Input Wanted: Gowjobs and Speedsters

i found a great site for goodwood and was thumbing through it, and what to my wondering eyes should appear...the ex-Arnold Foster car, so how many are left out there...

 

VERY cool photo! Some day I'll copple up something based on that with the '25 Franklin hood & Bugatti GP tail section I have squirreled away. Ford banger powered of course.

 

WOWOWOW!!!! Atip of the Viper Top Hat to you guys! This is a thread that rates 500 stars.

Thanks to all who've contributed.

On the CD player now: Marley's Ghost - Live at the Freight

 

so what back end do you have? 35, 37...or something earlier?

i think that franklin hood would look bitchin on a bob tail rather than a boat tail (but no accounting for taste)...

 

The tail came off a T35, it's in the ABC register, but the current owner desided to have a standard aluminum tail fabricated to replace this one. I don't know the history on the car but this is a steel tail that has a rounded top and not as great a point in back. If the factory didn't make it then a coach building shop did. I'll climb up in the attic by days end and shoot a few photos. Got the Henderson Midget chassis standing on end, gives me a few more square feet of shop space.

 

Happy New Year guys

I recently became the owner of a stock rollin frame for a 32 model B,now over here in the uk thats a rare find . and the chance of getting body work for poor boy money is rare anyware. So im toying with the plan of building a speedster based on the chassis, and was wondering if you guys could post some pictures of speedsters based on 32's...

regards TINDOG...

 

hmmm...that is very tempting...

go check out www.nwvs.org

for some ideas

 

i was told my model a was a gow job originally. its a 29 coupe with the top cut off on a 31 frame. no fenders or running boards were on it. it has glass fenders from the 70's on the rear now. the motor is a 31 block with a balanced 33 crank and other mystery internals.unfortunately i couldnt get the motor. my grandfather got it and plans on putting it into something someday.

 

Thought I would throw a couple more speedsters at you-don't know it they have ever been posted yet. The first set is of the 1915 Sunbeams not too far behind the Les Charletans and a pretty clean design. Shipped here from England and ran at Indy in 1916 by Josef Christiaens (4th place). Note the revolution counter run off the front of the cam. Also pretty good scavenging setup. The others are up at the top of my wish list although I do not believe anything of these cars ever survived. (I would really hope someone would tell me I am wrong on this because I would like to see it). They are Louis Cheverolet's 1916 Frontenac 4 cyl. SOHC. Look at the super oil cooler and his use of low slung fuel tanks. With all the talk of early Miller state of the art stuff, Chevrolet was really ahead of his time with the use of aluminum and how to build a super fast racecar. His stuff was super quick on the boards in the teens and then some into the twenties. Some of the credit belongs to Van Ranst but much to old Louis. First Indy car builder to ever win back to back also (20 and & 21). Hope someone does a bang up history on this guy saving me the effort, I've got too many projects but if any early racecar builder deserves it he is right at the top of the list in my opinion.

Also those sloping radiators like on the Ford job I seem to run across similar shells to those in old teen photos. The Miller's were close as were the Ogrens and Tom Alley's Bender and the JJR. Someone must have been punching those out as after market go fast goodies.

 

love that firewall on the sunbeam, is that the oil tank or...

here is a good one, is thought to be the LSR Napier Chassis, with a new body and radiator. (i think this is photographed on the Mille Miglia or the Targa Florio in '23ish?)

 

i had this in a much larger format and just cleaned it up, but i thought it was fun...

 

I guess I had one too many Coronas and I posted the pics kind of just the opposite that I said. The first three pics are of the 16 Frontenac and yes FB that is the oil cooler on the firewall. These cars like many in this era carried about 5 gallons of oil under the cowl. Gaskets were not often used and the riding mechanic often went crazy with the oil hand pumps. Tracks were a bit slippery, between the oil and the sand to sop it up.The the second group of pics are of the Sunbeams OHC 6. I believe one of these Sunbeams was found in New York in the fifties but the rest were shipped back to England.

 

What's the story on this Hudson? I need a score card on all the Hudsons-I believe the Hudsons were some pretty decent racecars but with the Super Sixes around I am just not sure which are the real deal and which are not. Neat to look at and for a stocker with a tune up they ran pretty respectable.

 

i know nothing of this car, i think it is in soCal. Hudson of this generation can be made to go, but that is what i have heard rather than witnessed. There was a guy in soCal who had a pre-ww1 hudson that lapped indy at 80 mph, with a full touring body...the engine was "hotted up a bit"!

 

I want one of those when I retire in about 40 years or so. By then, I should be about old enough that I shouldn't be driving a modern, insulated-from-your-surroundings, too-many-overcompensating, to-easy-for-an-old-guy-to-have-an-accident-in cars.
How many times have we been caught behind some old codger driving a big comfy Caddy, Buick or Olds 4dr sedan, puttering along 20 miles under the speed limit, on a clear day?
When you hit a certain age, your reflexes will be slow, your eyesight poor, and your speed will be slow. A lot of people who shouldn't be on the road are.

