Featuring the "Harrison" of Harrison Racing Products (HRP) by Birmingham Metal Products (USA). This is the company that obtained the remainder of British Anzani parts to complete Anzani engines for the North American racing market. If the Harrisons of HRP are realted to the Harrisons of Anzani is at present unknown but they did talk! For some years they were the producers of aftermarket parts for Anzani, like pistons and for other brands like Mercury outboards etc. As Anzani parts ran down HRP started casting more and more aftermarket products as Harrison components to the point where the engine even had some previous interchangeability with Anzani during and afterward changed and became a total Harrison engine product all in its own right that competed with Anzani.
As readers can see with the similar exhaust types over and under crescent shaped it was at a distance easy enough to confuse them. Harrison went on to establish records of their own that involved the use of expansion chambers to full advantage in doing so. Once all Harrison parts ran down which seemed to coincide with final crankshafts being used up the engine line also died giving way to the Konig, Quincy Z engines and then the Yamato onslaught.
Harrison the Anzani's American Alky first cousin in both class A and B shown in a page of this circa 1966 brochure shows the Harrison engines evolving into multi carburator (3 and 4 carb) versions. Whether these mulit-carb setups were learned from common developments in different parts of the USA is unknown as Anzanis like Harrisons were in the same competitions with hybrids of each other as well in common as unitary brand models of each other. They all sprouted carbs all over the engine that increased their power and speed.
I could not leave Harrison behind without showing what it means to see Harrison-Anzani hybrids that used some Anzani components with a majority of Harrison parts (or visa versa), in this case an Anzani lower unit -gearcase with a Harrison powerhead sprouting 3 progressively linked carbs. The other way hybrid with Anzani being the major with Harrison minor parts was one of the first Harrison pictures on this thread with 2 carbs and its crescent shaped exhaust stacks.
The Harrison-Anzani 3 carb hybrid featured here is of the type that set a competition record with average speed around the racecourse at near 85 miles per hour in class B that stood for years before again broken by another brand of racing engine.
Why I am paying particular attention to these engines was until the mid 1960s it was Anzani and Harrison dominating Class A and B as the Quincy and Konig onslaught was not happening quite yet.
This picture shows the other side of the mid 1960s Harrison-Anzani hybrid class B race engine. Ignition systems were evolving as surely as the rest of the engine was going from Anzani and more towards all Harrison. Harrisons generally used methanol fuels without added nitromethane generally and eventually gravitated over to the methanol fueled only supercharging aspects of the developing aspects of expansion chamber exhausts due to the much stronger crankshafts developed from noticing the weaknesses Anzani crankshafts previously presented.
Enjoy the rapidly changing technologies in the picture.
The following picture is a rather hybrid OMC (Johnson & Evinrude) 3 cylinder commonly termed as a 3 Holer OMC used in Formula E which can be used in Alky class 1100cc which in this case the engine comes in at 49 cubic inches. These factory stock original blocks are re-machined and engineered hybrid 3 Holers with various configurations of exhausts systems can exceed 105 miles per hour in competition using gasoline-oil as fuels.
This was one of the latest model Harrison engines so unusual as the engine had its block in fixed position with expansion chambers counterbalancing the rest of the engine block facing into the hull. Steering was accomplished by turning only the lower unit in a complex gimbal device. Again the engine is fueled by methanol (Alky) fed through some 4 carbs. The engine would be competing with the newer 4 cylinder Konig models as well as Quincy "Z" engines in class A and B Alky. By this time few Anzanis were on race courses having run out of parts to keep most going.
The Williams engine was a total loop hybrid 3 cylinder of amazing power but little is known about it. Note that the carburators are all everse to the engine putting the overhang weight of the majority of the block in the raceboat to counterbalance the pipes and their vibrating effects.
Anzani probably had the first coupled twin 4 cylinder racing engine the world at the start of the 1960s. Mercury also had a blackbox early research and development model 1960s coupled twin 4 cylinder X 2 = 8 cylinder 88 cubic inch powerhead racing engine in the hands of Ray Nydahl. All manner of these sprouted but by 1974 Konig of Germany built this monstous 8 cylinder for the hands of Marshall Grant to setup and run on the famous "Ring Of Fire" Class F runabout as well as a class F hydro. It is a mechanical marvel of combining 2 X 4 = 60 cubic inches 8 cylinder Konigs for this largest class of Alky racing. How many of these monsters were assembled and run is unknown but this one did the job in the USA though it was known to punish gearcases severly in the process.
Another variant of the Harrison engine line by Kay Harrison of HRP. These engines claim and kinship that started to convert Anzanis to Harrisons as the Anzani part supply ran down in North America. This picture is of a 350cc variant. Enjoy the picture.
