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Paxton - A History Lesson
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Thread: Paxton - A History Lesson

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    Senior SCH Member TheHawk05's Avatar
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    Paxton - A History Lesson



    A Look Back at Paxton - 36 Years of Excellence -

    36 Years of Supercharged Mustangs

    Paxton Supercharger History

    Paxton is the only company that has been supercharging the Mustang since the Mustang was introduced. The following is a brief timeline of the development of several Paxton superchargers and the association with the Ford Mustang.

    1935-1960
    The legend of the Paxton superchargers dates back to the inventor Robert Paxton McCulloch. The original McCulloch supercharger began production in 1937 for flat head Ford engines. The supercharger possessed a maximum boost level of 4 psi. The impeller was driven by a set of worm gears that were lubricated with the engine oil from the factory oil pump (sound familiar?). Over 5,000 units were sold in the late 30s. The early 1940's shifted production to wartime endeavors and supercharger production was discontinued.

    The idea for new supercharger had emerged in the late 1940s to address some of the drawbacks of the original old model. The goal was to produce a supercharger that was quiet, capable of low-end boost, inexpensive and possessed self contained lubrication. In 1951 the first VS 57 supercharger was produced after $700,000 (a lot of money in 1951) in research and development cost. The supercharger was finally marketed to the public in 1953. The supercharge utilized a planetary ball drive that offered a 4.4:1 step up ratio from the input shaft to the impeller. It was lubricated with a mechanical oil pump and a self contained reservoir of transmission fluid. The supercharger offered a maximum of 5 psi and significant bottom end power with the aid of a variable rate input pulley. The V-belt system allowed the pulley diameter to essentially change based on engine RPM and power needs. The VS 57 was used on a wide variety of vehicles at the time including the Kaiser Manhattan, the Packard Panther (five show cars built), the Studebaker Golden Hawk, the 1957 Packard Clipper (4,809 produced rebadged as Studebakers), the 1958 Packard Hawk (588 produced). The total production of the VS57 is estimated to exceed 46,000 units.

    In 1956 McCulloch set up a special automotive division, Paxton Products (his middle name), to handle the supercharger division. The same year the company developed a new variable rate supercharger called the VR57. The supercharger incorporated a variable rate internal planetary drive ratio that could alter the step up ratio from 3.5:1 to 5.5:1. The variable rate was achieved by a spring pack that would change the distance between the ball races based on RPM. The supercharger experienced a one-year victory in NASCAR causing officials to ban superchargers in the sport. The supercharger was most notably used as the F-option on the 1957 Ford Thunderbird (211 produced).

    In 1958, Paxton Products was sold to the Granatelli brothers. The design of the dated VS57 was updated to a new model that could withstand higher RPM and increased boost. The SN60 required fewer components and eliminated the variable rate components found in the VS57 and VR57.


    1965-1972
    Carroll Shelby contracted with Ford to build a high performance version of the fastback Mustang, the GT-350. Paxton Products worked in conjunction with Shelby to design a limited production run of supercharged GT-350s. (If you want to know the number of vehicles, let me know). The vehicles were produced in limited quantity from 1966 to 19?? (Need to double-check the last year of the Shelby Mustangs). The systems were also available as a dealer option for Mustangs from 1965 to 1972. The original Mustang system is still available today.

    1973-1982
    Smog regulation had an adverse affect on the performance industry. Paxton Products began focusing in other industries. Kits were designed for the Mustangs of this period using the SN 60 supercharger. I am not sure if they were designed currently with each new model year Mustang or designed later. In any event, these were certainly the least glamorous years. These kits were discontinued in 1998.

    1983-1985
    The demand for performance parts began to increase in the early 1980s with the introduction of the 5.0 Mustangs. Paxton Products reintroduced the SN60 for the 5.0 Mustang offering 5-6 psi. Up to this point, Paxton essentially had no competition in the centrifugal supercharger market. All vehicles were carbureted and you were limited on the amount of boost that you could force through a carburetor (about 5-6 psi). The draw through affect of the roots blowers was better for big power carb applications.

    1986-1994
    The fuel system of the Mustang changed to EFI and all bets were off. Now a centrifugal supercharger would be preferred to a roots blower. Centrifugal supercharger companies started emerging including Vortech, Powerdyne and ATI. The centrifugal supercharger war was on and the consumers were screaming for more boost and more power. Paxton Products responded with three revisions to the SN 60: the SN 89, the SN 92 and the SN 93. All included minor variations on the original ball drive design. A high performance version was released in ???? called the VR4. Although the supercharger was capable of producing 14 psi, it was only recommended to be used in short intervals (racing) because of the extreme heat created internally. Vortech's new gear drive design was proving to be a serious competitor. Paxton Products finally began the design of a new gear driven supercharger.

