The story behind the development of the X1 began when NRE’s founder, Jamie Noonan was the crew chief on his fathers Top Methonal dragster in the late 80’s and 1990’s. Most cars in competition in blown alky at that time were restricted to the KB/Venney or similar heads from the US, but basically it was when the Hemi ‘Fathead’ came into being  in the early nineties that the game changed and BAE basically had the market cornered with only minor changes in design from that point until recent.

Jamie could envision way back then ‘what if’ and when he elected to start his own business in 2005, changing the business name to NRE in 2007 with his current partners, Andrew Collins and John Noonan – the ideas that he had were hatched into the current record holding Hemi series head that is available today .

NRE now offer a range of X1’s, the NHRA X1 for Alky Funny Cars, dragster  & Pro Mod, A-Fuel and the ADRL based Xtreme PM/Blown Alky series, valve sizes range from a 2.400” to a 2.480”, all heads offer an optional internal fuel rail with down nozzles, and can be ordered with a beryllium or iron (except 2.480”) seat, plus there are custom exhaust flanges to suit.


NRE-X1

The background started  4 years ago with a complete re-vamp of existing offerings that for the most part stuck to traditional designs dating back to the 60’s OEM version. Jamie and his head engineering drawer - Joel Binnie, spent upwards of 300 hrs literally ‘on the drawing board’ before a 3D masterpiece was ready to then be programmed for CNC machining.

From this point Jamie and NRE head of operations Alan McCoy spent many weeks flow-bench testing various port designs to get a configuration that was starting to make sense. Wet flow techniques were developed and high-speed video used to view the simulation. From the results - more changes were made to the 3D platform and this was then passed to the next operational procedure. Andrew Collins is in charge of the cnc machine shop and from the final 3D models he then spent a further 60 -80 hours in front of another set of monitors, programming the tool path strategies for the HAAS VF5 5 Axis CNC to produce a prototype.

The next  few months was then spent on pure Research & Development. The prototype heads spent time on the Spintron machine, which necessitated cutting up a perfectly good billet hemi aluminium block to bolt the heads on and test valve train configurations, using a laser to track valve motion on simulated passes. Pushrods, springs, a range of valves and various brand products were used to get the ‘sweet spot’ to make power and prolong valve train life.  

The material the X1 billets are manufactured from are purchased from a trusted supplier here in Australia, being 6061 T6 high grade aluminium sourced from either Belgium, Western Germany or Kaiser Steel in the USA, complete with Mill Certificates for authenticity.

NRE- X1 Hemi 5th Axis CNC Machining

Hemi Chambers in Manufacture

The CNC maching process is  spread through 4 separate operations over 24 hrs per pair and a further 8 hrs in machining and fitting valve guides, seat inserts, and top hat washers. Valve seat profiles are then machined on a specialised cnc machine before numbering & final inspection. NRE manufactures all components in-house, including  the top hat  washers, stainless steel cylinder hoops and valve guides to ensure we have complete control over all parts of the procedure from  raw material billets to final packing to the customer.

In June 2008 the first set of cylinder heads ready for competition were tested on Australia’s fastest TAD at that time, being the record holding dragster of Aaron Hambridge, with Jamie assisting with the  newly required tune-up (untested) – the first pass was a very healthy mid 5.60 at over 250 mph. Within 5 passes the heads produced Aaron’s PB to date and within a year had reset the national record.

In mid 2009 the head was submitted to NHRA for approval for use in the blown alcohol classes of TAD/TAFC and PM, and by the US Nationals that year Chris Foster in his TAFC ran them and pulled off his PB – in 2010 and 2011 he was divisional champion and 7th fastest in the nation.

Jamie imported a near-new Spitzer dragster roller from the USA in late 2009 and started work on a 48’ customised trailer to suit, by early 2011 the car was first fired up and went to the most prestigious event on the Australian calender – the Winternationals, in June 2011. The rest is history, with Jamie as a rookie driver, the X1 headed Hemi top qualified, re-set the national record in Top Alcohol Dragster and reached the final only for the event to be rained out.

Today - Frankie Taylor in Xtreme ProMod has ran the X1 heads on both cars in the US and owns both ends of the records there, Terry Vince from Canada and Graham Ellis, Nick Davis, Danny Bellio, Jan Gunsen and of course the Lindberg Bros in Sweden are all satisfied customers. The top seven runners in Pro Mod here in Australia now all run X1’s, with Peter Kapiris’s Dodge Saratoga the fastest Australian Top Doorslammer with the record of 256mph running regular 5.80 flat.

Jonnie Lindberg and his brother Johan are the only distributors appointed in Europe at this time, Anders ‘Charley’ Karling from Karling Engineering in Sweden is the official repairer/service shop. So if you want to support Speedgroups contingency – put back more $$$ into your racing with additional price money and be at the leading edge of the sport – the X1 should certainly be a consideration when it comes time to change.

Visit our website today on www.noonanraceengineering.com.au

Contact Sales Europe:
Jonnie Lindberg jonnie@lindbergbros.com

NRE is part of the Speedgroup  Contingency Program for the FIA Pro Mod, FIA Top Methanol Dragster and Methanol Funny Car Classes!

Check the separate article in this edition about the contingency program or at the Speedgroup website www.speedgroup.eu
Contingency Program Page !


The X1 Epoc Maching unit