Mr. Will Rogers and the CT Alloy question

[louie figone]

Bill and Ted, you can see Will's Hovey with the big Disston on youtube, search for Vintage Karts, Vegas 07, they had some problems with the magneto moving and could not keep it running more than two laps, but you can hear it in the pits and see a little of it on the track with Ives in the seat. The later kart that he built for his son Dave has the smaller of the two Disston's and does not have the power of the bigger unit.
There may be some footage of the karts at the Davis event also.

Louie

[ted johnson]

Thanks, Louie. I will have a look when I get home tonight. I know the DA-211 engine is the smaller C.I. of the various Disstons. I was remembering several guys who ran them in enduros. Thank goodness for http://www.acresinternet.com when it comes to saw engines! I screwed up when I lived in Idaho - I had a chance to buy a virtually perfect Mac 99, and I let it get away. Still, those are single cylinder 9.8 C.I. rotary valve mills, and don't have that twin cylinder sound. I guess you can't kill the Merc/Disston with a sledgehammer! Later! Ted

[nils gustafson]

Thanks, Louie. I will have a look when I get home tonight. I know the DA-211 engine is the smaller C.I. of the various Disstons. I was remembering several guys who ran them in enduros. Thank goodness for http://www.acresinternet.com when it comes to saw engines! I screwed up when I lived in Idaho - I had a chance to buy a virtually perfect Mac 99, and I let it get away. Still, those are single cylinder 9.8 C.I. rotary valve mills, and don't have that twin cylinder sound. I guess you can't kill the Merc/Disston with a sledgehammer! Later! Ted

Hey Ted;
Heres a pic of my twin 99s from 1958, brutal,took every bit 2"men" to push off, on my first run in the neiborhood ,on my turn around ,I saw everyone still looking up for a airplane..Finally found some 99s and hope to someday construct a replica, but dont know about pushing off these days!!!! ...gus.

[ted johnson]

Wow, Gus! What a wicked piece! We never did do anything like that. Dad bought a Mac Drone engine in '59, but he sold it before we'd gotten the chance to get it on one of the Bugs. We had the old Eau Gallie, Florida speedway to run on back then - that would've been fun with the drone. A friend of ours had a GoKart 1200 set up in '62 with a 250cc Yamaha twin, but all it ever did was make a neat sound!
Louie, I looked at the Mac 99 on eRip - a good looking saw. There's also an earlier Merc twin, but it's already at $635... Who knows, I may bid yet. Ted

[nils gustafson]

Ted : These motors had big vibration so it had extra internal counter weights ,I took those out to improve acelleration , and that cheap steering wheel was as big as a basket ball at the end of straight.. I raced this kart with one engine at the first offical IKF track in Tampa Fla.
First place no-problem until Mr. Moore (remember him?) smelled my tank, alky, and no trophy.. Bob "rat" Thompson mixed the fuel ,he was big into stock cars B4 karts..gus.

[ted johnson]

Gus - I remember Bob Thompson well! We were running the street race series in the mid-late '70's and early '80's, and of course, Bob was presiding. He took a dislike for me that lasted for years. I never could understand why - we finally made it up in the later years. Man, I really loved B Limited on a 1000 foot street-straight! Ft. Myers was the best. Have a good weekend! Ted

[Bill Gorham]

I will try to post a couple pictures of some of my McCulloch 2 man saw engines and Merc-Disston KB series twin cylinder engines. Will owns 2 of the Merc Disstons pictured. I have more buried around here as well as the 9HP DA series twin cylinders.

Bill

[ted johnson]

Hi, Bill! Thanks for the photos. When you're digging, if you find a nice DA-211, I would be interested! There are not too many 2-man saws around Albuquerque...Ted

[Bill Gorham]

Ted,

I do not have very many of the DA/KA series engines. I am mainly a saw guy so I try to keep most of those for saw racing. I sent 1 to Will and kept a few. I know where more are located but the owners does not want to part with them.

Bill

[ted johnson]

Thanks, Bill. It was just a thought. I sometimes wish I was back in Idaho where you can find things like that! Ted