motor, carved out of 6061 aircraft aluminium
by the new CNC equipment that Stan had
begun to buy in for his business, had a separate
crank case and cylinder blocks, which bolted
on (though these days they are one-piece
creations). They solved the valve seat-burning
problem by retaining the two inlet valves but
switching to one large exhaust valve. The
finished version – known as the Sainty Billet
Three-Valve – became the first billet Top Fuel
drag racing engine in the world.
All the equipment programming was done by
Norm – clinically blind since his teenage years- and crew member Denis Maccan.
During the planning phase the team contacted
the NHRA in the USA to find out what they were
permitted to do, so that if it all worked they might
have a market there. They were told multi-valve
heads, overhead cams and billet components
were all fine.
The engine debuted in an all-new home-built
car in 1995, and by 1997 had pushed its way
to a reasonable 5.24-second best and won the
Nitro Championships. The NHRA banned it
within two weeks. ANDRA was more flexible,
and over the coming years it ran times in the
low-to-mid-fives and speeds around 270mph;
good, but not great.
Seemingly the engine had some in-built
problems in the 1990s and was known for a few
pretty serious explosions, often on the step of
the throttle in the burnout area or at the startline.
But these never fazed Stan, who saw them as
opportunities for parts to be re-engineered,
strengthened and improved.
The engine is now on its third iteration and
has begun to show real form. Recently at
Willowbank it ran 260mph to half-track on the
quarter-mile, with an early-lift 298mph top end.
On another run, the front-wheel speed was
305mph before an early shut-off on a pass thatTHE FINANCIAL BURDEN OF DRAG RACING HAS BEEN A MAJOR HURDLE