I never see Fitzpatrick engines discussed here or in the pattern forums. Anybody have an opinion as to their performance, etc?

thx, david

Never heard of them. Where are they made?

made here in the usa back in the 70's and 80's i think. there is one for sale on the auction site. it got me thinking, as good as their purported performance numbers are, why don't we see them discussed once in a while.

david

Probably the difference between reality and hype. From what I recall, they were strong runners but they didn't knock anyone's socks off like was expected.

I ran for a while in a LT-40. It was a nice running engine but nothing to get excited about. The muffler was great to look at but not much of a muffler.... loud!

All in all probably one of the best made, best looking engines ever but as others said, nothing a modern .60 wouldn't keep up with. In fact, they weren't anything anything a 70's vintage S.T., Profi, or Webra Speed wouldn't keep up with.

They were expensive even back then and more expensive now. If you just want a good .60, buy a Thunder Tiger .61 pro. If you want a pretty and somewhat rare engine, buy a Fitz.

Bill

Bill, that sounds like a pretty good summary. makes sense to me, thx.

david

The Fitzpatricks came out around 1993-94 and only lasted a couple years. Rumour had it, the two brothers who were making them got in a pissing match and they disappeared to never come back. I owned two back then. They put out descent numbers but just a little stronger than OS .61 at time. The real attraction was the beauty, machining and were easy to tune as an OS. I was a knucklehead and sold mine shortly after they stopped making them, probably will/am regretting that .

Most likely we dont see many post on them because most are in boxes in hopes of collectors item one day.


Z

Its a late 1970s schnurle engine design. Some were sold mainly in the 1980s, and I think they remained available into the early 1990s too.

Nice piece of workmanship, USA made. They ran well. About on par with most of the .61 schnurle engines back then.

Its not really a speed engine. They are more of a collectors item these days

It is, in my humble opinion, one of the finest looking two stroke engines ever made. I think that was also one of the selling points. The fit and finish was superior to anything else available at the time, and even today is a better looking engine than most.

Perhaps a classic example of form over function.. but not by design.

Those milled cooling slots in the head look cool but I imagine do the square root of nothing.

Those are some neat looking engines, although I think the JETT BSE motors give it a run for the money.

looks or performance? certainly the Jett will out perform it, but the Fitzpatrick has my vote for better looking. what that does for you in the air though i have no idea.

david

I'll take the Jetts - the looks are a byproduct of functional design. The fact that they look *****in' is a happy byproduct.

Then again, I can't imagine form was never taken into consideration sometime during the design process.

The Fitzpatricks are gorgeous works, I do admit, but I always thought they looked a little gimmicky, i.e. show versus go. The ad hype made me suspicious right off the bat, and sure enough while they were great runners with power in league with the good sport engines of the day, they did not set any precedents in terms of performance. But man, they were a classy looking and viable alternative to the oft mundane crowd of sport .61's. Well, viable if we don't consider the cost, but for some that was secondary and now they have a very nice collectible engine in their hands, a part of more contemporary American model engine history.

MJD

First time for me to see one of these engines!!
What a great looking motor.
someone certainly took their time in casting these and pretty'ing these things up!

Wasn't that the engine that had a couple of Chinese guys in cowboy hats in the ads? I never figured out where the name came from.

I have one forsale, that's been ran a few times. Sure is pretty.

$250

[email protected] if anyone is interested..