Weiand and Offenhauser also continue to this day, with the former now a part of the Holley group, and Offenhauser making limited runs of their many popular performance and "nostalgia" intakes. Other advertisers in our program included Eddie Meyer, Barney Navarro, Tattersfield-Baron, and Evans Equipment. All of these men made speed equipment and, in constant competition with each other, had success in lakes records over the years. Eddie and Bud Meyer were quite involved in circle track racing, primarily Midgets and what started in the '40s as "roadster" racing. After the war, the CRA (California Roadster Association) was formed to run oval races with dual-purpose roadsters that could run lakes or track. The T, A, and Deuce roadster donor pool eventually dried up, but the organization continued as the California Racing Association, organizing what we know as purpose-built Sprint Cars. Today, CRA has joined with another famous racing acronym as USAC-CRA.
Barney Navarro was another inveterate experimenter, but with legitimate engineering behind his speed theories. He started out with a free A-bone in which he installed a Hudson engine, since that is what he had. At the night school auto shop, he machined away the siamesed head until he had two extra ports, and had one of the welding students close up the wounds. It ran decently and was the start of a lifetime of designing, testing, and thinking "outside the box." He became the tech editor of Hop Up magazine and wrote for a number of magazines through his 50s. Later on, he worked extensively on AMC-Rambler engines and built a twin-turbo Rambler six that gave up 700 hp from 199ci-it was destined for an Indy car. Until recently, he was still making limited runs of his Flathead intakes and heads. Barney was probably the first rodder to install a GMC huffer on a flatmotor. When we last saw him at one of the Dry Lakes Hall of Fame events, he was in animated conversation with Ed Iskenderian, discussing Flathead engine mods like they were both still in the '40s.
Our other intake makers have faded from the scene. Eddie Meyer became heavily involved in boat racing and gradually got out of the speed equipment business. Limited copies of his manifolds and heads were made in recent years by well-known rodder Don Orosco of Monterey, California. Tommy Thickstun had been in the forefront of intake development as both an engineer and a pattern maker, working with such names as Vic Edelbrock, Bob Tattersfield, and Frank Baron. Tommy passed away in 1946 at the early age of 34. Tattersfield, of Electric & Carburetor Engineering Company in downtown Los Angeles, continued making his own speed equipment until 1952, but some of his designs were carried on by Ansen after that. Baron also got out of the speed parts in the mid-'50s, but luckily for Flathead nostalgia fans, his son, Tony, carries on, not only with old and new designs under the Baron Racing name, but also has new castings of Thickstun manifolds and the same Tattersfield-Baron four-carb racing manifold advertised in our 1948 program. Evan's Equipment advertised "the best performance for all 24-stud V-8 and Mercury engines." Earl Evans not only made manifolds, intakes, and other equipment, he ran a string of very successful lakes/Bonneville cars.