Still sporting its hand painted numbers and windshield sticker from its last campaign at Green Valley... when this car was parked it was running a mechanically injected Canadian flathead supposedly with 4" bores. An engine which still exists... which he is open to selling me.
Looks like a lot of hassle. Let me know if you would like to double your money. ( meant to hit the post button yesterday hope I'm not too late )
Okay... so as the story goes, his dad started building the car in the early 50s and raced it into the early 60s until it got replaced by an Anglia (which he still has). He was a flathead nut and it never had anything but flatheads in it. He never ran a hood or running boards (but Guy remembers when he acquired the car, the original running boards had been replaced with wood), but we did find an aluminum hood that he made & never used which has been inside tucked away all this time. He was a tooling engineer and he designed & cast many of the parts on the car, like the shock mounts. That's really cool - but could be a blessing or a curse when it comes to putting this car back together. He has the grille shell and radiator, which I'm going to meet him at his warehouse next week to get and to check out the Hillborn injected flathead that came out of the car along with the rest of the parts hoard that got moved there. Sounds like it's a '32 shell. I can't wait to dig into this thing, guys... I still can't believe it.
He must have meant a 4" stroke. A common understandable mistake. If possible. it would be nice to reunite it with the car if it's really still around.
He was very specific about his father casting the pistons himself and punching the block out to its limits. He was definitely talking about the bore. I'm sure there's some "lore" in there... he stressed that it was a Canadian Mercury block but I don't know of specifically Canadian flatheads being considered better for any reason? Mercury, yes... and the 8CM does have a 4" stroke... so probably just crossed wires in memory. I think a 4" bore in any flathead is not possible.
The most I've ever been involved directly with is 3-3/8" bore. That and a little offset grind on a 4" crank gives up 296 ci if I remember the numbers correctly. That was about all we could squeeze out of them and keep them together.
It's good to have friends who'll tip you off when they come across something like this. Looks like it'll be an interesting and challenging project for you, but still plenty of wiggle room to build it how you like. I'll suggest the Candy Cane Coupe name, just because of that awesome roll bar and the timing. Enjoy!
@trevorsworth If you take the body off this and stick on a pickup, I'll personally come to Texas and make you kick your own ass! Write down everything (or record it) you are told. Some casual remark may be very important later. Walk him from one end of the car to the other, asking about each thing.
BTW, I hope this makes you feel better about spending all that money on the car. https://www.ebay.com/itm/395540569646
What are the odds that thing's even any good? I don't know anything about tachs. This will probably be my first car with working gauges.
Very cool car and story. I love the roll bar and how the owner made the rear spring mounts. Guys would laugh if doing it that way nowadays.
Almost nil. Back in those days, the electronics inside needed all kinds of weird voltages, so they had batteries in them to run the electronics. A little neglect and some corrosission and the insides were toast. You may have gotten lucky and someone removed the batteries. If so, I think at least one of them may be available Soviet military surplus. I am not kidding.
Can someone help me understand the AHRA F/G class? If I'm understanding correctly, with a 255 cu 8CM, that would mean this car was 3,723 pounds?? It doesn't even seem possible to make a Model A that heavy lol.
Your rules are too new. Back when I drag raced in the very early sixties, there were special (bottom) classes for flatheads and sixes. It was "D/Altered" and "F/Gas" in those types and "X/Dragster" for 4-cylinder machines. If that's what you had, that's the class you ran. EDIT : There was also a "D/Dragster" class for flatheads and sixes. Things were much simpler back then.
Here's a good discussion on mid 50's to mid 60's class designations being all over the place. Not sure of the date on this pic but you can see a 60 pickup in it. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/early-drag-racing-classes.61637/
AHRA and NHRA had slightly different rules, so you'd need to find AHRA rules for the era it ran to know details.
You absolutely HAVE TO buy the Flathead that goes with the car (even if it's too hot to run on the street and sits in your garage between HAMB Drag runs) and hopefully all the extra parts down to the walls and maybe the Anglia too. Especially if the prices are at give away prices like the Model A was!!! Take a truck and trailer and a friend or two and lots of cash (borrow the money if you have to). Hopefully there's some other small parts (gauges, etc) to the car stored there. Sell some of the unwanted stuff off later. This should be an Iron Trap Garage style buyout on the spot before he gets second thoughts and changes his mind. It's a killer find and deserves to be put back together the way it was ran. Ask the owner for photos (or at least make copies if he won't let go of them). Just maybe somewhere out there is some old footage from Green Valley or other earlier drags. Can't wait to see photos of the parts hoard.
He feels that the real money is in the parts hoard and not in the individual cars... he knows what the engine is worth and I don't know if I'm ready to play in those leagues. But I'll do what I can and bring home what I can. I definitely don't have the capital for a buyout. He mentioned having photos. He seemed surprised, but appreciative that I was interested and committed to putting the car back and not just street rodding it. I hope he'll work with me on some of the parts to bring it back to what it deserves to be.
I traded some guy some parts or something a while back and ended up with this old flathead out of a 49 dump truck I think he said. AND I have the hookup on upholstery work that is dirt cheap! Hmmm
Congratulations on the find man! Some people have all the luck! I’m jealous keep us updated! Love. Flathead v8! Hopefully someday I can get mine running and find something to put it in!
Sounds good to me, the more he understands you are not just going to haul off this junk but to restore it and save it's history, the better. Save stuff like this on your phone and show you are a good caretaker, not just a flipper. If it's too much to swing and you are comfortable with it, offer payments. I know that a lot of older guys are cash and carry, but this might work to keep the car together. https://www.nrhgreenvalleyraceway.com/history www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkmy7untl0I www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnZ2iOS1Gx4 www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8wVdxoPlmw www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc_mWL-nmPw www.youtube.com/watch?v=y50PhqW5D_w www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVi0252-ofQ www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1kctMPjUYs 4 across!?! www.youtube.com/watch?v=94j8QUzMWvA more 4! www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTLbzao2y88 https://bangshift.com/general-news/...lost-drag-strips-in-the-history-of-the-sport/
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