BUT, with one of those speedsters, an old guy probably won't get in too much trouble. Won't drive it in the rain, 60mph with no bodywork will feel like 100mph, so you'll cruise slower, the headlights won't do much good at night, and with the "trunk" behind the gas tank, there's plenty of room for groceries and other stuff from the store.

And best of all, you won't be some old guy impeding traffic--you'll be some cool old dude with funny goggles and a scarf cruising around in his antique, and will get a thumbs up everywhere you go, instead of that other salute.

I'll begin collecting parts in 20 years.
-Brad

 

This is the Hudson I'd like to own, factory built that ran the Indy 500 in 1919 with Ira Vail driving. Vail bought the car from Hudson and ran it for a few years, sold it to H.D.Carpenter in Philadelphia, Pa. who raced it localy. Car would up on a used car lot in Philly, @1948 made the letters to the editor column in Motor Trend. Cameron Peck bought it, then Lyndley Bothwell, in turn Bill Harrah owned it. Auctioned to Tom Barrett it got a quickie repaint and sold in the New York Times Sunday classifieds. Now in a private collection out West. Needs to be Vintage raced IMO.

 

not bad, some of the cars from the late teens and early twenty's show up every so often. that hudson would be a blast to race!

sooo, any more out there?

 

If you want to go back to post #30 were I was giving the history of the Larry Beals Hisso V8 powered car, this is the missing photo. I knew I had it, just misplaced it. Built in 1908 as a factory race car by Mercedes driven to victory in the Dieppe GP by Christian Lautenschlager.

 

i am sure you have a copy of "the Star and the Laurel": by Beverly Rae Kimes. it has a good bit of coverage on that car. Also Profile Publications did a great job on that car as well as the 1914 GP car...

and how about the pictures of the car after it was sold? hopefully...

 

I agree this car has some real history, although I have seen there are a couple being vintage raced now, shiny bodies and all. I also believe that there is one overseas (New Zeeland maybe). Years ago I thought it would be neat to build one since they were based off the passenger car, the Super Six. I wouldn't doubt it someone beat me to it. I am not sure if the latest Hudsons are the real deal but even if they are not they would sure be a whole bunch of fun. As to the vintage racing some are a little leary of going wheel to wheel but it would be great to see it out on the track. Jim

 

George Wingard from Oregon has one of the spare team cars from the 1908 group. He is one of the vintage racers who really competes in the Vintage races out at Laguna Seca. His workmanship is pretty good and he has arguably the best group of cars from this era (including the #28 winning 1914 GP Mercedes). I would like to see this car finished and have it go head to head with Wingard-knowing him he wouldn't back off and it may be a viewers treat.-Jim

 

One of the highlights of the Hershey meet is seeing a George Wingard car in the Race Car class. I can't imagine what it must be like to be in the building the houses that collection. The hobbies loss is that he was out bit on the Beals car, he told me he would have left it as is, in its last raced configuration. Recondition things then kick ass in Vintage Races!

 

Here's a saying from the 1930's: "Four-bangers to plow; V8's to gow." From a book Hot Rodder! From Lakes to Street by Albert Drake. Good read.

 

I dont know if this counts but it is a 31 American Austin Speedster that we are working on. "Speed" being faster than you can run.

 

Wow! It's like a street-driven midget!

 

I wouldn't bet any money that a flathead V8 would outrun a Four Banger with an overhead before 1942.

 

i have been looking and looking for a copy of a calendar that was put out a while ago (as in I dont know when), it is supposed to just be race cars from his collection. Over the years i have been able to scrounge pictures of various race cars that he owns, some of them are just incredible!

Below is one of his cars, it is the Savannah Grand Prize winning Mercer.

 

Saturday Hershey 2005, while the muscle car guys and owners of 25 year old grocery getters had their cars in enclosed trailers on the way home in downpouring rain, George Wingard had his 1922 Delage GP car on the show field. Thats a "Car Guy" in my book. Wish I'd taken a full side view but these closeups will give you an idea of how a fully enginturned aluminum body looks.

 

delage loved that stuff, the 1.5 litre straight 8 had the same thing...but it was coated in a blue tinted clear laquer, one was down in florida for a while, until the previous owner passed away, since then it was sold and re-restored as above.

 

I know the car- I also have a weakness for the Mercers. If you have access to Bulb Horn 1990 I wrote a three part article on the history of Mercer in Racing (winning the Bulb Horn Award for 1990- the award given for excellence in research). Much of what I wrote was a bit different from the other articles and I wanted to footnote it but Tom Saal the editor felt it should be written without the footnotes. George has had a few Mercers and he had another one at Pebble this year. Mercers being a factory built car that you could run on the road or the track is what set them apart- except for what some of the Stutz afficianados will tell you. Neat car.

I