History The California Rake

It all started with wanting your car to look like a Race Car. Ted Horn's out of New Jersey is a good example.

 

Around 1966 Nascar rules changed a little and aerodynamics improved for free.

Maybe not so important at 60 mph, but then again ......

 

A little more rake.

 

I really like this one!

 

I was born in merced, lived in Modesto and hayward.full dairy ranching portagee..my dad lived there middle 40 's I was told,.. by uncles and my dad... Rake is lowered in the front, dago rake lowered in the rear..and it had nothing to do with San Diego.. my dads 41 ,winfield custom. was lowered in the rear w/ a carson top.... dago was a slang for an ethnic group nationality ... like calling a white guy a cracker.....people lived just fine with "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me"

here's another one.... the carson top..... now if you cut the top off a hard top... it's a cal convertable.....

 

In my youth the "Hot Rods" were mainly 40s models with a later V-8 swapped into them. They usually were heavier in what they were replacing and resulted in the "rake". So others just lowered their cars to join the charade.

 

Mmmm...rake

 

Ohio rake.

 

'63 Chevy II Cali style

 

Mine

 

My grandfathers first 2 cars he ever owned had to have the rake. 55 Ford was what he had at 16, then right out of high school ordered the 61 Impala brand new and immediately cut the coils on the front to bring it down, lol.

 

The Vic is fantastic, I have allways thought the 55/56 roofline was amazing

 

The 55 and 56 Victorias roof lines were entirely different. No parts were interchangeable.

 

Sorry if I misspoke, I’ll clarify. The roof lines of the 1955 and 1956 Hardtops were an amazing design exercise from Ford. Sorry Jimmy

 

My take: 18” rear 17” front

 

the hardtops were also completely different. 55's is almost a copy/paste of a 54 Ford hardtop then in 56 Ford just used the same top as a Mercury, but nothing interchanges. The Crown Vic tops were the same I believe.

That 55 Ford my grandpa had though is one of the very few post war Fords I want to own as well. That thing was sharp looking for a high school car.

 

\Now THAT'S A RAKE !!! Double like it
6sally6

 

Here's a California shoebox ford brought back to western NY in the early 60s with that rake.

 

My 40 with some rake

 

The 55 held on to the top from 51-54 design with the return of the Victoria name; only the windshield changed twice. I too liked it until the 55 Mercury Montclair and 55 Crown Victoria gave us the hint of what was to come.
GM finally did something in 1959 using the thin line aero that FOMOCO had been using now for 5 years.
The mid 50’s Fords all had great looks with their sport coupe design. Many are being saved today as by the many Facebook pages specializing in 55-57 Fords.

 

First time I saw this in the early '90s, it had 18,000 miles.
Axle on top of springs & blocks. We had the local blacksmith reverse the wheels. He said he'd never do it again.
That's factory finish.

 

my take was, when you shove a big heavy motor( hemi, caddy etc) in a early car the front springs couldn't take the weight of the heavy motor and the springs would sag. and you would put bigger tires on the back to get more traction,vola!! California rake!