Barry Rabotnick at Engine Masters Challenge
 

Barry's 433 CI Genesis FE made 678 peak HP in another fine FE performance.
Barry's engine again carried the the excellent Blue Thunder head design at the event hosted by World Products / Bill Mitchell Hardcore Racing.
Sadly for FE fans, Jim Dove was unable to attend the event.

Cangratulations Barry, Another fine job.

What would it take to get you to this event next year Mike?

Excellent idea-and how about the rest of you FE experts?
Geo. Anderson, Rob McQuaire, Tom Lucas, Bill Parham, Keith Craft, Jim Dove and anyone else I accidently omitted. It sure doesn't hurt business-just ask Lennert Bergquist, last year's winner. His shop was too busy to come this year!
It would be really cool to see a "battle of the FE's" on a level field.

Time Chas, pretty busy as a 1 man show.
Actually I was in the 1st shoot out (Popular Hot Rodding Aug. '99) when the rules were not the same as they are now. Then there were 3 builders one with a Mopar, one with a Chevy, and one with a Ford. We did not get to pick the parts used the magazine did. They just wanted to show the readers what could be done with parts from Summit (who was a sponcer). Joe Jill of Superior Automotive built the 367" Mopar, Gordon Jennings of Paul Pfaff Racing Engines had the 355" Chevy, My company Mitech built the 342" Ford.
This was called a small block shoot out, the next year they did a big block shoot out. After that they realized the readers really liked what they were doing but needed to make it more of a "real" shoot out. It takes a LOT of time and effort to compete in the event now, some of the best builders in the country have been involved. It is a terrific competition.

Mike,
Thanks for the reply and very glad you're busy.:) I can see it's tough for a single man operation.
You're also right, it's a great competition. Jud Massengill, Mark Mckeown, Bob Lathrop, Kaase and Bischoff plus all the other hard thinking and working entrants all see the benefit of the exposure. Hemis, Buicks, BBC, SBC, a Cadillac (!) and a ton of various Fords.
A lot of friends and rivalrys are made at these things.

Barry, so glad to have you in the fight. Even happier to have you share your thoughts and ideas here in this community. Thanks for your support here and I will support you whenever I can.
Good Job, Scott

Back from the EMC
 

Hi guys - Thanks for the kind words. I had a great time and met some really cool folks. I also thought I had a decent piece going in - - and got "schooled" by the small block canted valve crowd. Below is a tweaked version of the message I posted in the Network 54 FE forum.

Now - - the contest...
There were a total of five FE motors pre-entered. Two from Dove, and one each from myself, Blair Patrick (Super Stock FE racer), and Texas engine guy Ty Lodstrom. Dove did not make it to the event.

The story on Dove from the folks at the contest was that he had called in really sick the week prior and did not think he could make it. Since he was scheduled to pull the day before me and the same day as Blair any assumptions regarding worry of comparative performance are baseless. I hope he is OK - Jim's actually a pretty good guy and I was looking forward to seeing him again. He still owes me a dinner...

Ty Lodstrom broke a rocker shaft early on. He said he had been using a really wild cam and I suspect that the Crane setup was simply not up to the task - the Crane deal is really oriented more for street/strip type action. He says he'll be back - I certainly hope so 'cuz he seems like a pretty cool guy.

Blair and I ran essentially neck & neck - I just edged him out by maybe 10 points at best. Seeing as he's a darned good Super Stock guy I think I was doing OK just keeping up. Folks that don't race in that realm do not realize how hard those guys work and how good they are. Blair is also a really great guy - he was constantly trying to lend me parts (including an unreal cool looking set of headers) to improve my package at the show since he'd already run. I was scared to try them at that late hour fearing they'd change my combination & tune. I'll be doing the coulda/shoulda/woulda thing for a while...

We compared notes and decided that - for this contest - I probably had a better set of heads and he a better cam, definitely better headers, and possibly a mild advantage with his smaller rod and main bearing selection. Both short blocks were pretty swoopy though. Mine had a 4.350" bore Genesis block, destroked (3.640") 391 crank, 2" rod journals, Carillo 6.7 rods, .927 pins, JE spherical dish pistons with a .031 dykes top ring. I'll let him elaborate on his if he so desires.

