Jamie Robertson has been pushing his Mr Maniac II blown altered well past the manufacturing specs and now he has decided it is time to step up.
We followed Robertson’s story with Mr Maniac II in Issue #23 of Drag News Magazine, the car advancing from a nine second injected n/a deal to a consistent low 7 second blown and injected animal it is now.
The need is always to go quicker and a deal fell in Robertson’s lap he could not pass up.
“Paul Reneke rang Dad one afternoon and offered us a deal which we could not refuse on his 526 Hemi – manifold to pan,” said Robertson.
“So we bought it. When it arrived at home on the Friday before last track champs at Sydney Dragway, we were so keen to see it in the car. We raced Saturday and pulled the SBC out Sunday morning, by lunchtime the Hemi was in place.”
With the current chassis already beyond its means running deep into the sevens with the small block, it was clear new gear would be required, and fate paid an interesting part.
“Realising things were getting serious we set our eyes out for a new chassis and Dave Lloyd had a McKinney chassis for sale,” said Robertson.
“We went and looked at it and came up with a deal, got the car home then realising it was actually Paul Reneke’s car. So now we have the car, the engine, then Paul rang us and said he still had the 3 speed B&J gearbox from the car, and gave us another deal not to be refused.”
The car is a McKinney chassis original from the U.S. where it was run with a Olds Firenza body called Jam-Air Special by John Martin. Brought to Australia by Shane and Vicki Jinnette, it was raced by Dale Pederson with a Chev Beretta body sponsored by Weatgas before then heading to Paul Reneke who raced in Supercharged Outlaws with it.
But Roberston is sticking to having the wind in his face with an altered body going on the chassis. With the engine and chassis now reunited, a Jeff Ramsey built 14/71 supercharger is the last piece of the horsepower puzzle.
“Now it has an altered body on it, we are hoping to go atleast 6.7 at 200 plus,” he said.
“No deadline set – just when it’s ready it’s ready.”
“I would like to thank Mum and Dad Mark Dyer, Paul and Barbara Reneke, Michael Ryan, Smitty, Griffo and everyone else who I may have forgotten.
