Between Jamie’s experiences crewing for father John’s record-holding Top Alky Dragster and Andrew’s background in Dirt Track & Touring Car racing, the scene was set to take the business further. In September 2007 Jamie, Andrew and John gave up their full time positions to start Noonan Race Engineering, with the view to offering a unique, innovative and professional service to the racing industry, which brought together over 50 years of combined experience across all facets of high end motor sport.



Initially NRE was appointed to run the engine program for a respected V8 Supercar team. However the business quickly expanded to include engine repair, parts manufacture and design/engineering services for boat, circuit, street and drag racing. Research and development underlies everything NRE is about and we strive to take on what others won’t and can’t.



Today, NRE’s team of 8 specialists operates from a new, purpose-built, 30,000 square foot building, complete with an extensive range of CNC lathes & Mills, SpinTron, two SF902 Dynamometers and Newen EPOC CNC Valve Seat Cutting Machine. NRE’s unique, high-quality billet products, including valve covers, coil covers and the X1 cylinder head, have been displayed at both the PRI and SEMA shows in the USA. We continue to provide engine development and support to three Group 1 V8 Supercar (NASCAR style touring cars) chassis in the series.

Developing the X1 Cylinder Head

Jamie’s ultimate goal for many years was to develop a new generation Hemi V8 Drag Racing Cylinder head for the world market. Over a period of 18 months, Jamie’s concept became a 3D design, then a prototype (made in-house using specially sourced and certified aerospace quality 6061 billet aluminum), then after 6 months of rigorous testing with all types of valve-train products, from camshafts to lifters, the first X-1 was finally ready to go on a competition vehicle.



That vehicle was Aaron Hambridge’s Top Alky dragster, which held the Australian top ET & MPH records. Aaron took the ‘leap of faith’ and swapped his existing heads to X1’s and with Jamie tuning his engine, recorded a first pass of 5.62 @ 248mph in 3,200ft of air – impressive given that in Australia we are limited to a maximum overdrive of 88%! The second pass was a 5.59 @ 250mph, with the air still over 2000ft corrected altitude. Aaron has also recorded his fastest ever 1/8th mile times of 3.60 @ 208mph and a blistering 0.904 60ft. Team Hambridge has since gone on to win the 2009 Australian Nationals in appalling conditions (heat/rain etc) and the X-1 is now a record contender.



Other X1 success stories in Australia include the 2009 National Top Doorslammer winner, Maurice Fabietti, whose 2,740lb car went from a PB of 5.91 @ 246mph to a staggering 5.84 @ 248mph after only 6 passes. Maurice has run a best ever half track speed and ET 3.83 @ 195 mph with a PSI limited to a 1.08 overdrive, boost at 52lbs. In addition, John Zappia’s awesome Pro-Mod Doorslammer has run in the 5.82 ET range with a similar car and there are several other teams about to debut new cars with the X-1’s in the season ahead.

X1 Cylinder Head Enters the US Market

Following successful results in Australia, NRE stepped onto the world stage by becoming the first Australian designed and produced cylinder head to be approved for use by NHRA, just six months after the X1 debut at PRI in Orlando, Florida in November 2008. During this period we received great support from Noel Manton of Manton Racing Products, Jeff Burnett of Composite Specialties and Will Hanna from the website 'Inside Top Alcohol'.

This support extended to the track, with the Chris Foster TAFC entry running with the X1 heads at the US Nationals at Indy in Aug 2009 and Jamie Noonan tuning Jeff’s Top Alky Funny Car, also complete with X1 heads. Although failing to reach the finals at that event, both recorded PB times, with Foster Bros going on to win their divisional championship and finish 3rd overall in the US in 2009. They have made many passes down the quarter mile since and are still moving forward on the tune-up without any damage or need for repair.

Recently, prominent US based teams such as Mike Janis and Frankie Taylor have improved their Promod best-ever ET’s, MPH and won or top-qualified at recent events with the X-1. After swapping to X1’s, Frankie Taylor recently re-set the unlimited Pro-Mod record over the 1/8th mile and is now the world’s fastest torque-converter driven door car.

Over 40 pairs of X1 heads have been produced yet intense testing continues. In the US, Noel Manton, Al Billes and Les Davenport have dyno tested the heads against the competition and proven that these heads make very serious horsepower. We continue to strive for the perfect tune-up to unleash the full potential of the X1.

Why the X1 is the Future of Cylinder Head Performance

Aside from the beautifully machined look and very different design, the NRE X1 has the following main key features:

• Priority oil feed to rocker stand which significantly reduces galling of pushrods &      adjuster tips. This has been a common & constant drain on the small budget teams, but with the unique X1 cylinder heads external oil feed this problem is essentially eliminated.
• Integral intake valve spring oilers reduce the high operating temperatures experienced, resulting in slower spring rate reduction & therefore increased component life.
• With the exception of Medlen heads, all current competitors’ heads can be cleanly and easily swapped to the X1 - no changing manifolds, headers or rocker stands etc - all designed to go straight onto current combo with minimum fuss.
• Port design & extra thickness around pushrod tube area – you need to buy a pair to get the ‘inside story’ on this bit!

The X1 cylinder head is available in a smaller valve configuration, legal for NHRA Pro-Mod as well as larger-intake port for Alky for Funny Car/Dragster and we attempt to work with specific, customized requests from racers that long-standing suppliers would never entertain.



Supporting the European Drag Racing Community

In the coming months NRE will commence development of the ‘Z-1’ cylinder head which will have all the features of the X1 but will be designed to suit teams who currently run the Medlen head with all the accommodating hardware that won’t fit anything else. The purpose of this project is to provide a real cylinder head alternative to the numerous Euro teams in this predicament.

NRE has two US-based repair/service shops and we are keen to develop a relationship with a highly qualified and respected cylinder head machining shop in Europe to help our customers as sales increase. In the meantime, we offer extensive workshop facilities for not just cylinder heads but all types of work back here in Australia. Recently we have serviced and repaired some very badly damaged Medlen heads for a customer in Norway that were poorly repaired in the US and then sent to us for a full make-over.



NRE is proud to be involved in the 2010 Contingency Program and with our US distributor attending the Santa Pod open meeting it's an opportunity to see the head up close, ask questions and hopefully find yourself fitting a new set of X1 heads on your way to the winner’s podium. Already there are local teams that are testing over there (Graham Ellis & the DannyCars team from Belgium) and we wouldn’t be the least surprised to see some strong early results.



We would welcome you to contact us via our website, www.noonanraceengineeering.com for further information and we look forward to fielding enquires here - good racing to all the competitors in our sponsored series and we very much welcome the opportunity to discuss your needs.