    1995-1997
    The NOVI 2000 supercharger was officially released as Paxton's "race only" supercharger in 1995. The supercharger featured helical cut gears for quiet operation, a 3.54:1 internal step up ratio (see press release for additional information) and an advanced scroll and impeller design capable of 25-30 psi and nearly 1,000 hp. Although the supercharger was highly praised by the media, it was available only in limited production. Complete supercharger systems were designed for the 1986-1993 Mustang and the 1994-1995 Mustang, but the complete kits were never put into production. The high demand for the NOVI kits prompted several motivated Paxton distributors (most notably Central Coast Mustang) to design their own supercharger systems for the 5.0 Mustangs. In 1996 Paxton Products released the NOVI-2000 ST supercharger. The ST was intended as the street version of the NOVI-2000 with a 5-inch diameter impeller instead of the standard 6.5-inch diameter NOVI impeller. In 1997 the name of the SN 93 ball drive supercharger was changed to the NOVI GSS.

    1998
    In January 1998, David Adams, Jr. organized a group of private investors to purchase the automotive assets of Paxton Products and form Paxton Automotive. The initial goal was to build on the quality of the NOVI supercharger and design a completely new product line around the gear driven design. In May 1998, Paxton Automotive started designs on the NOVI-2000 RR (reverse rotation blower for modular Mustangs), and two new NOVI-1000 blowers. The NOVI-1000 superchargers were intended to utilize the proven NOVI gear case with a new scroll and impeller design for lower CFM applications. In June, the company upgraded the design of the ball drive supercharger and changed the name from the NOVI GSS to the SN 2000 in an effort to avoid any marketing confusion with the NOVI line.


    The previous designs of the 5.0 Mustang kits were placed into production. The company began selling the 86-93 NOVI kit in March and the 94-95 kit in August. In late September, Paxton engineers began the design of the NOVI 3000 supercharger, with the intent to produce the largest centrifugal supercharger available. The prototype for the NOVI 2000 RR (reverse rotation) was completed in November and the company started the design of the Modular Mustang system. By the end of 1998 Paxton Automotive had accepted the NOVI-2000 as the standard for all future supercharger system development on street applications. The short lived ST blower was discontinued primarily due to lagging sales (every one wanted the big impeller) but in part due to the confusion in marketing.

    1999
    1999 marked a significant turning point at Paxton Automotive. It was the first year that NOVI superchargers outsold the ball drive systems. The year also represented Paxton Automotive's come back in the Mustang market. We invested significant resources in tuning, computer programming and supercharger system development. In March the prototype for the NOVI-1000 was complete and superchargers were in production by December. The system for the Modular 4.6 liter motor was completed on our 1998 Cobra just in time to learn that the 1999 systems possessed a return less fuel system. Work immediately began on a new 1999 GT. In September, systems were released for the 96-99 Mustang GT and the 96-98 Cobra.

    The first NOVI-3000 was completed and sent to Elias in June 1999. In June Paxton Automotive decided to upgrade the passenger side mounting brackets on the 86-93 Mustang NOVI kit from the standard 3/8-inch billet aluminum to a ½ inch billet aluminum plate with dual (instead of a single) tensioner. Bob Kurgan switched from to this NOVI system (from a Vortech) and ended the season as the Renegade new record holder.


    continued.....

  2. #2
    Senior SCH Member TheHawk05's Avatar
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    2000
    In 1999 Paxton Automotive caught up with the competition, in 2000 we passed the competition. Paxton Automotive was the first to market with kits for the 2000 Mustang GT in March. The versatility of our billet aluminum brackets allowed us to respond rapidly to the change in pulley design on the front of the 4.6 2-valve motor.

    The rules for Renegade allowed a driver mounted supercharger. Paxton Automotive responded to the demand for the bracket in June with a tri-plane bracket capable of mounting the NOVI 2000 or NOVI 3000 within the stock frame rails of a 5.0 Mustang. (See press release for details on race bracket). The NOVI 3000 and NOVI 2000 were offered in race configuration with extrude honed scrolls, cryogenically treated impellers and ceramic bearings. The race bracket and the NOVI 2000 race blower were included in a complete race kit for the Renegade class that included pullies and an aluminum discharge tube.

