Screaming Clevo

Thought you guys might enjoy a ride along.

Thanks for THAT!

Made me smile

Pretty cool, never saw a drivers view of a shaker intake before. Always liked the looks of those on the Fords Mustang and Torino's. Thx for sharing.

Cheers Luke, nothing like the sound of a Clevo under revs, especially 9000+ RPM through the traps or chucking skids, they just sound incredible. I Absolutely love it when they're singing, they really do have one of the best exhuast notes ever and nothing like making power out of a small block, just love it, thanks again.

Have to agree they are the sweetest sounding V8s. Next time I am up Barnaraby I will see if I can film a couple of Clevos I know that are pulling 8800 through the traps. That harsh wind em up tight note they get has me grinning every time

Pretty cool!

Looks like a lot of fun. I was worried it might not have a happy ending the way it wags its tail.

Nice. I wish to hell that my stint in Brisbane would have lasted the 4 years it was supposed to (out after 18 mos to Korea...). We loved it down there and they loved us American's. That said, we now have friends to visit.

{thumbs up} great fun

That was Awesome, Thanks.

mike

Here is a couple of skid pigs so you can hear what 8000-9000 rpm Clevos sound like



Benny and the Buzzard Gatt's awesome clevo tin top. Joe told me this think had seen 10000 rpm a couple of times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGpppRtdZ8.

4Vforever you would of bumped the Gatt boys they would of had to of been the friendliest blokes in drag racing would help any one from someone doing their very first pass to their direct rivals. Aussie drag racing owes this family a lot

Loving that sound! I'd love to race around my neighborhood like that. No way in the USA where that would be a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Thanks again Luke, yeah the Gatt boys are true gentlemen of the sport and used to make that little Cleveland scream. I remember one time having a yarn with them when they stuffing around with Gonzo 3 (EB Falcon) with the Boss 9 based engine. They got all of that Boss 9 stuff through Camp Stanley and we're having a lot of teething problems with it. Anyway talking with them at that stage, they sounded like they were having some real regrets going in that direction, as they knew very little about those engines and were relying too much on Camp Stanley for advice instead of doing it themselves (which as anyone that has spoken with or dealt with them would know is not what they like to do) but Camp Stanley was only too happy to help them, and the Gatts' ended up with the fastest Ford powered sedan in the world at one stage, so good on them for persisting with the Boss 540. Back on the Cleveland talk with them, I asked them about stepping the Clevo up some more, they thought at the time that they were getting towards the limit with what was available for that engine back then. I said to them I thought it was great they were the only small block in the field back then and could take it right up to the big boys. They said they enjoyed running the small block Clevo, but parts for them were the real problem for them and didn't know how much more was in it, hence stepping up the Boss. I remember saying to Benny about putting on a bigger blower and revving it harder. He looked at me like I was on drugs, lol, but, as seen with people like Brendan MacSweeny, that formula worked as he had his 318 cube Cleveland in his EB Falcon running low 6's a few years later. Many great people have been met at the Drags and some really good information been shared, but also met some people you wouldn't piss on if they were on fire. As for "burnout" machines, seen so many people spend too much money on them, only to achieve not much at all. I built the engine for a guy that won the state championship a few years ago now. Qld Street Car mag use to run the comp and this thing use to blow away a lot of bigger dollar cars, all because people think money wins. Well the basics of this engine were, my prepped 030, 2 bolt block, ground 010/010 Aussie 351 crank, stock 351 rods with ARP bolts, 030 hyper Pistons, open chambered heads with polished chambers, very mild port job (just some short side radius work, bowls and guide area on intake and a tidying of the intake port) stock 2V valve sizes (but single groove) Edlebrock performer, 750 Holley (with a few minor mods) and the cam was a Erson TQ20 hydraulic with springs to suit. No balancing, no main studs (used head studs finally) This engine would just sing all day long in the skid pad at 6800 no worries. I wanted to do few things different (balance it, main studs,etc) but the owner was on a very limited budget. The engine did a few seasons, basically trouble free (blew head gasket, put studs in, no more problems) He ended up selling the entire driveline to someone (that engine, C4 auto with a 2500 stall I had sitting around and gave to him and a 9 inch with 3.5's) guy puts it in his car, loves it, takes to the drags and runs a very low 13. Talk about cheap shit performance, I told the ex owner to tell th new one to put a 100 shot on it and run mid 12's. Last I heard (2-3 years ago) it's still running and had no major problems. Would have built that thing back in 2002.

Just thought of something funny talking about Camp Stanley, I noticed a few boxes of XXXX and said about a party or something like that, then one of his guys (C S's) says, no we bought them to take back to the States, I asked why and he replied with, there is a brand of condom called XXXX over there and they bought these cartons of beer to take back for jokes and to say to people over there, well how big are Aussie guys' one, if 24 condoms comes in a box this big. Everyone absolutely pissed themselves laughing, always remembered that one.

I met Camp Stanley at Canberra 1\8mile he was hanging about with Victor and Zap. Gonzo and Buzzard Gatt had him playing with their XA back at the summernats and he was fiddling about with funnyman taylors funnycar too. Kind forget how small drag racing was here in the early 90s

Here is an oldie McSweeney Vs. Zap both world record holders at the time.

Zaps all steel, iron block 454 and McSweeney's little 318/320 Clevo. I think Lucky Bellerri was the only other bloke still running a small block in the bracket by then

That last video is insane!

Yes it is. Crazy stuff, they both would of had a bulge in the bum of thier race suits after that lol

Yeah your right Luke, drags really was a pretty small affair back then. Fairly sure that first incarnation of the Mc Sweeney car was running an iron NASCAR block and 4V heads (Gatts were running Fontana stuff) before stepping up with some Motorsport A3's, still with the iron block. I would really loved to have seen the Mc Sweeney's with a big dollar sponsorship and then see what he could have got out of a Cleveland then, remember they were always running their cars on nothing. Same with Zapp in the early days, had no real sponsorship, get a few bucks together, come out, break records and be the first in the country to run a door slammer in the 7's, 6's and 5's. Good old Victor would always have a huge terminal speed by plenty back then too. Use to love watching him race and run down his opponent down in the top end, just terrific. Only spoke with Brandon Mc Sweeney once, has a great mind, some brilliant ideas and true Cleveland nut, unfortunately the only thing that held him back was money. Like I said would loved to have seen him with real money behind him. Grant O'rouke had that small block that was the fastest and quickest small block sedan in the world too at one stage, must be something about those bloody sandgropers, lol.

Oroukes lj was a evil little beast but much later than the first wildbunch stuff. It was only really Victor that had sponsors dollars the rest done it a lot harder. But it was cool racing. Weld well had the quickest iron block sbc and auto altered for a while everyone was just making do with what they had. So Cool