Smokey Yunick may well be one of the most important and creative thinkers in NASCAR history by maximizing the the rules that weren't stated in the rulebook.
Smokey built a supercharger by building vanes around the clutch assembly, sealed the bellhousing and contoured it to fit tightly to the vanes. By directing the airflow into the firewall plenum that most teams connected the air filter assembly to, he had boost. Evidently the inspectors rarely checked the clutch. BTW- he also came up with using a smaller clutch/flywheel to lower the engine and trans lower in the chassis. Better CG. Smokey tried to get aircraft fuel bladders to be used in place of steel fuel tanks, before Fireball died. NASCAR wouldn't do it. Fireball would not have died, if they had listened. That's why he left NASCAR. All in his book. Smokey was self-taught Engineer, and a GENIUS !
@@willstikken5619 how do you mean?? I'm pretty sure airplanes don't have bellhousings or clutches!! Now I've only been working on planes since 1990..... but i have seen and flown quite a few..... and i have yet to see one with a clutch or bellhousing!!! That IS how he did it right?? Blades on the flywheel vanes in the bellhousing the pressurized air routed up to the cowl induction port?? Right?? So yeah...... there's that......
@@TheCorezero00 You're being intentionally obtuse. He built an integrated centrifugal supercharger into the existing components. It's a concept he took from his aviation background and asked himself "how could I build this into the car" and then he did. Just because the construction differs somewhat does not make it a different apparatus than what we use in genral aviation. If you've worked in aviaiton since the 90's and never came across a cluth you must have spent that time in the seat shop or something. Clutches are common in everything from old inertia starters to helicopters and turboprops.
You're KINDA right about that Chevelle. Actually, they were racing full-size cars in NASCAR at the time, not mid-size, like the Chevelle. But he massaged the sheet metal so that the critical measurements were the same as the Bel Airs. NASCAR, seeing the tape for themselves, allowed him to run it while they tried to figure out HOW this was possible. Thats when they found the body shift, and various tweaks and banned the car.. templates came into use because of this....
The fact that Smokey is not in the NASCAR HOF is a travesty! He was an absolute genius. Everything I learned about racing I learned from him. Get politics out of racing and put Smokey in the HOF!!!
Smokey was a pretty decent mechanic and has his place in the history of the sport. I don't think he should be a HOF though because he was a notorious cheater and his really great achievements are hard to know for sure because a lot of them are based in him being a typical cheater
@@jeremycurtisisgay Smokey was not a cheater. He was an innovator. Big difference. If there's not a rule that says you cant do that...is that cheating? There was no rule on how big or how long the gas line could be. So he had one 2 inches in diameter and 50 feet long. Thats not cheating, thats genius!
Nicknamed smokey for building a tractor? Nonsense. He entered a motorcycle race as a young man and his motorcycle smoked like hell. The race announcer called him smokey. The name stuck.
He was one of the best mechanical engineer there was, he had a complete engine in his shop that was run by a 100 hp electric motor, when he did port work on heads he put them on the motor ran it and then recorded the out put
Smokey was a mechanical genius. Jim Hall is another genius. Those guys were in different race genres but they both thought outside box. Great video ! Thank you.😊👍
There is something missing in all of this , Mr. Yunick was a very nice guy when you got to know him. When I met him in Daytona at his shop, I had a in ,Yep, my 130 pound female Great Dane ( Samatha ) was all OVER him ( Dogs can tell good people ) at his daughters pet store next door to his best damn gauge in town . Smokey sold me a very rare 389 Pontiac Super Duty short block I still have in my 68 Firebird Convertible today. My car with his motor has been kicked out of every drag strip in FLORIDA ! as they don't allow street cars to run 10s in the quarter mile ! with out hacking up the car with ten tons of safely equipment. Thanks Smokey.
I remember that. My dad got both of those magazines for multiple decades. Many times I was first to read them. I had to put it back on the kitchen table where the day's mail sat until my dad got home.
Smokey was building ALL the engines for the Hudson Hornets racing back then. Smokey's engines/cars/drivers also won 2 if not 3 NASCAR championships during the earlier years of NASCAR.
Popular Mechanics 'golden boy' of the day Tom McCahill relied on Smokey as the definitive word on many automotive related issues. Smokey life story is a wonderful read.
