While the Flying Pickle drivetrain is re-examined and re-fitted and re-inforced, we’ve acquired a new (to us) land speed racing car. This is a late 70’s Buick Skyhawk, a first cousin to the Chevy Monza with which more people are familiar.  The Skyhawk has a small-block Chevy engine, hooked to a four-speed manual transmission and a Dana rear end. It all sounds so regular compared to the SAAB.

But stand by. The more you look at the car, the more unusual it seems. For instance, under the hood, the valve cover and intake manifold shapes look nothing like a normal small-block Chevy. They also don’t look like a factory Buick V8. In fact… wth is this thing?

To answer that, we must mention the Grand National; this mid-Eighties muscle car used a Buick V6 engine with a performance-oriented cylinder head design. The intake and exhaust runners were all identically shaped, and identically located vis-a-vis their respective intake and exhaust valves, very unlike the standard cylinder heads that GM was producing across its V8 engine families.

Some innovated racers hatched a plan to build a set of “Buick V6 style” style heads for Chevrolet V8s, and thus the “Dart Buick Heads” were born.  Used only for racing, the heads allowed much greater airflow and combustion chamber flame spread than existing Chevy heads and so had a moment in the sun – but sanctioning body rules put a stop to the fun pretty quickly, and relegated Dart-headed small blocks to niche classes in drag racing and circle track.

Eventually the Gen III Chevrolet motors (the “LS” style) arrived with Buick V6 style port layouts, and the LS motors now dominate hod rodding.

So this Skyhawk is a bit of an anachronism – but a pretty cool bit. The motor has the most extreme valve lift and duration that we’ve ever encountered, and an 8650 rpm redline to boot. It’s said to have “at least” 14:1 compression. And aside from whisperings and rumors, we know almost nothing more about it, so our first tasks are investigation and research.