my printing business and ended up taking the car off the road.

Max RPM at the drags was 7,000 with the Ford high performance valve springs. Leonard Parsons, the Production Manager at Shelby who was also in charge of the drag racing team, told Randy Berry that by using the Iskenderian springs and washers that were in the car he could go to 7,500. (See http://www.shelbyford.com/thepeople.html - click on the picture of Leonard Parsons).

The rear end ratio on CSX2019 was 5.14, which may or may not be what the other five Dragonsnakes ran with.

If you'd like to see photos of the ignition setup, let me know. I'd be glad to post them.