Now you did it! The Traditional Police will be at your door tomorrow to collect all those pics of cars that do not conform! No help on that car. Info on the Cord? Behind it might be cool too.
tube shocks, IFS, underslung, no front brakes that I can see, flatty powered, air cooled, I'd paint "blasphemy" and the number 666 on the door. Probably has cup holders
Looks like a "T" frame swapped end to end to achieve the under-slung effect, transverse leaf spring on top of cross-member.
......Yeah!! We got No Tolerance for independent thinkers here!! or.....errr 'there' either....... (Looks like inspired by Studebaker 'Planar' suspension design...from late '30s, only with the spring on top)
The Cord was Don Montgomery, he ran it at the lakes in 1952 with Buick straight eight. Later ran a Jimmy 6.
Looks like a T frame with the front cross member flipped over...thats what I did with mine..and the rear of the frame is z'd and I used a piece of another T frame for the step so that it all flowed together ...and and I know about the steering ...it will be on the back side when finished....and no the frame is not flipped or swapped end for end ...springs are T axles are A.... Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Spring over IFS was common in brit sports cars in the 50s. In fact even the 60s Cobras used it. I suspect the builder of that car had a subscription to Road and Track as well as Hot Rod.
studebakerjoe's post shows a Planar front suspension, it was also used by Jeep, and probably others as well. A friend had a '49 Willys Jeepster that used that front end. The lakes roadster has what looks to be a home brewed variation of the Planar concept, but the Planar has a leaf spring on bottom and upper control arms. The roadster setup looks pretty sketchy but hey, in the 1940's there was a lot of experimentation going on. I'd call it traditional. Heck, it ran at the lakes 70 some years ago on a hot rod, so why not?
Fordors, im thinking the builder may have flipped the knuckles over to use that spring up top instead of the bottom as Studebaker and Willys did.
Looks like the stude front end above flipped upside down and custom lower arms instead of the original arms. Exchanging stamped arms for tube arms and tie rod end pivots.
I think I might have a pic of that and also raised a question about something being way ahead of it's time...cool shot that is because it's all exposed...I'll look for that pic....
" a successful experiment in sprint car design, this rig has turned well over 120 mph in 1/4 mile, from a standing start. A tubular frame and unique IFS system are featured. Engine is an over - bored Mercury , uses nitro methane as fuel. note the lack of radiator" caption how to hop up ford and mercury engines
@bct...Here it is...I was as baffled as you...and I love the art...it may have been a message to the non believers... Pic posted by @loudbang https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/drag-cars-in-motion-picture-thread.228509/page-1769 https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/friday-art-show-04-20-2018.1104779/page-2#post-12535990 I posted this in the Friday Art show due to the humorous nose-art on cardboard and while studying it I noticed the front suspension looked independent and being a T it would have normally been a beam transverse sprung front end. This was identified as a Blair Speed Shop entry with Dyno Don Nicholson involved in its construction. I would suspect it would have been rare to see this on a Hotrod racer of this type much like Ak's Hotrod above... but the pictures elude a pretty innovative entry. Perhaps @loudbang and @296ardun or anyone else who has knowledge of this particular racer may be able to shed some light on what is under that cardboard... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...genized-hotrods.1002926/page-62#post-12537299
Looks pretty good doesn't it......what's great about what you found was it actually explains what I was asking...very cool. @Rockerhead could also shed some light on this...heck he probably took the pics...wonder if there were others that followed?
Rootie you got me snooping with your suggestion of an offshore connection which by the early to mid 1950s when this image is likely period correct to...may have been an option My first hit was an Alvis...which had a very similar suspension with origins around 1934... I thought despite looking like a possible winner it seemed a little heavier than what we're looking for...and there wasn't any frontal pics to see the lower struts and where they mounted... I searched on and came across this... https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/speedex.htm This is a page of Speedex aftermarket parts for British application to a pretty sizable road racing market which still flourishes even today... I suspect in the 50's it was probably available in some manner to North America just as the cars themselves were... So perhaps in land speed, racing and even good Ole Hotrod this stuff was in the mix...and Don Blair being around the culture of Racing perhaps saw this suspension and applied it to his own purposes...is it a Speedex unit...I'm thinking it is...they had 2 types one wider than the other... There is a chance it's not but it sure as heck looks like it... @rudestude and the others suggesting a flipped crossmember are also correct in identifying how this went together...
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