Navarro 8-barrel Stromberg 48 carb !!

Talk about innovation! We all know the great Barney Navarro was a genius when it came to making flathead motors go faster, and this is yet another example of why. Talk about thinking outside the box.

We honestly don’t know a lot (anything!) about this carburetor. But we are told it was built in 1948 using four back-to-back Stromberg 48s siamesed together with a common machined alloy base plate (it’s got no cast iron bases). Check out the extra/relocated arms on the accelerator pump fulcrum levers, sticking right up in the air. By linking them together across the top of the carb, the left hand pump rods can transmit the pump action to the right hand venturis. Looks like he made some super-long throttle shafts to join four barrels together in line, with one controlled by the pedal and the other (maybe a secondary?) with a torsion spring wrapped around the end of the shaft. And what about that fuel system! Looks like all the inlets are linked, and what are those pipes on the centre drain plugs underneath?!

This one-off piece came via Don Ferguson to the collection of Australian ‘friend of Stromberg’, Graeme Raper and is currently with our buddy Max Musgrove for full restoration with new Stromberg service parts. At the moment we only have these pics to go on, but we’ll be reporting back as this baby gets more attention. Anybody got any more input for us? Please?!Update! Click here for an update we got from hot rod journo, Chris Shelton.

 

3 thoughts on “Navarro 8-barrel Stromberg 48 carb !!

  1. The Navarro carb Could it be the one that Ak Miller used on the 27 T that he raced in the Mexican road races? Roger

  2. I think when running alcohol with larger percentages of nitro, the float bowls were sealed (don’t know how). The jet or bowl plugs were used as inlets, and the inlets were used as returns. Tom Beatty’s tanker looks to be set up in a similar fashion. I believe these were the last efforts to get the most volume of fuel through the ’97. This was before the Hilborn “Blower” injector came out. Would be great to hear the details from someone in the know. Johnny

    • Thanks for your input, Johnny. You know more about this than myself. I’ve also seen 97s for alky where they have added a huge great breather to the float bowls. So I agree – we need some input from someone who knows!

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