Big Stroker from the Past

I recently acquired a copy of a 1960 Hot Rod Magazine. I purchased it on-line because the description mentioned that it contained an article on a Harley drag bike.  1960? - Check.  Harley? - Check.   Drag bike? - Check!  Yep, sounded like it was right up my alley, and worth the price of admission just to see whose vintage drag bike it was.  A few bucks and a few days later I was pleasantly surprised.  Stan Dishong!  Truly one of the pioneers and innovators of the sport.  Here are a few highlights:

 

 Heliarc welded and low mounted fuel and oil tanks were certainly unusual for 1960, as was the fiberglass rear fender/seat combo

 

 

 

Knuckle engine was brought out to 100 cubic inches via custom built cylinders and flywheels.  Bore was 3-9/16" with a stroke of 5"

 

One of the coolest aspects was the starting system - a set of rollers powered by an Indian twin

 

 

 

Stan Dishong will be a familiar name to even freshman students of early drag racing history.  Stan was definitely not shy about trying out new ideas, and from what I have seen he always executed them with beautiful workmanship. His partner and fellow fabricator on this particular bike was Terry Hines .  As you may guess, pump driven fuel injection is used, which explains the low mounted tank.  The article suggests that the engine could be converted from 16:1 compression ratio for use with alcohol, over to 9:1 when using nitro.  In other words, a crazy compression ratio for use with a sane fuel, and sane compression ratio for use with a crazy fuel!  Makes perfect sense to me. (no - really, it does)