One additional thing about the 7/8 chevelle. Most of what you talked about i don't remember seeing before, thank you. But there was one other thing he did to that car, he used the minimums for every single spec, not one max was used. So while not 7/8 scale, it was slightly smaller than a typical Chevelle
The reason the 7/8 car is a myth is that if it were true, the car would have been smaller than a Chevy II. That would have been so obvious to everyone who saw it.
@@crazylarryjr Someone else posted below that it wasn't actually a 7/8 car. No, it was a 15/16 car. Stupid! First of all, if Smokey was going to make a smaller car, he wouldn't have made the math more complicated than it had to be. No calculators back then.
@@e-curb, There were still Calculations back then, the difference was they used paper and pencil instead of computer and CAD. Do you really think the sm Block was perfect by accident, they were designed just as they are today, but with paper pencil and compass instead of computers, programs and simulations. math is required for almost evert design ever made, even back when they had to do it in their own head. BTW I did say it wasn't 7/8, it was called 7/8, you are right about the scale being closer to 15/16. Also i did say he built that cat using all the minimums of the blueprint, That was what they used back them to design. Not once did i say it was actually 7/8, that was the name that car was given because of the rumors going around
I have a 350 Chevy engine that was built from a Smokey Yunick's book. It has Oldsmobile OEM 6 inch Rocket rods, machined to fit in a high nickel content Chevy block, steel crank, Chevy Bowtie heads with 202 intake, 194 exhaust valves, duel springs and Crane roller rockers. Keith Black pistons, and Weiand Team G manifold. It cranks out over 500 horse power, and turns 9000 RPM.
I'm a mechanical engineer. Smokey was brilliant. He will be (is) missed. We need more people like that. I still have the issue of Hot Rod magazine that covered his Fiero. Amazing!
Lol My uncle tinkered with vapor fuel delivery on an old V8 car. He never ran it on a dyno but did drive it around the block! He realized his contraption was a backfire away from a huge fireball and decided he’d proved enough and that it was a good idea to stop there.
I've played around with vapor injection for 10 years now. My highest achievement was successfully blending, 45% water/45% gasoline/10% methanol in a vacuum. Then pouring the milky mix into a homemade percolator. I then was drawing the vapor and micro droplets thru a 20 foot stainless 3/8" pipe wrapped tightly around the exhaust with engine vacuum. I've made a 78 Chevy 4x4 with big mud tires go from 7mpg, to 22mpg all for less than $100. I took a 95 honda civic with 350,000 miles on it, installed a similar system and went from 26mpg, to 43 mpg all for less than $100. I could go on for days about the science behind it all, the many vehicles Ive done this to, and the creepy guys in nice suits that use to be standing by my car when I came out of stores saying stuff like "your that guy who does the crazy stuff with gas vapor injection, right?" I always played stupid after they went to my dad's burger restaurant looking for me a few times 8-9 years ago. Back then I was scared, but now I'm kinda curious what they had to say
@@christianmotley262 with a carb I ran it so lean at idol it was a bitch to get started with the choke on when it was cold. But within a few minutes it would be warmed up enough to drive
Actually they checked firewall to engine spacing-to make sure no engine setback( for better weight distrkbution) was taking place. So, he moved the front suspension forward on the frame- about a foot- and achieved better front-to-rear distribution. This was the '66 bodied car; the front of the wheelwell comes right down to the bumper-without the upswept valence of a "stock" chevelle.
Just a small point of clarification. Smokey wasn't the first person to install a downforce wing on a racecar. That happened in 1957 at Columbus Motor Speedway. Supermodified driven by Jim Cushman.
I remember my wife and I at our first SEMA show rode down the elevator with him and his wife at our hotel. Made some small talk and ran into them at the show so many times it became a joke. Good fun, wife was wearing her Smokey hat
At Holman and Moody in the 70s we built a 429 Ford with roller bearings and roller cam bearings roller cam turned 13000 rpm on dyno and has documentation had 671 Detroit blower 2 1200 cam Holly's started to smooth out at 8000 rpm screamed at 10,000 John Holman read the build and said it would do more .we tried to blow it up dyno would go to 13 ,000 max so we maxed it for 30 minutes at 13,000 she took it motor is at a undisclosed location in North Carolina in a crate
Look at the super modified cars that run in Oswego NY. On a half mile track they will lap a Nasar stock car in roughly 12 to 15 laps. Maybe even sooner now. That was in the 80s when I calculated that. Offset motor with a wing on hydraulics. Motor tilted and hanging off the left side of the frame.
