Monaro Motors and vacation

We here at the OSS are taking a little journey to the other coast. Though no automotive related we do hope to find time

to get greasy. As always we will be on the look out for interesting VWs and cool old speed parts. If ya know of any old yards in the Oregon area give us a heads up!!

Since we are stuck on an aeroplane for the next few hrs we can start to tell you about our latest project. We were lucky enough to recently purchase a beat ass dual SU carburetor kit for the 25hp/36hp VW motor. This nifty little hop up kit was produced in Australia between the early 1950 till at least into the 1960s, as there is a 40hp variety. Pictures is the kit before it received it's full restoration in the basement off the shack. There our mad scientists stripped the carbs off he manifolds( no small feat as they were rusted on! Aluminum and steel do like to bond!!) at which time they were sent out to the rubbish bin and a pair of suitable replacements were found. These carburetors were decked out to the 9s by a gent named Chester from out west USA. Next our core group of scientists updated the manifolds with stainless studs, a proper cleaning, fresh coat of paint (instead of chrome) and an updated linkage that includes a cross bare made from 5/16 A2 to increase rigidity and decrease the chance of rust. They also replaced the old ball socket linkage with a self aligning ball joint and clevis package to insure smooth acceleration. Though perhaps we should have just pined the a wide open for best results!! Once the one-off custom air cleaners are completed we shall snap a few Polaroid and post them on up for your viewing pleasure.

We also have an article from the December 1955 Modern automotive that gives a little history lesson on the kit and some performance numbers. Sadly the scanner at the shack was acting up so no posting on the tasty treat till vacation is over. At some point we read, in an old ad, that the dual SU carburetor kit could produce up to 41hp. This may be a bit of an exaggeration but we here at the OSS do plan on seeing if we can pump 48hp out of these little fire breathing monsters! After 48hp the H1 SU carbs used will become restrictive and one would need to step up to the H2 carburetor. This would require a different flange and the linkage support bracket would need to be moved forward 1/8". Now you can't say we keep everything a secret here!!

The plan to this point is to build an engine specifically for this dual carburetor kit. Jeff Denham has taken on the head work while we will be choosing either a custom or at least performance cam for the project. This along with a fully merged equal length header and MAYBE a 69.5 stroker crank may be enough to pull the desired 48hp. Research is still under way on the exact set up and the tech will start the build when the weather turns again.

A brief history of the Dual SU carburetor kit and Monaro Motors.

In the early 1950s Monaro Motors started to produce performance parts for most Australian car makes. The best known of these were there dual carburetor kits for the Morris minor, Mini and other SU powered cars. They also produced and install the kit mentioned in this post for Volkswagens of the 25hp, 36hp and 40hp models. It also appears that this or a VERY similar were sold by Automotive Carburetor CO of Sydney and J Bee( whom also made a custom 36hp dual 28PCI carb kit) ** We have been told that Jack Bono at Jay-bee did not make a SU carb kit and the only data we have different comes from the Modern Motor article bellow**. All of these kits seem to advertise the same performance upgrade, which leads us to believe that the same company produced them all and distributed by others in the 1950s and into the 1960s. They are generally receded to as the Monaro Motors carburetor kit, we can only speculate why.

We will post some picture of this kit and more information in the following days.