spark plugs for a supercharged 851/852

Hello, Sorry I missed you as well. You forgot to mention Johnny Rutherford - super nice guy. Dad had a blast talking with all the drivers. The garage passes were equally a blast. Dad had Lynn St. James on his judging team - they had a great time. I tend to be more an admirer of the marketing - and equally had a blast. I had Bobby Unser standing next to me Friday night and turned to dad to ask if that was him - he replied that this would probably be the best place to find him (ie. Yes). I cannot say how glad I(we) am(are) to have Indiana built cars !

I attended celebration of automobiles at the indianapolis motor speedway also. Sorry i missed you, john. Many acd members were there with cars: john bools, mike lebovic, gene perkins (chief judge), dan sutton, mark hyman, don wray and more. John groendyke's white duesenberg won best of show.
Plenty of track action also, as it was the first weekend of practice and rookie driver orientation.
I highly recommend attending this event. The management of ims want this to succeed, and are seriously backing it.
A stunning eclectic collection of automobiles from 1920 to 1970 was the theme for this year.
Many 500 winners were there, and very open and friendly - talking, signing autographs, etc. Bobby unser, rick mears, tom sneva, lynn st. James, roger penske, pancho carter to name a few.
Cordially, tim.

By the way, at Indianpolis yesterday there were I am thinking 3 A Duesenbergs, 5-6 J's / SJ's, a JN, 3 L-29 Cabriolets, a Cord Sportsman, a Cord Phaeton, a Westchester, a 851 Boattail, a 851 Cabriolet, and our 851 Phaeton. An equally impressive display of Marmon and Stutz cars, as well as all the key Indiana marques, plus everything from Packards to Rolls Royce. And, when you put all the other CCCA cars into the class it was probably one of the finest diplays of CCCA cars that I have ever seen in one place.

You did win a first senior with that cabriolet. I know of at least three judges that took notice of those beer bottle J9's!

I tend to agree with your opinion, though when in Rome do Roman things - I am a big advocate for a correct car even when the judges do not notice - I try to do the work correctly for me and as I belive the product deserves it. I judged the most perfect restored late 60's Camero at the Indianapolis 500 celebration yesterday and I said to the owner, I like that you have the proper Delco spark plugs in the car and he replied that they were only close and it should have Delco Ignightor plugs in it (and the banding is different - even though you do not see that under the boot) and he has only found 3 NOS ones so far - but he was on a quest and some day he would have them all.

My own experience when being judged: I sourced a set of old original
J-9 bottle-style plugs and had them on my Cabriolet while being judged.
No one noticed. Too many other things to be concerned with, in my opinion.

As long as they are the blued style plugs, I feel that is really all you need.
After all, the car has to be maintained in good running order, so having newer plugs should not be a judging demerit.

I use Autolite AL7. They are blued and work well. After our long trip I didn't even need to replace them. Am still running the same one's today.
CORDially Mike

Mike Hoffman sent me the modern AC number plug he uses for driving - I will hunt for the e-mail. Big improvment over the whatever number plug the s/c phaeton had in it that did not work well (all be it it had a carb problem we have since corrected).

Hello:
I think that it is more important, when having a 1930's car judged, to have blued plugs than to have a specific numbered plug. New blued ones can be found on ebay if you are patient. I don't think cadmium plated plugs were introduced until the late 1940's or early 1950's.
Steve Stevens

It is my opinion that Supercharged 1935-1936 Auburns came from the factory with Champion two rib J-9 's. Non supercharged cars used a J-6.
Champion phased out the two rib 'beer bottle' style plugs in favor of the five rib plugs starting in 1947.
Glen Pray once told me that H-10's were interchangeable with J-9's excepting they have more threads, which made them better suited to the aluminum head. The car will only get dinged if the judges know what they are looking at.

I seem to remember getting H10s at lawnmower shops. Also you should be able to special order them from the auto supply.

I am trying to help a friend get the correct spark plugs for his 852 supercharged phaeton. The Champion spark plug chart that I have, indicates that the correct plug is a J-9. In the publication that I bought from the ACD museum titled, "Supplemental Technical Information and Specifications" for Auburn cars, the "Tune up Chart" appearing on page 186, clearly indicated the correct plug should be a Champion H10. Which is correct?? The picture that I have of the J-9 is a 2 ribbed plug, the J-9s that I have tracked down are 5 ribbed, will he loose any judging points if he used the 5 ribbed plug??
I have not been able to track down any H10 plugs. Any clarification would be appreciated.