Quote:
Originally Posted by buck2
I spoke with a gentleman a couple of years ago who has a Novi chassis that he vintage races with a Maserati V-8 engine. He says there are no authentic Novi engines in existance. What happened to them? I've seen an STP museum piece with a wooden mockup engine in Talladega, AL. Tell us more about the engine in this car.
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buck, there are, at least, two running NOVI engines. One is in the original 1941 modified Miller-Ford chassis and one is in a late 40s FWD chassis. I have seen both of these cars run. Chuck Fausel, who has the Maserati V8 car, is correct that there are no running NOVI engines available on the market.
Between 1941 and 1966 there were approx. 30 Winfield/NOVI engines assembled, but never more than 5 running engines at any one time. I doubt that there were ever enough pieces made to build 30 complete engines as later assemblies were built using pieces from previous assemblies. How many crankcases and cylinder blocks were actually built is unknown to me.
These engines were rather prone to catastrophic failures which might explain the scarcity of parts to restore any existing engines.
The new NOVI recreation engine uses all of the same design concepts of the original including the 90 degree V, barrel crankcase, machined from a large aluminum billet. The cylinder blocks are from Ofenhauser midget engines whch used the same basic design as the NOVI. The supercharger is a new casting using original Miller designs for a great vintage look.