The Funnelweb is the worlds deadliest spider. Fittingly, it is found in Australia, the land of strange and deadly creatures. It is said that a bite from this eight legged arachnoid results in profuse sweating, muscle twitching, salivation, and increased heart rate. In some cases cardiac failure and death can occur!

Well a species of the Funnelweb has made its way to the states. And you better beware, this eight legged beast has the ability to cause all of the above symptoms, well at least the salivating and increased heart rate part!

Parker Racing of Austrailia has developed a line of potent single-plane "spider" intake manifolds for the 351 Cleveland and 302 Ford powerplants. These single-plane intakes are truly predatory, in that they are meant to annihilate the competition in power potential.

The Funnelweb 302 features a unique "cloverleaf" plenum entry which simulates a tapered four-hole spacer.

A side view of the 351-C 4V ports.

The 4V runners are purposely smaller than those on the popular Strip Dominator and other popular 4V intakes. There is plenty of room to port this intake as well.

A look into the 351C 4V plenum.

At first glance the Funnelweb intakes come across as copies of the Edelbrock Victor series intakes, however a closer look indicates several key differences. Terry Parker, proprietor of Parker Racing, has spent countless hours designing and testing the plenum area, which is the real "venom" behind the aggressive looking aluminum intakes. One of the key design factors was to lengthen the middle runners (cylinders 2,3,6,7). Due to space and size limitations, the runners on most off-the-shelf intakes are usually significantly shorter than the outside runners, resulting in huge differences in fuel delivery to these cylinders. The unique plenum design, featuring extended partitions between the runners, promote increased velocity through the runners, and also work to deliver a consistent air-fuel mix between the cylinders. Other notable differences are the length, width and angle of the runners. Combined with a taller plenum, the intakes begin to simulate a tunnel ram effect to each cylinder, with each runner being virtually a direct shot to the cylinder head port.

It goes without saying that these manifolds are not for your mild-mannered motor, but designed specifically for high-rpm street and racing applications. Be it circle track or drag racing, any small block Ford making power from 3500 rpm to as high as 9000 rpm, would be a perfect candidate for the Funnelweb. Stroker motors making power at less rpms, but requiring more airflow would also benefit.

Parker Racing currently offers two intakes for the Cleveland motors, a 2V and a 4V. The difference being the 2V has smaller runners and ports and measures 6.5" tall (measured from the base to the top of the carburetor mounting surface.) The 4V features a larger runner volume and a 1/4" taller plenum. The 4V intake runner and plenums were deliberately designed to be smaller than the common Edelbrock Torker or Holley Strip Dominator 4V intakes. Parker Racing feels the 4V intakes on the market to date have all been designed too big, resulting in poor air-fuel velocity through the intake, which robs power at lower rpms. Parker Racing also sells "tongues" which can be placed in the 4V intake to increase velocity and provide essentially a compromise between the 2V and 4V.

The 289-302 Funnelweb is also a departure from the aftermarket standard, the Victor Jr. The Funnelweb 302 also features longer and slightly larger runners. A unique feature of the Funnelweb 302 is the cloverleaf shaped carb mounting surface. Terry Parker of Parker Racing explained the concept here is to produce a tapered, four-hole spacer effect. The cloverleaves have a radiused edge as the transition into the plenum, promoting a stronger vacuum signal to the carburetor, resulting in better idle mixture and low speed throttle response. In essence the design tries to maximize as much top end power as possible, without sacrificing low to mid range performance.

The ports on the 302 intake measure 1.28" wide x 2.00" tall, about the same size as a Fel Pro 1262 intake gasket. (In contrast, the Victor Jr. measures 1.08" x 1.90".) This is also the same port size as most aftermarket heads, such as the Trick Flow or World Sr. The intake meaures 7.25" tall, compared to the 5.50" tall Victor Jr., which may potentially pose a clearance problem with stock hoods.

The 302 Funnelweb, in our opinion, is going to require some serious motor and heads to fully realize the capability of the radical design. Once again a 6000+ rpm stroker motor with a head in the 290+ flow range (intake) would be a prime match for this manifold. Putting one of these on a moderately built, low compression, 302, such as Project 11.99, makes us hesitant, as the low and mid range loss of power would hurt ET's tremendously.

In terms of price and availability, you'll want to contact Parker Racing at the email or phone numbers at the end of the article. Last we heard, they were aggressively working on establishing US distributors. Because these intakes are not mass production, expect to pay a $100 or so more than you would for the run of the mill stuff.

Flow Testing - Victor Jr. vs. Funnelweb 302
Because Edelbrock uses the same computer designed runners on both sides of their intake, their flow numbers are very consistent. The Funnelweb intakes use individually designed runners, with the objective being to have virtually the same flow on all eight runners. The low reading on #1 will result in more design changes by Parker Racing before the intakes are produced in large numbers.

Dyno Testing the 351 2V and 4V intakes
We've obtained some independent engine dyno testing of the Funnelweb 2V and 4V intakes. Keep in mind these intakes are brand new, and thus have only been tested and used by a few number of people. While the results are impressive, take them with a grain of salt -not every engine will respond with the same power increases. We plan to dyno test a 302 intake as soon as we can obtain one.

The 2V intake was tested against the Weiand X-celertor small port intake, on an 11:1 Aussie headed 351-C motor. The 4V Funnelweb was tested against the 4V Holley Strip Dominator, on a 12:1 4V headed 351-C powerplant. Both engines used the same cam, a Crane F246 mechanical flat-tappet camshaft (246/256 duration @ 0.50" - 0.570"/0.590" lift - 108 LSA) The engines power band is from 3800 to 6500 rpm, so the dyno pulls were made through that range.

Test 1: Funnelweb 2V versus Weiand X-Celerator
Engine 1: 351-C, Aussie Heads, 11:1 compression. Crane F246 cam, 750 Holley DP.

	"2V" Intakes Horsepower RPM Funw Xcel 4000 302.0 292.8 4250 333.4 334.0 4500 372.7 356.9 4750 392.4 376.9 5000 404.2 391.9 5250 424.3 410.8 5500 449.5 427.2 5750 461.8 434.0 6000 469.2 433.3 6250 462.6 6500 471.2 6750 459.3
	"2V" Intakes Torque RPM Funw Xcel 4000 396.5 384.5 4250 412 412.7 4500 435.0 416.6 4750 433.9 416.7 5000 424.6 411.6 5250 424.5 411.0 5500 429.2 407.9 5750 421.8 396.4 6000 410.7 379.3 6250 388.7 6500 380.7 6750 357.4

Test 2: Funnelweb 4V versus 4V Holley Strip Dominator
Engine 2: 351-C, 4V heads, 12:1, Crane F246 cam, 750 Holley DP.

	"4V" Intakes Horsepower RPM Funw S.Dom 4000 328.5 306.5 4250 354.0 342.4 4500 380.4 360.8 4750 408.5 381.7 5000 420.6 397.4 5250 438.4 420.0 5500 458.7 435.1 5750 474.4 444.6 6000 480.0 442.8 6250 475.3 6500 477.0
	"4V" Intakes Torque RPM Funw S.Dom 4000 431.3 402.5 4250 437.5 423.1 4500 444.0 421.1 4750 451.7 422.0 5000 441.8 417.4 5250 438.6 420.2 5500 438.0 415.5 5750 433.3 406.1 6000 420.2 387.6 6250 399.4 6500 385.4

Contact Information

PARKER RACING COMPONENTS
P.O. Box 187
Maryborough, Qld 4650
AUSTRALIA
Phone: 01161 741221636
email: parkerracing@itfusion.com.au