"MADMAN Bill Phillips"

In our little corner of the motorsports world, there have been a number of enduring characters who have made a lasting impression on the sport.

Whether a car show promotor, racer, announcer, track operator, race car designer and builder, tuner, whoever, they have all played a rold in shaping the structure of B.C.'s speciality vehicle community.

Should we ever have a local motorsport museum, one such individual will no doubt be honored as an engineering pioneer, innovative builder and tuner, and tenacious racer with the ability to make budget parts go fast.

This person is known as the "Madman" - Bill Phillips.

Having long been known as an innovator, this non-conformist has never been afraid to try something different from the run-of-the-mill parts that were available. The owner of  Phillips Precision Products  in Pitt Meadows, he has a natural talent for turning his dreams into reality, and those dreams often involve cutting edge racing hardware. Of course, his first racing machines were rather more basic.

Bill's racing exploits first started the day he learned to ride a bike, alhough the winner was usually dictated by who survived the corner at the bottom of an enormous hill near his boyhood home in Toronto.

At 12 years of age, Bill discovered the internal combustion engine and never looked back. Powered by a surplus four-cycle conveyor engine, the wood-framed go-kart wasn't keeping up with the store- bought karts at the supermarket parking lot Grand Prix.

What his kart needed was a transmission. An Inglis washing machine found at the dump supplied the solution. Now with two speeds, it could easily keep up with the rich kids' karts.

At 15, Bill hitched a ride with an older friend to St. Thomas Dragway near London, and was immediately infected with the racing bug. Wit the money acquired from setting up pins at the local bowling alley, a 1952 Ford flathead was procured which he tried to turn into a race car. With no money or decent parts, this turned out to be a lesson in futility that he has not forgotten to this day.

The next car was a 1957 Chevy with a 283, bored 1/8 over with tri-power carbs. Although it was a moderate success, it didn't fill Bill's need to be different. So he sold it and went back to a Ford.

The 1956 Crown Victoria he next ran was rather unique for its day in that it was completely gutted and lightened in every imaginable way.

Power for it was supplied by a 418 cu. in. Edsel block with a home-made dual-four barrel intake manifold. In those days, aftermarket parts were unheard of, so a U.S. military ambulance gave up its 4:56 gears. This car became one of the most successful Ford-powered entries in Ontario.

In 1966, after a lengthy and expensive divorce, Bill headed west for B.C. "I just kept driving till I hit water," he says.

With no bucks but still having the burning desire to compete, Bill decided it was time to build a dragster. "I couldn't afford to build another bodied car," he admitted.

A 291 cu. in. Desoto hemi was to supply the power, and the local muffler shop supplied the tubing and bends. The tunnel ram intake was fabricated from exhaust tube and plate. The Chevy transmission was shifted by a unique series of rods and levers actuated by a foot pedal. It certainly wasn't a show piece, but it did run a best of 9.41 at 147 mph.

In reflection, Bill says, "knowing what I do today, I wouldn;t drive that thing around the block!"

In 1970, in an effort to go much faster (and due to increasing scrutiny of the "muffler-pipe" car by various tech officials), Bill put together a Top Gas dragster featuring a 427 cu. in. blown Chrysler and chromemoly frame. No effort was spared to make this the lightest car on the circuit; it weighed just 1250 lbs. Bill's philosophy was that "if you throw it up in the air and it comes back down, it's too heavy."

The diet paid off as the car ran a best of 7.51 at 187 mph. on gas. Bill has recently bought this car back and although the chassis will never be legal again, he is restoring it.

In 1974, Bill switched to a new rear-engined Swindahl car, and to alcohol for fuel. At this point, he was working with another talented and well-known Northwest racer, Gaines Markley, who he considers his hero.

While everyone else was running the 8 to 1 pistons that they used on gas, Bill decided that the alcohol needed more compression. "They all said I was nuts when I put 10.5-1's in that turkey," says Bill, "but they sure took notice when we went home with the cheque!"

This, together with his infamous 9000-rpm starting line launches, led to his friends tagging him with the "Madman" handle, which has stuck with him to this day.

Though he ran competitively in this class all over the West Coast, and as far south as Pomona for the World Finals, Bill confesses that he should have stepped up to Top Fuel in the mid-seventies. Having consistently quick reactions, he likely would have been one of the Northwest Division's top contenders.

