The Shadwick name has a long history in New Zealand drag racing and hot rodding. There can’t be many readers of this magazine who aren’t aware of Al’s Blower Drives.

Alan Shadwick has always been the man most Kiwis think of when supercharger components and rebuilds come to mind, and it’s not surprising when you think of his history. After using and abusing his small block Chev and Muncie fourspeed kitted World War Two Jeep off-roading in the early ’70s, he and his twin brother Bruce decided to try this new sport of drag racing. Being a diesel mechanic, superchargers held no mystery for Al, so a 4-71 was fitted to the 283 (4638cc) and the result catapulted them into the limelight.

Supercharged race cars were a rarity, and supercharged hot rods were almost non existent, so the Jeep was one machine that was pretty difficult to ignore. Wheels-up launches with the screaming small block hanging through the hood and an absolutely fastidious approach to detail.

It gave the brothers plenty of notoriety, and Alan a reputation as the man to see if you were after a hauling mouse motor, a supercharger rebuild or a combination of the two.

By the late ’70s he was fabricating all sorts of components in his basement. “I was always trying to do everything,” he says. Race car work continued, but several impressive street machines also appeared – the most notable being the red 1962 Nova which was built as a high-riding straight-axle street gasser, a look which is rapidly gaining popularity again today.

The number of record-setting race cars – particularly Altereds – that have received Al’s perfectionist touch is immense. The earliest car of note was the Altered of Wayne Grimmer and Clay Tocher, a pretty car that was sadly destroyed on only its second run. The engine – which Al had built using advice from US supercharged small block legend Dale Hall – survived, and was slotted complete with transmission into the proven chassis that was once Hombre.

The unit was immediately successful, and eventually ran as quickly as 7.6 at 178mph  (286kph) – not too shabby for mid ’80s-era New Zealand drag racing. Neville Gadd later purchased this car and had Al build what was then New Zealand’s most powerful small block for it. Neville fought the unpredictable and exciting car to a best of 7.3 before putting the engine into Warren Brown’s Plymouth Arrow for Wild Bunch racing, an excursion the Shadwick brothers themselves were quite interested in. The ’68 Camaro they entered the class with was easily the most meticulously constructed doorslammer ever built in New Zealand, and possibly anywhere else either. It’s now campaigned by Mark Bardsley and the build quality can still be seen. Despite many passes down the race track, it’s as immaculate as ever.

Back in the mid ’80s Al developed the ultimate engine dress-up accessories: a bling-bling carburettor cover that looked like a Hilborn injector, and a bird catcher-style scoop that made supercharged cars look blown and injected. As time went by Al decided to narrow focus and concentrate on these items and the US market.

“It was in ’87 that we got Don Garlits to give us the rights to sell these under his name. It was quite a big deal – Don doesn’t let his name go on any old thing. He’s very protective about it. He’s impressed by our build quality and all the positive comments he gets from customers he meets.

With our wildly fluctuating dollar, sometimes Yanks pay more for our stuff than they would for a real injector set-up.”

Alan’s always working on everything he makes, looking for further improvement. Perfection is the only acceptable target. “I’ve only just finished the carb bases for the street catcher scoops. When I started making them everybody had Holley carbs. Now you have Edlebrock performers, Demons, Dominators… all sorts of things. Plus there are all different kinds of blowers: little Weiand 177s, 4-71s, 6-71s, 8-71s. There are tunnel rams, single four barrels – our scoops will fit almost anything. It’s an ongoing process of continual refinement and development. You’ve got to start with a quality piece. It’s not productive to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse. People don’t mind paying for quality.”

Of course, our see-sawing dollar effects Al’s business as an exporter. But, being one of life’s clear-thinking gentlemen, he decided to become an importer so he could make up on the swings what he lost on the roundabouts. Being known throughout the land as the blower guy, what else would he be an agent for? Answer: The Blower Shop – a American company that started out building competition superchargers for boat racing. “It’s pretty hard to even find an original diesel blower for rebuilding now,” Al says. “An after-market item is the way to go. These Blower Shop cases are polished billet items machined from 6061 T6 bar stock – they’re strong. You can order them with hard anodised billet rotors and they have everything you need: manifolds, drives, belts, pulleys, they have kits for Chevs, Fords, Chryslers and Holdens. There are race blowers, up to 14-71, and they make a pretty cool low profile blower kit too. It’s all on the website at www.alsblowers.com. You can order it all through here and delivery times are pretty good, generally around six to eight weeks, maybe less if it’s an offthe-shelf item.”

There is no doubt that Al knows blowers.

Whether you need an air-sucking mountain of metal hanging through your hood, or just something that looks like it, Al’s Blowers have what you need.

This article is from NZV8 issue 13. Click here to check it out.

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