My three final scores at home were 1008, 1008, and 1001. At home I was on a dyno I had never used - so I can't really say what happened but I sure would have liked those 20 points! The motor responded normally to just a bit of timing and fuel tuning there in New York - but nothing was going to deliver the big gain we needed - so we just let 'er rip. There are no signs of any distress - I think all three contest pulls were within a couple points and we made some pretty good peak horsepower at 678 (I ought to check but that was likely a "top ten" stat). Numerous competitors came by to comment on how cool it was to see the ol' FE put up those numbers.

The canted valve CHI head Fords were near to unbeatable - 5 of 6 finalists and a slew of other high finishers had them. Kaase just missed winning - it was soooo close. Second year in a row he qualified number one and basically lost in the final pull.

After the contest was over we loaded the motor into the side of door my minivan (looks absolutely hilarious but it's within the spec GVW rating for the vehicle) and headed home. Fourteen hours of construction delays & driving interrupted by and one seedy roach hotel with dim lighting and sticky carpet and we're back.

I'd encourage anybody to take a swing at this - - its not really that expensive, you keep the motor so you're not throwing that cash away (maybe a cam & a set of pistons...), and the contacts and conversation are unreal. One result from this year is that Survival is now a distributor for the World Products line of heads, blocks, and crate motors - no FE stuff - but some of us have other toys as well. Any of the highly talented FE builders that frequent this forum could be players - - and I personally think it'd be great to have a bunch of us in the game.

Barry Rabotnick
Survivalmotorsports.com

Barry, is there talk about next year yet, and if so, what roughly will be the rules?

Barry congrats and excellent job!!!! I've been keeping up with things the the net54 forum also!!! To bad Jim Dove missed it. Hopefully ya'll be there in full force next year.

All the best,
G.

BTW...on a side note I sent you a proof a few months ago on the handout brochure we're doing for you. Never heard back from you?? Please send me a PM or email when you have a chance to discuss this further. Thanks bud.

Glenn,
I never got the brochure e-mail!???

Hi B we'll resend it asap! My email has been giving me fits and has been down the last few days. I'll call you over the weekend to discuss further.


G.

Barry, we all owe you and the other FE builders a lot of thanks for carrying the FE torch forward into this new Millenium. I'm still astounded at the excellent capability the old 1950's design shows with the new tricks you clever builders introduce. Its got to be the same feeling we'd all have if Jesse Owens had entered the Olympics again 50 years later and still finished in the top 3, beating out newest hotshots.

Look, anybody can do a hot SBC, BBC, SBF, BBF... but an FE in peak form is just still the most awesome looking and sounding engine package available.

3 cheers, Barry!!! And more good luck next year!

I would like to be involved in a few of these things but time seems to always be the problem. I have even tried to get a few of the guys in the shop interested and talked about splitting any winnings with them. We just stay behind it seems and when I find out or remember this contest it is to late to get going. Since we build all types of engines I can not say that I would build an FE engine since I would be trying to win the contest if I went. There also is a lot of design and testing time that goes into this deal to end up with the best engine. From a business stand point you have to figure out where to spend your time and money. There are so many thin gs that we try to be involved in that it just does not leave much time. I have sold parts and done machine work for some of the guys in this competition just never had the time to participate. Maybe when things slow down we can do one of these deals.
Barry sounds like Blair and yourself had a couple of nice pieces there for the competition. I am glad they established some rules on the compression and other areas. Maybe we can get something done for next year. Keith Craft

Keith,
Thank you for the kind words.

I think everybody would welcome an entry from your shop at the EMC.

I agree with you on engine selection. It makes sense for a little guy like myself to build an FE for the "cool factor". Your shop has the talent and resources to win the overall challenge, and needs to make decisions with that goal in mind.

We'll need to wait until PRI for next year's rules...

Best Regards,
Barry R.

Keith,
Barry has definifely won the "cool factor" award for two years of FE's and I'm sure the prominence of the press coverage of his entry has benefited his new business. There's no doubt that if Barry chose a subject which "worked" best with the annual rules (this year seemed to be Windsor architecture and CHI heads) that he would probably be a finalist.
As the hosts for the event, we at World / Bill Mitchell would love to see you compete for the top with what ever combination you felt best could win.
It's great because all the pros I spoke with enjoyed just being together in one room with their all peers.
I'd be happy to give you a "heads-up" post just to egg you on.;)