    The reverse rotation NOVI-1000 was completed in March and released in a complete supercharger system for the1999 Cobra in August. By November the reverse rotation had been incorporated into all modular applications from 96-2000 Mustangs. By the end of November Paxton Automotive had completed the testing for the 2001 Mustang GT kit with a NOVI-2000 and NOVI-1000, an air-to-air intercooler system and a NOVI 1000 system for the 86-93 Mustangs.

    2001
    In 2001 Paxton Automotive plans to stay ahead of the competition in current model years and start offering lower cost systems to the 5.0 crowd. Late January or early February should mark the release of the NOVI-1000 system for the Fox body Mustangs. The entry-level kit will start at 5 psi for about $2,000 and offer a series of upgrades for more horsepower. The only hold up is the new rear discharge scroll for the NOVI 1000 blower. The 2001 GT is already in production and we are ready to leap on the 2001 Cobra. Our goal is to continue our emphasis on programming and tuning. The company feels that this will be a serious competitive advantage in the future and we are confident that Paxton Automotive will stay ahead of the competition from here on.

  3. #3
    Banned by Admin root's Avatar
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    Excellent post! Thanks very much.

    Ian

  4. #4
    Senior SCH Member TheHawk05's Avatar
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    I won't take all the credit. I stumbled upon it at Superchargersonline by accident and figured many of our members would enjoy reading it to get an understanding of how much Paxton has meant to Supercharging, especially in regards to Ford Mustangs.

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    A+ for the find :D

    Ian

  6. #6
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    I know this may be confusing but read the long posts below first - then come up and match the pictures
    Last edited by Granatelli; 06-12-2010 at 11:02 AM.

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    -
    Original Paxton logo prior to the Yellow version

    Various decals that went on the blower heads


    Gear driven version of Novi GSS with 10 to 1 gear drive


    This shows we were designing billet brackets and not only Ford - here is a 1000hp Chevy own by the GM of DFI


    Evidence of factory Paxton Supercharged vehicle that was not a T bird


    Short Picture History


    Evidence that Paxton under Granatelli designed the billet bi and tri level support brackets in 1993 & 1994


    VR4 blower could be street driven using this oil cooler and pumping system
    Last edited by Granatelli; 06-12-2010 at 11:01 AM.

  8. #8
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    I had tons of pictures but now they won't post properly
    Last edited by Granatelli; 06-12-2010 at 10:40 AM.

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    A Look Back at Paxton through my eyes By J.R. Granatelli

    Realizing this is sorta about Ford and the Ford Mustang, I see the rub but We also offered kits for Chevy, Dodge, BMW & Mercedes to name a few.

    VS is Variable Speed and they were engine oil feed for the most part / VR was Variable Ratio and they were self contained and lubricated by F type trans fluid. The VS57 had a magnetic clutch of sorta that would only super spin the blower on kick down aka full throttle. Variable speed meant the blower could accelerate internally and not be dependant on engine RPM directly – like all modern day centrifugals are. VR57 had expanding and contracting drive pullies like a go kart clutch. This meant to blower would spin at a predetermined impeller speed all the time and as the engine rpm climbed the blower pulley ratio would change to keep the internals of the supercharger spinning the same speed – in this case the centrifugal acted like a roots type

    The F option Ford 312 engine, mostly found in the T-bird was actually available in any Ford. Here was a rare example of a factory none T-bird

    The last year Shelby offered the blower factory direct (as in not a dealer option but really from Shelby) 1968

    Paxton never stopped making kits – from ’73 to 78 things were weird for everyone. In 79 the Fox chassis was born and people started getting the itch again. Paxton made kits year by year to address needs and wants. NOT JUST FORD though Chevy Camaro was always a players. Remember back then SBC was KING.

    Centrifugals could blow way more than 6psi through a carb and we did all the time. I agree Paxton was the only centrifugal blower design out there and we were up against a sea of roots type blowers. However in the small block world, Ford, Chevy or Dodge the centrifugal would eat the roots. Roots blowers looked cool and mean but they took more hp to drive than the centrifugal. As an example, at 5 psi a centrifugal would give you a 30% increase in power where as a roots would get you perhaps 8 to 10% - the rest was gobbled up by the losses it took to drive the roots from the crank pulley


