Bruce Crower

[jimmy six]

I have just read on another site the legendary innovator Bruce Crower has past away at the age of 89. Not many have done more or seen more than Bruce.

Bruce was inducted to the Dry Lakes Hall of Fame in 2006..RIP

[deucemac]

A terrible  loss to the automotive  world. One of the most brilliant  men  I  have  ever  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing !  Rest in peace and thank  you  sharing time  with me.

[manta22]

RIP Bruce Crower. His company always made high quality stuff.

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[velocity]

I've lost a fine friend and exacting mentor. . .

From SEMA News
   
Bruce Crower of Crower Racing Cams & Equipment Co., located in San Diego, has passed away. Crower is a member of the SEMA Hall of Fame Class of 2019 and will be inducted posthumously next Friday at the SEMA Installation & Gala in Anaheim, California.

Crower began making performance parts for himself and his fellow hot rodders more than 60 years ago. Today, Crower Cams and Equipment Company Inc. is still driven by Crower's passion to make things go faster, resulting in a multimillion-dollar organization that produces high-performance aftermarket parts for a wide variety of cars, trucks, motorcycles, tractors and antiques.

From the mounting of the 671 Blower on his Hudson to the Crower Glide Clutch and wings on Don Garlits? race car, Crower is credited with advancing the industry?s speed, safety and overall innovation.

Over his career in the automotive performance and drag racing markets, Crower has been recognized for his numerous contributions, including the 1977 SAE Louis Schwitzer award for innovation and engineering excellence for both his automatic clutch and the flat-8 engine; in 1993, he was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame; and won a 2007 PopSci Invention Award from Popular Science for his six-stroke internal-combustion engine.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

photo link below of Bruce in his younger days.. .

https://www.sema.org/sites/default/files/Crower_0.jpg

[jimmy six]

SEMA is about 25 years late od Bruce's indoctrination into their Hall of Fame.... They should be ashamed of themselves..

[velocity]

From your POV, perhaps. But for Bruce, he could care less. He KNEW his work mattered to those that mattered to him: customers! I never knew guy to walk behind his ego; he often forgot where he put it .

At least he knew he was selected BEFORE he passed on to the golden machine shop in the sky. . .

[Dynoroom]

Bruce did so much more than cams. He did fuel injectors, clutches, rocker arms, etc.
But he also built some engines. The engine he built for Indy included a 209" small block V-8 Chevrolet with the intake port moved to the outside of the Vee with the exhaust moved to the inside to feed the single turbo. He also built a flat plane 8 cylinder engine (see picture) using Cosworth heads. This project died because when it was finished indy cars started using ground effects tunnels thus making the boxer type engine a no go.
He also built a straight 8 Hudson engine for his record setting modified roadster at Bonneville along with another V-8 Chevrolet for his streamliner using his own design DOHC 4 valve heads. He was a brilliant man.
GodSpeed Bruce...

[Dynoroom]

Bruce Crowers 4 valve small block Chevy head & the 209" Indy motor from the 1960's. What a innovator he was.

[desotoman]

Sorry to hear of Bruce's passing. I was lucky to have had some great conversations with him many years ago. What a great guy. Godspeed and Rest in Peace Bruce.

Tom G.

[Jack Gifford]

... with the exhaust moved to the inside...

With the exhausts plumbed into the vee. Mickey Thompson built one pair of Pontiac V8 heads like those- intakes and exhaust all outboard. But for a totally different reason- to mount a pair of blowers on a dragster engine, while giving the driver a great view of the track. I don't believe he ever got it worked out though.

Thanks for all the Bruce Crower info. Do you suppose some of his stuff will go into a museum- perhaps the Speedway Museum of American Speed?

I hadn't seen secondary pushrods (across the heads of Bruce's 4-valve Chevy) since the Arduns.

[salt27]

I believe World Finals around 91?

[mtkawboy]

When I looked the car & talked to him at Bonneville years ago I thought he said it was a straight 8 Nash engine, but I could be wrong too

[RichFox]

Yes the modified roadster had a lay dome 32 Nash straight 8. For some years I herd bout a twin cam Packard straight eight Bruce was building to replace the Nash. 9 mains and more cubic inches. But never saw it. To bad.

[Dynoroom]

Nash, Hudson, what do I know!  Sorry I messed up that detail.

Brillant man none the less.