Supercharged Darrins

[Gordie]

While reading a Darrin road  test in the April 1954 Motor Trend Magazine Walt Woron mentioned that when Motor Trend requested a Darrin from K-W for testing the only one available was an experimental one with a Willys F head engine with McCulloch supercharger.  They were quite impressed with the performance of the car.  Did KW sell any of these cars with that setup and do any survive?  They also mentioned that the doors were awkward to close but were much easier since they installed roller bearings in the doors.  I wonder if the early cars got the bearings installed as a retro fit?

[Terry T]

Re the doors, very early cars had a stack of steel washers that rode on the aluminum tracks.  This lead to 2 problems: the washers would bind on the tracks causing friction, and the steel on aluminum would eventually beat a gouge into the rails while driving down the road.  This is the same problem caused by steel roller bearings.
Latter cars had nylon sliders that captured the rails.  These caused bindings in high humidity since nylon is hygroscopic.

[kfnut]

Gordie . I saw the supercharger set-up on a Darrin in Montgomery , Al. sometime in the early 90"s . The owner was trying to get the parts to finish the car so it was not driveable at the time . He moved to Tennessee shortly after and i lost track of him .

[Gordie]

Thanks guys, the Darrin's certainly are interesting.  Those are interesting pictures that Jake posted.  What is the story of that long hood?  That is the correct illustration on the cover of the Darrin parts book.

[Aeroman]

Vern Ludwick near Santa Barbara, CA has a 1954 Willys Aero with the F-head and a supercharger. Even better - it has a Hydramatic. I think he's still in the club. He posted a video of the engine running on youtube a few years back, dunno if it's still there or not.

[DTort96646]

Regarding the door slide bushings, the nylon bushings were round with washers on each side. The later factory service bulletin slides were also nylon but were oval in shape making a longer contact area on the aluminum rail. Consequently, there will be longer areas of wear at the slide contact.  The slides that I have on my Darrin are oval in shape but made of delrin. Delrin is self lubricating like the nylon but are more resistant to wear and is not hygroscopic. The doors stay tight on the slides, slide easily, and do not rattle as doors with metal rollers do. The problem with the rollers that some folks were using, is that over time the rollers wear the aluminum rail. Also the rollers need clearance in the rail to roll and when driving the car the doors will rattle over bumps. I got my slides from Ron Meditz years ago. I don't know if he still has them or not. When replacing the slides, make sure the aluminum rails are not worn where the slides rest. I had to tig weld my door slides to get rid of the grooves.

[joefrazer]

I owned car #30 for a few years and it had the roller bearings - I had them adjusted so that when the car was on a slight incline, I'd just tap the door and it would roll back and latch. It amazed people at car shows. My current Darrin #183 has the nylon slides and after cleaning out 60 years of accumulated grease, I've got the doors to where they slide pretty easily, but nowhere near what the roller bearings would do.

And, that's my car with the primer front end. I recently pulled it from storage where it had sat since 1976, parked shortly after the owner hit a deer and began repairs.

[Aeroman]

Jake - you are correct, that pic is of Mr Ludwick's Aero.