    Agreeably, the early advent of fuel injection from the factory made it basically impossible for a roots blower to work and still be cost effective. Vortech was started in 1990 by 2 former Paxton employees Middlebrook and Wheeler. Middlebrook was a Paxton mechanic and Wheeler was a Paxton salesman. Paxton had been working with a German company on a gear driven design centrifugal and Middlebrook was spearheading the operation. Paxton upper management determined that the gear driven design was too loud and scrapped it for a short while. Middlebrook and Wheeler figured customers would not mind the grind rock sound that emitted from the early gear designed. Therefore they left Paxton to focus on the gear design. They were correct the Mustang crowd only cared about sheer power numbers and speed. While the gear driven blowers sound horrible they were in fact capable of higher output numbers than the Paxton Ball drive design. They say Money is the route to all evil and certainly as Vortech made money they got evil. Middlebrook, who had most of the money, squeezed out Wheeler in an attempt to keep it all for himself so Wheeler took another Paxton design, an internal cog belt configuration – we called it Ninja (the black belt of superchargers), and created yet a third company named Powerdyne. As sort of a payback to Middlebrook, Wheeler landed a Ford aftermarket contract that was planned for Middlebrook and Vortech. With Ford money coming into Powerdyne, they could cash flow. The internal cog belt driven design was doomed from day one and as soon as Ford pulled out Powerdyne torpedoed shortly after. In 1994, ATI Prochargers appeared with a Vortech copy. Many though they would not survive as they were always 2 steps behind Vortech in terms of design and 4 steps behind in quality. However, as time would tell, the guy that wants it the most and keeps his eye on the ball wins. Today ATI Prochargers is the dominant Centrifugal. More to come on this below.

    The VR4 supercharger was on the market dating back to 1982 – So the time line is off on that one. And the VR4 could and did make way more than just 14psi. Likewise when equipped with external oil cooling like this:


    They could be street driven indefinitely.

    Paxton began the design of the Novi 2000 in 1992 after it was determined the Novi GSS with it super trick 10 to 1 internal gear design could not be mass produced cost effectively. The Novi 2000 was the first and only 50 state legal supercharger capable of 1000 hp. Paxton tested, tested and re tested the Novi 2000 for 2 years and unleashed it to the market in 1994.

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    Under Granatelli ownership of Paxton, not a single Novi 2000 ever failed in the field. The failure rate was truly 0% Even in racing the blowers were immediately unbeatable setting all records for the 2005 racing season.

    The Novi-2000 was NEVER released as a race only supercharger. In fact, it had already past C.A.R.B. testing and exemption before it was released. And again kits were available for Fords, Chevys and Dodges.

    The Novi 2000 could produce upwards of 30 psi but was designed for 1600cfm at 20psi. It could and did make more than 1000 hp on several cars – Ford and Chevy.

    It was also never limited production. Production was limited because we could not build them fast enough to meet the demand. I don’t understand where this information is coming from as we had production kits out immediately. By January 2005, Paxton had already released 6 different kits. In fact, Paxton raced and showed a 1994 Ford Lightning in the 2004 season. Nicknamed the Hornet it won Ford Image Vehicle of the year award.

    Central Coast Mustangs NEVER designed a single supercharger kit. They wee in capable of such a task. Central Coast Mustang did in fact race under the Paxton umbrella as a factory team. As did a few others

    The talk above about the ST being a street blower and its release in 1996 in also incorrect. In fact, the smaller impeller Novi 2000, code named the R version was for racing.

    The idea was the smaller impeller could turn faster before going super sonic at the tip and therefore it could make more pressure and flow at the top end. The larger impeller moved tons of air down low which was great for street cars but race applications did not need it and we felt it would hinder the top end based on spinning the extra impeller weight. – so this information is backwards from what actually occurred.

    In 1997 the SN93 ball drive became the SN 2000. We now offered the SN series which was ball driven and the Novi series which was gear driven. Side note SN stood for Snub (or short) Nose. SN came about because it was stubbier than the VR and VS versions

    The Novi GSS was originally a gear driven blower but with it demise and the advent of the SN-2000 it seemed only fitting we do a short of signature launch. Therefore the Ball Driven NOVI-GSS was released as a limited production SN ball driven model – all came with the now called HO impeller design. NOVI-GSS comes from Novi Michigan and the famous NOVI Indy cars raced by the Granatelli’s in the early 60’s and GSS is Granatelli Signature Series.

    Shortly before October of 1997, David Adams Jr. made an attempt to purchase Wieand Superchargers. He failed to consummate the deal because he talked too much and when word got out that the sale might be happening Holley came in a snatched it away from him. David was fresh out of college and thought he knew it all (admittedly most of us did at that age) Not being in the industry he had no idea how incestuous it really is and his happiness and willingness to talk to and tell his story to, cost him the Wieand deal.