@@gprich82 I grew up im Owego NY. The Supers would come there once a year for the open wheel extravaganza. We ran a Late Model at Shangri La Speedway. In Owego, I would head up to Oswego once a year for the big race. My packagers from USPS always get lost and sent to Oswego. LOL
Only after a loud Bang followed by some clattering they may be able to do this. During the silent ride to a stop you may also hear the Guess Who's song "She's come undone".
Correct me if I’m wrong but this guy said the Chevelle never raced but didn’t Curtis Turner race it in the 1967 Daytona 500 and the Atlanta 500 and didn’t Smokey himself drive a few races himself in the 50’s.
Plenty of Smokies exist today. They are just not in the performance auto industry. Every time I open youtube, I see peoples innovations in all kinds of things. Nice tribute here.
I regret that I never met Smokey or Bill Jenkins, they were always my heroes. One of the reasons nothing came of Smokey's vapor engine was that GM bought the patent, according to Hot Rod Magazine at the time. Perhaps they buried it, or it didn't pan out in the long run.
Smokey's 67' Chevelle sat on the pole at DAYTONA on 1967 with Curtis Turner driving. First car to officially run 180 mph at DAYTONA. Sadly Curtis wiped it out in a bad wreck at ATLANTA. But the First Chevelle he built did race. The next year the other Chevelle was banned. Smokey said the bottom of his first Chevelle was like a "Turtle". GOD BLESS. SMOKEY YUNICK. He was a RULE MAKER.. way ahead of his time.
when racing we did the same found the gray areas example rulebook said cams had to remain stock lift. ok so we had ours made stock lift just longer duration so they opened as far as stock but they were open longer. then when the tech guys nephew wanted to race the rules changed to allow the banned cars back in which desomated everyone like winning by 2 full laps the tech guys nephew won a championship every season until the tech guy was removed for conflict of intrest and the new tech guy told him not to bring the car back.
Technically speaking, Smokey didn't cheat at all. In fact the reason a lot of the rules that are in place is due to the things Smokey tried during his time to get the edge in each race. That's the mentality with any racing team big or small--and why The France Family/NASCAR put restrictions up. Most of it is the France Family's influence on the sport and the bitter rivalry Yunick had with Bill Sr. Usually the rule changes don't take effect until AFTER something was done--which NASCAR is notorious for pulling off and practiced many times since. Ross Chastain's wall ride is a great example of this. It was something never done before, and he was able to get the transfer in the play-offs by running full throttle against the wall securing his spot. After that, NASCAR made a rule change banning wall-riding altogether. Prior to that, Team Penske tried messing with the rear end housing in one of their cars to generate more side force and hug the corners better--which Driver Sam Hornish, Jr. used in two races before NASCAR banned that innovation. Ray Evernham and the rainbow warriors tweaked Jeff Gordon's T-Rex car by modifying the aero and chassis suspension to make the car go faster (Which was well within the rules at the time and passed inspection for the All-Star Race by the officials). Again, NASCAR did their thing and made rule changes at the last minute which pretty much banned T-Rex from competing. Evernham said that when he was called into Bill Jr's. office about the car being illegal after the all-star race, he called out Bill Jr. on the spot saying the tweaks to T-Rex were well within the rules and even passed inspection before the all-star race. Bill Jr. response? "Well, it won't be tomorrow, Ray!" Even during Smokey's time, Chrysler Corp introduced an aero package for their signature Dodge Chargers and Plymouth Roadrunners to give their products a slight edge against GM and Ford at the time. Buddy Baker even set a top speed record at Talladega with the aero packaged Charger hitting 200.447 mph on the track. NASCAR later banned the aero package after getting complaints from GM and Ford about it. The truth is Smokey's name is slandered due to the France Family's influence. As long as the France Family owns NASCAR, Smokey's name will remain marked with the cheater moniker and most likely, he will never be immortalized in the NASCAR HoF as a result.
