Out Of Hibernation

January 30, 2012

Trying to understand the evolution of street driven gow jobs to hot rods is easy compared to what came before it. By that i’m talking about our Model A-B forefather the Model T. Thanks to the old Post books- “The Fast Ford Handbook” and “Model T Ford in Speed and Sport” we have a great base to work from. Being that old photos help to tell the story better than words or drawings we owe our friend Chet Knox more than we can think with his lending us his fabulous collection of old time race photos.

After looking at hundreds of pictures it appears that Henry’s T supplied the majority of parts for the early home built speed buggies that were assembled in garages all across the country. When the Model A was born it took a little time but soon the old T motors were being replaced by the new-fangled banger. As speeds grew off came the early front and rear end and on went the new beefier A parts. As we know the old T chassis was the original flexie flyer and it soon gave way the other frames that were a little more rigid like the Essex’s and Chevy’s to name just a few.

When you’re racing, every weekend maintenance and tune-ability becomes important. For example the dirt track boys discovered that if you dumped the Ford rear end and replaced it with a ‘25 and later chevy unit all you had to do was pull the axles and install a new ring and pinion instead of the nightmare that’s involved with the Ford. They were smart enough to realize that Ford’s metallurgy was tops so Ford gears were being run in Chevy housings. I’m getting a little carried away on this subject because in Southern California the guys that ran on the circle tracks also ran on our beloved lakebed called Muroc and as we all know you steal whatever ideas you can from someone else especially if it makes your car go faster.

Back then you couldn’t go down to the corned store and buy any magazines that touched on cars other than say Popular Mechanics or Mechanics Illustrated because there weren’t any. For those who were ingenious or lucky there was a guy in Madisonville, Cincinnati, Ohio who published Automotive Service Manuals and would also sell you for a buck one of his Automobile Racing booklets. His name was Ray F. Kuns. He ended up doing six editions and you could find out almost everything you needed to know about theory and how to build a car in one of the volumes.

That’s the lead in to today’s first image (JMC_1903). Years ago the Antique Automobile Racing Association published all six volumes of Ray’s works in one volume that covered racecars and hop ups from the early ’30 to 1947. At that time is cost $23.95 and today many times more but it’s one book you definitely need in your collection if you want to build a period ride.

Our next shot shows a picture of a famous racer most of you have never heard of, Bryan Saulpaugh (CKC_1284). And yes his name is spelled wrong on the photo. He was photographed by eastern shooter Frank Smith sometime before his demise in a crash at Oakland Speedway on April 22, 1933. We know he was born in Illinois back in 1906 and cut his teeth on dirt ovals before driving at Indy in ‘31 and ‘32. In this shot the only clue as to a date is that a ‘28 Chevy is parked in the background. What we do know is that his ride is based on Model T parts and you can find the basic layout and dimensions of it in Kuns’ third edition from 1934 published in the volume mentioned above. For those who don’t care about this kind of car all you have to do to change your mind is look in the fifth edition of Rays work from ‘39 and find a story by the S.C.T.A.’s first Secretary Art Tilton on Roadster Racing on the dry lakes.

After laying back for the last month or so in front of the computer it was time to un-hibernate and hit the road again. And this last Thursday was the perfect excuse to do so. First up was a trip over to Bobby Green’s Old Crow Speed Shop for some snacks, drink talk and even photos. JMC_3563 shows a well used flat motor powered Deuce, just one of the cool rides in this period perfect old building that’s been around since the ‘30’s.The highlight of the visit is when they fired up a flattie powered tank called Suite Sixteen, a Tribute car to second one Bill Burke built and ran with Don Francisco. That,s a ‘36 fender on the right and dig the trailers in the rear.

On Friday Dan Warner and I hit the 2012 edition of the Grand National Roadster Show at Pomona. All that can be said is wow, great ride everywhere. With that naturally comes pictures so how about this perfect specimen from the shop of Roy Brizio (JMC_3568). Everything just looked right on this baby. Wonder if it would be legal to trade the first and second born for this one?

Not far from Roy’s ride was the one that had everyone’s tongues wagging. Not so much for the car as nice as it was but for the power plant in it. This folks is a Riley V8 and is it rare. A little back story on the motor. According to Dan Iandola a group called International Stock Car Racing created a new Unlimited Class that stipulated the engine must use a stock crank, con rods and pistons but that’s all. One Henry Ford became interested and called his buddy George Riley in Los Angeles and before you know it a deal was done and Riley went to work. Using the stock flattie’s 3 1/16” bore and 3 3/4” stroke a special block was cast in aluminum and the barrels in iron as a unit without a cylinder head like an Offy. A S.O.H.C. cam with cups was also used. Claims for the 90 degree V8 of 190 hp at 5500 rpm were published and a supercharged version of 250” was touted as developing 350 hp.

By the way, the mill is nestled into a Deuce sporting Gilmore colors of cream and red.

In the afternoon and all the way from the left coast came our patron Steve, his wife Carol and daughter Pascal to take in the show. It’s amazing how you can only go about 10 feet without running into somebody you know, so maybe they could extend the show to a full week next year so we could look at everything.

Talking about wild rides, another jaw dropper is what’s left of a roadster pickup that we could call a Track A instead of T (JMC_3572). As with every car in competition the workmanship on this puppy was flawless. The best part is that it wasn’t overloaded with chrome and the paint was fantastic a dark green with a little black and blue mixed in and in a great matte look that’s smooth as glass. Shades of those Mattel Hot Wheels from a few years back.

Across the way was the Dennis Varni ‘34 built by Steve Moal and another scratch built track style car from the So-Cal shop in polished aluminum. Then there was the Candy Apple Red channeled Model A in ‘50-’60’s style. Then the…… They were all fantastic.

After too much sensory overload it was over to the Suede Palace and then a walk around to check out the drive-in cars. Over near what I call the Mexican Village were the low rider cars for a better description. These were probable the most innovative group of cars as they were built not to win awards but as fun. In the last few years the old pickup trucks are coming on strong and our next shot shows a fun one (JMC_3575). It’s got Pig Garage painted on the side so maybe we can call it a Pigasaurus or something like that. The upside to these real homebuilts is you don’t have to spend 20K on a fancy paint job that’s waiting for a flying rock the first time it gets driven.

Last up, or can we say bringing up the tail, is what was once a ‘55 Ford Mainliner (JMC_3576). Add one Packard tail light, some massaged tin and copious amounts of bondo and we end up with an interesting look. Again that matte paint adds a nice soft look to the bulbous old ride.