    Late October 1997 David Adams Jr. approached J.R. Granatelli (me) in an attempt to purchase Paxton Products. He explained his mistake of loose lips with the Wieand deal and vowed this time to keep hush hush.. It just so happened the senior Granatelli’s were ready to sell their portions of the Automotive division so David Adams Jr’s timing was perfect. The deal was set in motion and by January 1, 1998, David’s father and grandfather had helped him to purchase 49% of Automotive assets of Paxton Products (the Granatelli owned business). The other 49% was purchased and owned by me J.R. Granatelli with the remaining 2% going to David Adams Sr.. Paxton Automotive was formed because the Granatelli’s would not sell the name Paxton Superchargers nor would they sell the logo or its likeness. I came up with Paxton Automotive and I came up with the logo. In order to raise capital we began selling stock in the business and in fact we made an attempt to purchase NOS and Mallory. However again David Jr’s enthusiasm got the best of him and before the deal could be consummated he spilled the beans and again Holley gobbled them up. That was the first strike between Adams Jr and J.R. Granatelli. David was book smart but street uneducated. Like most kids fresh out of school, like I said above, he thought he knew everything and was going to listen to anyone and certainly not me. I will spare you the details but by June 1998, just 6 months into the relationship, they opted to buy me out and shortly after I gave up my interest in Paxton to start Granatelli Motor Sports as well as maintain Paxton Products the original company own by my father who was now diagnosed with lung cancer.

    It would have been hard for Adams to build on the quality of the Novi as it had no issues and a 0% failure rate when we purchased the business that I already owned and operate with my father and uncle Vince. Essentially I traded my father and uncle for David Adams Jr thinking his money and investment combined with my blood and sweat would be a winning combination. I was wrong. It was all about cost cutting and leaning the business out to make it look better on paper for potential investors.

    The Novi-2000 RR was already completed before January 1998 so again there was nothing to engineer, we just needed to stat making new kits. The RR blower was essential to moving forward with the modular Mustangs and Corvettes were the blower had to be mounted directly in front of the engine rather than to the side like in the past.

    SN-2000 superchargers were selling as early as Feb 2007. And again the Novi GSS was a very limited production ball drive after the real Novi GSS was curbed for the Novi 2000.

    The Novi 3000 was all Adams. They figured the Novi 2000 was working fine so if they made it 25% larger it would simply be 25% better. If it were only that simple. With no engineering understanding of the critical mass and what it took to spin a bigger impeller the Novi 3000 was born.

    Naturally 1999 marked the Novi gear blowers out selling the ball drive. They all but killed the ball drive in late 1998. Holly molly, How can they say ‘99 marked their comeback into the Mustang Market? They never should have left. The first Novi 3000 was in fact given to John Germanson of Germanson Automotive, a former Paxton employee when owned by Granatelli. While Germanson was dyno testing for hi end street applications, Elias Delatorre, in Florida, was trying to make a go of the Novi 3000 in the racing world. There was no one at Paxton to help Elias with tech support and the Novi 3000 was improperly thought out as a Bigger is Better concept. While no mention is made above, The Novi 3000 was a major failure and there is not a single document to show it ever made any measurable power. In fact, it never could match the output of the Novi 2000. And while the Novi 2000 had a 0 % failure rate the Novi 3000 had a 100% failure rate. – NOT GOOD

    How can they say in June of ’99 they built double and triple triangulated brackets – we were doing al that in 1995 as soon as the first Novi’s were shipping both race and street.

    I am not trying to sound bitter but gheez. They guys have written their own press release taking credit for everything we did prior to their purchase. Furthermore within 2 years of my leaving they killed the SN series and sold off the parts to Paradise Wheels and then set out to kill the entire company. Ultimately they traded all of Paxton for 20% of the value of Vortech to merge the two companies. Paxton when from the crown jewel of the centrifugal supercharger world to a shell of a company that ended up 1/5 the size of Vortech. What gives?
    Last edited by Granatelli; 06-12-2010 at 10:39 AM.

  11. #11
    Junior SCH Member SScott's Avatar
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    WOW!!! What a freaking thread! Thanks OP and boss Granatelli! Awesome information.
    "The older I get, the more I realize how little I knew when I knew it all."

  12. #12
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    No kidding, good read and thanks for sharing. I had always wondered what became of to novi3k. I have a novi2k and must admitt that it has been a pretty stout blower!

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