All gasoline fueled engines run on gasoline vapor, not liquid gasoline, that is a major function of a carburetor to atomize the gasoline so it turns into vapor in the intake manifold
Smokey never broke any rules, he bent them as far as they would go that's for sure!!! Very smart man, I would have loved to have Smokey yunick tune my 65 chevelle!!!
Everything considered, especially how history has a bad habit of being distorted, Pixar treated Smokey's legendary status very well in "Cars 3". There's no doubt that the man is an unsung legend of auto racing. AFAIK, his last project was getting insane fuel mileage from a heavily modified Pontiac Fiero by vaporizing the gasoline before burning it. Let's just say that Smokey and Bill France didn't like one another and leave it at that.
His statement about a "2" diameter fuel line 11' long" holding about 5 gallons is way off! 1 cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches & holds 7.48 gallons of liquid, therefore 1 gallon is 231 cubic inches. A 2"x11' fuel line has a capacity of 383 C.I.(not allowing for wall thickness) so although increasing the fuel capacity, the volume was more in the 1.6 gallon range, after allowing for the wall thicknes of the tubing he supposedly used. Hard to tell what's the truth & what are just stories about Smokey, but he was a genius at engineering. After he died, they DID find a '65, 427 BBC engine in the corner of his shop that came from 1 of the 5 original lightweight, aluminum bodied, Corvette Gran Sports & now resides in the proper VIN number GS after it's restoration. Although the Gran Sports were technically 63s, Roger Penske, AJ Foyt & Jim Hall put the 427s in them, since Chevy did not support racing. Wink, Wink! www.corvetteforum.com/articles/top-10-corvette-race-cars/3/
My dad was a natural genius mechanic. In 1949 at the age of 9 he borrowed a plumbers welding torch and modified a Plymouth front axel to fit an old model T and drove it to school for the next 4 years! Big respect to Smokey!
The lopped cylinder hvc engine was in the patents and test bed car, but I think Hot rod magazine tested the hvc fiero, it had all four iron duke cylinders, 250hp and over 50mpg, Wish I still had the issue.
Smokey was different, for sure. In the late 70s early 80s he built a turbocharged (Omni i think) that featured an inter-HEATER, not intercooler... I made incredible horsepower but it didn't run long before it blew up....
Like Smokey I believe if its not against the rules its not cheating, just the smart thing to do. He belongs in every racing HOF he raced in or had a car he built race in. And nascar!!! Pffft the reason it is what it is now. They made a BOOK worth of rules because of him. He must've had a bunch of ideas and implemented them little by little as they made them against the rules, knowing if he did them all at once theyed make them all against the rules. IMHO by far one of the best automotive innovators and engineers of all time GOAT. And he didnt acid dip panels he dipped the whole car lol. An official leaned on the car and it dented the roof lol.
Smokey could not have joined the US Air Force in 1941. The USAF came into existence in 1947. He probably joint the Army Air Corps. "Most fuel lines are an inch (NOPE) or half an inch in diameter and a few inches long. Smokey's was eleven feet long!" Most fuel lines are about 10 feet long on the average sedan of that era, AND on stock cars of that era. This is a very interesting video, but so many of the minor details are fantasy.
We should get a bunch of good ole boys and start our own racing league. nascar is just too Hell bent on every single car being practically identical. Go back to the good old days and let the teams build their motors ans suspension and everything how they want. Ofcourse there'd have to be some safety protocols in place but damn,,, can you imagine how much money it would make? Probably wipe nascar out.
Smokey's 7/8 Chevell was a 1966 model...... Your Car is a 1967 model....looks nice...But, Good effort on the video.... Got the pole at 1967 Daytona 500...abt.@ 181mph....thx
Ray does not even belong on the same side of the street as smokey quit trying to compare apples to oranges ray left nascar because he was bankrupt and cheated on his wife he is a scumbag
@ 14:21 Yes... yes, you really said "eye-less" of Man for "Isle of Man." I'm sure it's not your fault... It's pronounced like "I'll of Man." and "isle" is an island and the 'isl' part is pronounced the same way. Please tell me you don't pronounce "island" like 'is-land.' And BTE, there is an actual definition of 'decimate' and most people are using the word incorrectly. "Decimate" is based on the word "decimal," you know... as in TEN. To 'decimate' refers to losing one in ten. It doesn't mean to utterly destroy something even if everyone else uses it that way.
