Anyone using the SV-1 carb on their drag car? I have heard mixed reviews on how they perform .

Justahemi had a pair on his blown Hemi, don't know how it ran.

A buddy runs one on a 572" Chebby. The engine is sprayed and runs 5.30s in the 1/8th on a drag radial in a full weight '68 Camaro. Cuts 1.20 60 ft times and behaves well in limited street driving too.

I borrowed one from a friend and member here a few years ago. It was set up for an engine very similar to mine.
It ran pretty good, real close, but not as fast as my Dominator...which was also done by Pro Systems.

I've heard way more bad things about them than good. The general consensus seems to be that while they may work ok after a lot of tuning, the standard 4 barrel arrangement is still the way to go.

Good advise. Stick with a 4 barrel carb, distribution is better manageable over a wide range of operation.

I worked with Patrick for two years on 98mm and 110mm in both gas and alcohol....ended up going back to conventional 4V.

Mr James was a good guy and easy to work with...but those SV1's were just not for me

In my experience, if they work out of the box, you might be fine......but if it needs work, you may never be happy with it. HARD to make it cover that spot in the fuel curve where that huge throttle blade opens and introduces all that air. Tend to be real rich down low to help with that.

I recently worked with one that car ran decent, but was having trouble getting it on the brake consistently. After much work, we finally just put a Dominator on it. The Dominator was SO much cleaner early, that we had to totally rethink our early power management to get the car to not smoke the tires, where it had been leaving fine, albeit slow, in 60ft with the SV-1. From what I see, that is a common issue. It would seem on a small block with large plenum, big cam, low air speed early, that problem would be exaggerated........but that's just my thinking.

Mark and myself both have seen a pretty concerted effort by some REALLY good tuners to make one work in the carb shootout and it didn't fare well. Although it wasn't Patrick himself, it was a really GOOD carb guy

The large airflow single barrel carb. design came out in the early 1930 or maybe the late 1920 on aircraft motors, which normally run at a constant speed in flight. There has been three different automotive designed and marketed single barrel large CFM race carbs. that I can remember in the last 40 years, Kendix, Predator and now the SV1, none of them have been a over whelming success Why rediscover the wheel EFI works great, better than carbs

I have one on my 605 Hemi right now I actually bought for my 512 wedge. I like it more now after tuning on it for a while. Although its not fully tuned yet. I put it on the 512 when I got it and it was pig rich and killed the plugs.

I put it on the shelf until I got my Hemi done and I was running a brand new 1250 G3 Holley on the Hemi...I fought a very rich transition with that G3 carb and gave up after about 4 sets of plugs. Everyone I talked to said to convert it from a 3 circuit to a 2- circuit....I sent it to Thumper after much discussion and we will see.

In the mean time, the SV1 ended up on the new Hemi cause I did not have anything else..I have been tuning on it, and its been getting better. I put an AFR gauge in the car now to help. Its actually pretty nice on the street. Very smooth. Its a simpler 2-circuit 1180cfm and its got a great idle and cruise circuit. I was a tad rich last outing, but I jetted down some more and then I will work on the transtion once I get WOT in the 12.5 range. Its currently 11.5ish. I ended up putting a power valve in it for the street as well, but I like the carb so far.

If you get one, plan on doing some tuning...First, you will need lots of idle timing, next an afr gauge, and then, more patients....I am a novice with carburetors and these things can be frustrating.

EFI will be my next step, but I race in a Nostalgia class, and that means I can no longer use this car as my back up if I go that route.

They've worked for me in some cases, and not so well in others. They do a good job on a blower.