Davies Craig is proud to play a pivotal role in the Big Knob Racing program, the team that is behind the fastest hot rod in Australia. After facing cooling issues at Speedweek 2016, Norm Hardinge and the team installed two Davies Craig EWP150 Electric Water Pumps, one for each side of the block to even out temperatures.  Further, two Davies Craig 14” High Performance Thermatic Fans were fitted to the rear mounted radiator to further enhance engine cooling.

Speedweek is an annual event that takes place on Lake Gairdner, where hundreds of racers converge to lay down blisteringly fast runs on the salt.

After losing fuel pressure, then melting a piston at Speedweek 2016 on a 212 mph record run, the roadster’s engine needed a rebuild. Mat bored out the big block Ford and de-stroked it giving the Big Knob Roadster a motor that revs to 9500 revs recommending gear changes at 8500 revs resulting in power figures of 920hp and 730 ft lbs of torque.

So it was with these new modifications that the team made their way to central South Australia for the 2017 running of Speedweek in early March. After a number of changes over the last 12 months, the crew did an excellent job prepping the car; with zero issues being found during tech inspection.

Unfortunately, Run 1 didn’t quite go to plan for Norm at the helm of the hot rod, encountering issues with the rear end moving around, ensuring the 194mph pass was just a tick off what was expected. After changing up the rear tyres for run 2, the team encountered further bad luck.

“Back on the track for my second run, this time the back end felt ok so I decided to go for it. But the motor wouldn’t agree; it didn’t want to pull past 7000 revs. I dropped back a gear to see if the revs would come up. They didn’t…. then the low fuel pressure light came on - and stayed on. I hit the kill switch but it was too late.” Norm said afterwards.

Unfortunately, the week came to an end early for the team after finding a dent in the sump that had been pushed out from the inside, so back to the garage it is!

As Australia’s leading manufacturer of automotive cooling products, Davies Craig is looking forward to what 2018 holds for the Big Knob Racing team!