Little back story on the Patane twin. Lou was from my hometown of Rochester NY, and moved to Phoenix in '77. When he was here my dad built engines for him in his F/G Camaro. After Lou moved to Phoenix, he went to work at Loper's and got the nitro bug. By '79 he had a T/F car, built by Sarte and had a lot of FC influence. Never really had much success with it and eventually parked it. By 1987 my dad and family also moved out there, and are still there. I'm the knucklehead still in the northeast, lol. Anyway, my dad starts helping Lou with the TF car, but just for a short time. If you saw Lou's TF car, you know he likes to be different. So he had the idea of building a twin for TAD. Frameworks in Phoenix built the chassis, and it was really something. My dad painted the car, and also built the two Hemis, which were almost 650 cubes, huge at that time. And nitrous fed. My dad had the thing firing up and running like a V16. They got the thing down to low 6's, and felt they were on the verge of being the first twin in the fives. Long and short of it is, they couldn't agree on tune ups and the direction to go, and my dad finally had enough. Later Lou did covert it to one engine on nitro, but went nowhere with it. By the mid '90s he landed a gig at Chrysler, and I think did a 5 year stint there, and many here probably remember him being involved in the Skuza and Gwynn Mopar deals.
Lions (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Cliff
- Start date
Wow, Nun, that was interesting. I remember the T/F car. It was kinda short, & was featured in a video about T/F race at then Firebird. 8 car show during the testing. I think Garlits may have done commentary on it. I used to have that video.... Anyhoo, also remember Patane going to the A/FD combo. The car would run hard for the 1/8 then kinda fall off. Always wanted it to run. When Patane went to work for Chrysler, he had big Chrysler dealership here in Phx area & sold it to work for Chrysler. Ya know, gotta wonder, if twins were allowed in T/AD, how quick would a gas/nitrous twin run? I know Pro Mod on nitrous has gone 5.60 or so in a door car, so just thinking out loud. heh
Don't know how quick a twin would run today, but I'm telling you that car could've been in the fives, and that's almost 30 years ago! As far as the dealership, my dad spent some time there working for Lou, along with Tripp Shumake, who made a few laps in the TF car. My dad got to be good friends with Tripp, he was an awesome guy. Tripp told stories about how he loved Lions, because you could just about see the driver's eyes they were so close to the stands. See how I brought the thread back to Lions? LOL
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Remember the date, July 15th, just a few days away.
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Laughs At The 1991 NHRA Mile High Nationals Nitrous
Wild combos, interesting cars, and Laughs At The 1991 NHRA Mile High Nationals. Evans, Garlits, and mechanical fun on the mountain.
bangshift.com
This shows twice-motored T/AD way back in 1991, plus some other combos of the day. Big Daddy does commentary.
TopFuel@Lions
Nitro Member
July 15
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