Ratzilla

Ratzilla is a twin engine supercharged Fiat Topolino. It was created by Metal Mickey Motorsport to salute the early days of Drag Racing and Hot Rodding.

That was a time when people had to experiment and use their ingenuity to make cars go faster and faster. It was a time when anything was possible and included small light-weight  bodies and multiple engine configurations like Ratzilla has.

In those earliest days tyre smoke was considered unavoidable. Clutch and tyre technology had not yet developed to control the power. When the traction equation was finally figured out, they had to make the cars lighter again and so they reverted to single engine configurations once more. But "ZooMan" and the team at Metal Mickey Motorsport want to keep some of the old tradition and spirit alive with the awesome RATZILLA.

The choice of Fiat Topolino bodywork was natural due to its impeccable heritage as the dominating body style in the fuel altered class during the 50's and 60's.

The car weighs about 2500 lbs (1150 kg). It has two supercharged big block Chevy's making about 2000 horse power. But it has no transmission - just an old style lockup clutch with direct drive to the rear end and a reverser for backing up. If it had a modern clutch setup and three speed transmission it would probably go over 200 mph in under 7 seconds !

Also Ratzilla has no front brakes which means no cheating in the "burn outs". It reflects the spiritually correct style of the early days. When the engines are uncorked, it takes some time to get out of its own tyre smoke, and then keeps on pulverising the tyres all the way to about 160 mph (240 kph).

 

SPECIFICATIONS

Engines - two 500 ci big block Chevy's
6:71 superchargers (10% overdrive)
4 port nostalgia injectors

16 header pipes to keep the neighbourhood dogs quiet !

Roller cams with gear drives
Shaft roller rockers
Forged 4130 cranks
Forged aluminum rods
Forged pistons (8.4:1)
Nostalgia magnetos

Engines are coupled at cranks by sprockets and duplex chain
Single fuel pump on front motor feeds fuel to both motors
Fuel tank - 13 gallon (50 litres)

Clutch - 2 disc slider (full centrifugal) with creeper
Transmission - none (direct drive) reverser only
Diff - nodular iron 9" third member with 3.70 gears
Rear tyres - 31 x 12 x 16 on genuine nostalgia magnesium wheels
Front tyres - 24 x 5.5 on genuine nostalgia 12 spoke magnesium wheels

Chassis - chrome moly tubing - 175" wheel base
Suspension - torsion bar front, solid rear
Full weight - 2500 lbs (1150 kg)
Brakes - rear wheels only
Parachutes - twin 8 ft cross form chutes

Time to build - over 3 years in the Metal Mickey Motorsport workshop on Queenslands Gold Coast.
Cost to build - over $150,000.
Construction and testing finished - fully operational

 

So what is a FULL TRACK BURNOUT  ???

Ratzilla was built to demonstrate exactly what the old geezers used to do on the start line during the early days.

The way those cars were set up, the clutch did not slip. The clutch was used to stop the car with the engine running.

They had to find a way to make sure the engine did not bog down when the car left the line. Remember, they were also " experimenting" with the first exotic fuels at that time, like nitro methane, hydrazine etc, and to do otherwise often resulted in huge engine explosions.

The early tracks were not treated with traction compound like that used today. Often abandoned airstrips were used as drag strips. The theory was, the tyre spun at the launch and as it got hotter it gained more traction and " hooked-up" a little way down the track . . .

Of course, more often than not it did not hook up at all - much to the delight of the spectators.

Thus was born the original burn-outs !

 

PHOTO  and  VIDEO  GALLERY

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