The company moved to Santa Ana and was renamed Weber Speed Equipment. The Weber Equipment Company of today is located in Placentia, California, and has been owned since 1970 by Red Roberts, who used to work in the old building for Harry Weber. Roberts has made it a modern business, specializing in McLeod clutches, Tremec transmissions, trans adapters, scattershields, and related items. Through all this time, he has kept Harry Weber's equipment and tooling, and said, "We're making more Flathead Weber flywheels today than in the last 40 years!" Roberts has a reverence for the hot rod pioneers and is proud of his company's heritage.
We don't have space to go into detail on every advertiser in our SCTA program, but other cam manufacturers or regrinders listed there included Smith and Jones (Long Beach, California), and K.W. Machine Company (Downey, California) that advertised billet cams and crankshafts, which must have been expensive in those days. Another important name we do have background on is Spalding (Monrovia, California), who advertised both cams and ignitions.
IgnitionsThere were actually two Spaldings, and although they were brothers, they apparently had separate passions in the speed world, with Bill Spalding specializing in custom cams from "regrinds to billets," while brother Tom advertised "converted ignitions for Ford/Mercury V-8s, Ford six, and Chevy six." Sounds like the Harman & Collins tale, and in fact Bill got interested in cam design while working for Kenny Harman.
Like most of the men in this story, they got hooked into the world of speed by running out to the dry lakes in the mid-'30s, and immediately set out to build their own cars. After running several banger cars, including a '23 Chevy and two '29 As that used a host of different aftermarket flat and OHV heads, the boys built up what is one of the first three "A-V8s" in hot rod history in 1936. They found a good flatmotor in a wrecking yard and a '33 X-member, and they were looking good, except that they found out, just as other rodders had, that the new V-8s would cut out at about 4,500 rpm, no matter what speed equipment you put on them. Tom bought a Lincoln dual-coil setup and, in the school shop, built his first dual-coil, dual-points ignition for a Flathead, which allowed the roadster to pull about 5,500, and he was still a sophomore! They also built a streamliner, hammering out the body themselves and using a 91-inch wheelbase Essex frame, popular because it allowed a car to sit low. They used the engine from their little modified and ran 129 mph in '41 with a pair of now-rare Riley OHV heads, but later turned the car in during one of many WWII scrap drives. Just as an aside to put the times in perspective to today, the brothers ran a classified in a 1939 "SCTA Racing News": "'32 V-8 roadster with battery and transmission, less motor and wheels, $60." The car was only six years old at the time, so you can imagine it was pretty cherry.
After the war, both Spaldings were back in the thick of things, and their cams and "Flamethrower" ignitions were on drag, circle track, and even Offy-powered Indy cars. They built a winning track roadster in three weeks with a potent Horning-equipped Chevy six, working with Wayne Horning and Johnny Hartman. Bill dropped out of the cam business in the mid-'50s while his brother continued for many years with the Spalding ignitions and built some electronic ones, but eventually retired. Tom passed away in 2001, but Bill is still with us.
Many racers discovered that the ignition was one of the Flathead V-8's weaknesses, and set about modifying their stock ignition for more dwell and using more potent coils, or adapting magnetos or distributors from other makes of V-8s. A popular trick was to use a housing that mounted two four-cylinder mags, since there were plenty of them around on the used market after the V-8s became so popular. One of those who saw a need was Charles "Kong" Jackson of Glendale. A lakes fan from the '30s, he was one of the few hot rod pioneers who was already in the service and out before the war started. Ironically, he'd been stationed right at Mojave near all the lakes, and while an Air Force mechanic, he started his design for improved Flathead ignition capable of higher engine speeds. When he returned to civilian life, he resumed lakes racing with a primo '32 highboy and his dual-coil, dual-point ignitions. To add further irony, the "Big War" starts, and he was racing at Muroc the day the military chased the roadster guys away in '41, to make way for Edwards Air Force Base, where the space shuttle now lands.