In 1976, NHRA dictated the mandatory use of reversers on dragsters. Faced with the cost of completely back-halving his car, plus the reverser, Bill simply mounted a Pinto ring gear and starter on the rear end. A small battery provided the power to get the car back to the starting line. Although this sparked plenty of controversy amongst tech officials at the time, it was perfectly legal and he ran it for the next six years.

He relied on a number of crew members to help maintain his racing operation, and one in particular is noted local radio DJ Scott Barrett, who tells of Bill's determined atttitude towards racing. Upon asking his crew why the were at the drag strip, a typical reply would be "to drag race." A quick smack from the boss would be followed by "No, we're here to win the damn race!"

Scott recalls how this practical joker has pulled many stunts just for the sake of getting a chuckle. One of his favorite phrases is "gas if for washing parts, alcohol is for drinking, and nitro is for racing."

We've also heard how, once, when experimenting with a huge jet fighter parachute for his early dragster, Bill found himself searching for his dentures after popping the chute. It's also been said that this local motorsport legend would give the fire suit off his back for a fellow racer in need.

In 1980, Bill decided he had pushed the early hemi as far as was pracitical, and he elected to step up to a late-model 426. Twenty runs after buying the used Milodon aluminum motor, the main webs all broke, as did his budget, so he decided to build his own block from fabricated steel plates.

They all said he was crazy, but the "Iron Horse", as he dubbed it, soon took shape, and was run with success, despite being too heavy, for another three years.

In 1983, a new block was built of fabricated aluminum plates, and with its hand-made heads, it was dubbed the "Billet Bullet". The engine featured a number of new (for the time) innovations, such as higher deck height, front-drive magneto, and a far superior external oiling system. This engine block ran for seven years, trouble-free.

At the same time this was being built, a totally experimental concept engine - rotary-valve engine, utilizing four rotating steel valves - was under construction. This design promised unlimited rpm, better cylinder filling capabilities, and none of the inehrent valve train problems associated with conventional poppet-valve engines.

The National Research Council of Canada was so impressed with the engine's potential that they donated the CNC machining time to its development.

Unfortunately, the sealing system was plagued with problems and NRC dropped their support.

Broke, but undaunted, Bill set forth to solve the problem, and try different cylinder head combinations, with a one-cylinder Briggs and Stratton engine.

Eventually, the solution was found, but when a patent was apllied for, an eastern U.S. company, Coates Engineering, who had been simulataneously researching the same system, had already secrued it.

Faced with the astronomical cost of fielding a Top Alcohol Dragster, Bill retired to his expanding blower drive business and machine shop.

He started putting together a '34 Ford with what else? - a blown 392 hemi, but his heart wasn't in it. "it just won't go 200," said Bill.

Then came the fateful day when George Swann walked in to the shop with a Goodguys Nostalgia rulebook and said, "what do you think about this?"

Nostalgia Top Fuel? Early hemi? Front engine? The insanity returned. "Sell the '34! Buy some pipe! Let's go racing!"

The 224-inch wheelbase car began to take shape on a home-made jig in the shop. The length was arrived at by a top-secret formula - it was the longest car that would fit in the trailer.

The car was built to retain all the looks of the 1960's cars, but it meets or exceeds all the safety standards of a 1998 Top Fuel car, even down to a unique (for a front-motor car) rack-and-pinion steering set-up. The 443 cu. in. Donovan (nostalgia rules don't allow a home-made block) is fed by a 6-71 blower at 40% over, using a Phillips Precision drive, of course.

Early shakedown runs in 1997 revealed some problems with the steering system, but those have been rectified, and Bill is looking forward to a banner year. Having debuted the car running under alcohol power, he is confident that times in the high 5's at over 240 mph can be achieved with a "tip of the can" of nitro.

Help from Kerrisdale Speed Center,  High Performance Engines,  Pennzoil, and of course, his super crew, Stew and Al, has been indispensable in making this comeback possible, but he wouldn't turn his back on some additional financial assistance.

At 52, Bill has no intentions of slowing down. "When they light that baby off, I feel 20 again," he says.

The Madman is back!

written by Rolf Norberg from Street & Strip Motorsports page 14-17 - March/April, 1998 © STREET AND STRIP MOTORSPORT PROMOTIONS 1998