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Rough Spotters Guide for Intakes and their related technical information - Part 6 - Sharp or "Al Sharp Fan Club"


timkingsbury

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Sharp Speed and Power Equipment - Al Sharp

First up a vintage decal from Sharp Speed and Power Equipment.

Al Sharp decal

Yes this is the Al Sharp who under the banner "Sharp Engineering" Sponsored (and built the Hemi Heads) for the famous - "Mooneyham & Sharp 554 1934 Coupe" that can today be found be found at Don "Big Daddy" Garlits Drag Racing Museum oh and of course of the famous Hot Wheels collection !

It seems Al Sharp acquired the Fenton intake patterns at a bankruptcy auction from Aaron Fenton. He used the Fenton intake patterns to cast the Von Esser, Jet, Ralph's muffler Shop, Don Cherry and others.

Among those patterns he casted Plymouth/Dodge small blog intake under his own name "Sharp" and for Douglas Speed Shop (D & S on those intakes being Douglas and Sharp)

Al Sharp had worked for a pattern maker before he joined the Navy and spent World War 2 in the Navy. When he got out he founded SP pattern service. I am lead to believe SP stood for Sharp and Pilkington (Gordon Pilkington).

I believe the SP tops were designed for the Stromberg 97 carbs by the SP pattern service.

So the reason why Sharp Intakes for the flathead Mopars perform like the Fentons, seems to be because they are the exact same except for the name/markings !

What I didn't know until very recently was after Al Sharp passed away in the fall of 2004, the Sharp brand continued and on July 26, 2013 the "Sharp Speed and Power Equipment" Brand has been sold to H & H Flatheads/Navarro Racing Equipment.

Here is a picture of Al Sharp holding a flathead intake, the above aforementioned drag racing coupe.

Al Sharp

Al Sharp    Sharp Engineering Race Sponsored Car

Here are a few shots of a Sharp intake for a 23 1/2" USA small block courtesy of http://p15-d24.com/user/3672-deathbound/

sharp 1 Of 7

sharp 2 Of 7

sharp 3 Of 7

sharp 4 Of 7

sharp 5 of 7

sharp 6 of 7

sharp 7of 7

I have recently spoken to a member who has a D&S branded intake and it was he who jogged my memory about Sharp intakes as I had posted a picture of Al last year in response to another thread.

While it is not really this thread/concept, it may be a good idea to do a piece or thread on the Legend Al Sharp and his partner and Racing Legend Gene Mooneyham. Gene a member of the NHRA hall of fame passed away January 2006, only a few months after Al Sharp.

But to Sharp or D&S intakes, heads, instructions, advertisement or other documentation please bring it

forward!

Tim

Update: Here are some pictures from http://p15-d24.com/user/5770-61farnham/ of his D & S intake and right below I will put the Fenton so you can see just how similar they are ! Amazing

D&S  intake made By Sharp 1 Of 4

D&S  intake made By Sharp 2 Of 4

D&S  intake made By Sharp 3 Of 4

D&S  intake made By Sharp 4 Of 4

The Fenton -

Fenton intake (intake tube view) from  61farnham

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 Did you ever hear the story of Tom Ruddy of Beverly Hills?  here it is as I read in the 1952 edition of Hop-Up magazine, he had a 1950 Plymouth business coupe with a reputation, he created a real dent in  Southern California racing circles , in close conjunction with Engles Machine Shop, to get maximum performance from his engine, the car was used for personal transportation and raced weekly at the local dragstrips. No lower end troubles developed even after a solid year of racing. Toms car was equipped with a specially adapted manifold using two Stromberg 81s .080" mill on a 1950 head giving well over 8:1 compression, and a reworked stock  ignition. This amount of mill required flycutting the head to clear the valves. Cam was a 3/4 Engle "Special" grind. Gear ratio was 3.54:1 [stock]. A run at one Russetta Timing Lakes Meet in 1951 showed a true top speed of 103 mph  the results attained by Toms car shows what can be done to your Plymouth to make it really perform.  

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I haven't Charleyd, but thanks for sharing the story. Sounds like he put the 3:54 gears out of a Chrysler in the car, which is an easy upgrade. The rest of the upgrades, not quite as easy.

 

You don't happen to still have that magazine ? 

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oh tim please do storys on Al and Gene. Ive seen no. 554 34 ford coupe flying down the track and have met Gene Mooneyham and Al Sharp.  Both those good old boys didn't take **** from anyone, didn't kiss asses, didn't care about anything beyond eating drinking showering and likely shitting performance. Als hemi heads were just the best on the strip and Genes blower and ability to get off the line better than anyone just made for one incredible pair of true drag racing legends. Im on the other end of the country but Als legend was coast to coast. He also seemed like quite a business guy and likely the fenton pattern purchase and producing stuff like flathead ford v8 items helped pay for his other passions. if Al had designed the intake it would be top shelf stuff however just using using a pattern would be more to sell product with out the need to develop. cant blame him for that.

I am sure if I had lived on the left coast I would know more about both. if you can put together blogs on them it sure would be fun to turn back the clock and learn more than the information that got passed the country on them during their campaign days. thanks tim. great stuff

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Well as it turns out I do have some more information on both Gene and Al, so I will certainly add it to my list , lol although its definitely getting a bit away from the flathead vien.. The 554 Coupe has changed hands and colors a few times,  but you might be pleased to know it is alive, well and restored and sitting in

Big Daddy Don Garlits  Museum of Drag Racing

 

http://www.garlits.com/

 

So I may as well add Don Garlits to that grouping as well, as all three of those gentlemen are intertwined and there is a connection to the Kingsbury family there !

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