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Re: Jon Kaase
Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 12:46 pm
by PackardV8
You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’"
We're all in awe of the audacity of Jon's vision, but Jon does make it tough for those writing the Vintage class rules.
"You don't race cars, you race the rule book." Smokey Yunick
Vintage class rules for this year require factory iron head castings and prohibit welding or filling ports with epoxy. That rule is thanks to Jon Kaase’s Y-block entry from 2015 that had totally reshaped ports that essentially turned the top end of the engine into a high-flowing small-block Chevy.
If the EMC were to be continued in 2018, wonder how they'd have worded the prohibition against Jon's "valve seats" and "head gasket" interpretation? Also wonder how a lesser-known contestant would have fared with the judges had he brought in the same out-of-the-box-brilliant-but-way-high-dollar rule bending entry?
Re: Jon Kaase
Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:08 pm
by hoffman900
I love what John, Nick and the top guys bring to the table.
It's a competition with a set of rules. It's up to the competitors to find the advantages in the rules.
< getting a little annoyed with the "well, can the average joe buy it?", "what's it practicality of that engine", etc. talk. It's a competition and in entering, you should want to win. That means not imposing fictional rules on yourself - the rules are what they are.
Re: Jon Kaase
Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 5:41 pm
by pdq67
Thanks brechlrl,
Very interesting. I always wanted to figure out a way to mount a pair of old BBC -206 heads on a 409.
They cc down around 96.7 to 98 chamber-wise.
pdq67
Re: Jon Kaase
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:58 pm
by brechlrl
I need to push back a little to the notion that the winning engines are just a result of spending more money. In the case of Jon's and my MEL effort, It had the same high quality parts as all the other engines when it comes to pistons rods crank etc.. The winning edge came from the creativity and skill of Jon Kaase.. Those parts were fabricated by him from raw metal not farmed out to a high end shop or prototyped by a specialty mfg.
The inspiration came from a Ford experimental head that he saw long ago when he worked for Nicholson.. It stuck in his head all these years and he applied it to the EMC effort... I know aprox what we have in the MEL in hard parts, and it is no more than most of the other competitors.. Actually my 3rd place engine has more money thrown at it than the winning MEL
Re: Jon Kaase
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 4:55 pm
by Walter R. Malik
brechlrl wrote: ↑Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:58 pm
I need to push back a little to the notion that the winning engines are just a result of spending more money. In the case of Jon's and my MEL effort, It had the same high quality parts as all the other engines when it comes to pistons rods crank etc.. The winning edge came from the creativity and skill of Jon Kaase.. Those parts were fabricated by him from raw metal not farmed out to a high end shop or prototyped by a specialty mfg.
The inspiration came from a Ford experimental head that he saw long ago when he worked for Nicholson.. It stuck in his head all these years and he applied it to the EMC effort... I know aprox what we have in the MEL in hard parts, and it is no more than most of the other competitors.. Actually my 3rd place engine has more money thrown at it than the winning MEL
YEP ... you can not set a price on talent for being able to fabricate whatever is inside your own thought process.
Some people talk about hobbyists as though they can not also be very adept and exceptionally skillful at whatever fabrication they are pursuing. What a bunch of crap those opinions are ... when someone's vocation and avocation are one and the same, it happens all the time, no matter what the arena.