01: Stan’s 561-cube quad-cam engine first
ran in his hydroplane drag boat called
Fallacy. Stan had 18 racing boats, all called
Fallacy, most of them painted yellowin engineering beneath the house that he and
wife Marg had bought in Toongabbie. Over
the years he added two big lathes, a crank
grinder, a mill and a radial drill, all somehow
fitted around support piers and flooring bearers.
In 1984 he moved all the gear into a proper
workshop at nearby Wentworthville, continuing
to earn a regular wage at night as he supported
his growing business. At the end of 1985 he
converted it to a full-time occupation.
After an early interest in dirt-track racing, Stan
developed a love of water-skiing that evolved
into a passion for fast boats. Soon he was
driving very fast boats indeed, and finished up
with blown alcohol engines at the pointy end of
what was a very dangerous sport.
“It was a dangerous time to be racing boats,”
says Stan’s younger brother Norm. “It was not
a matter of if you would have a serious crash, it
was a matter of when!”
In 1983, Stan and his boat Fallacy towed
Christopher Massey to a world water-ski record
of 230.26km/h. In the mid 1980s, Stan helped
fellow boat racers John Bradley and Dave
Newby develop an aluminium version of a big-
block Chev, but found it wasn’t strong enough.
Stan decided he should build an engine himself.
It featured dual overhead cams, four valves per
cylinder and eight-bolt mains. At 561 cubes, it
made a ton of grunt on alcohol and put Stan up
with the best in the game.
Stan’s son Terry inherited his father’s passion
for tough engines and going fast, but he wasn’t
keen on boat racing, preferring to get his kicks
in a nine-second, 140mph street Commodore.
“Dad was getting pretty wary of drag boat
racing too,” Terry explains. “In one year he had
seven mates killed in the sport.”When Eastern Creek Raceway opened for drag
racing in 1991, Terry began to enthusiastically
participate, and Stan figured this was a better
area to engage his talents. The team bought
a plastic model kit, scaled it up, and in 1992
built themselves their first dragster, with Terry
as the driver.
On the quarter-mile, the OHC Chevy design
just wasn’t a happy choice. It wouldn’t run well
on nitro, and regularly burnt the heads between
the exhaust valve seats. Simply replacing a head
meant hours of work, mainly to re-time the belt-
driven cams.
Frustrated, Norm told Stan that they ought
to be making a billet version of their motor, as
billet material is seven times stronger than cast
metal. To assuage any lingering doubts, he
offered to pay for the materials and machining of
the necessary parts. The original version of theWITH THE HANDS OF A MAN WHO MADE HIS LIVING BY HARD WORK
ABOVE and 03: Stan gives his boat a bootful
racing at Silverwater in 1977. Brothers Norm
and Stan cut their racing teeth on the water,
initially working with blown big-block
Chev power. They made the switch to the
dragstrip in 199202: Sainty engine components were
originally made by Stan in his home shed
with not a single CNC device in sight!