This car has been in the UK for many years but I believe this was it's first showing after restoration. It appears to be built using English Ford model Y parts, which means it's light and very neat looking. It seemed to be quite high geared despite the small wheels. The front axle doesn't appear to have been narrowed. It has an 1172cc English style engine that sounds quite cammy with a nice sharp bark, I thought I'd taken a video of it running around but must have double clicked or summat because nothing got saved.
They do, but according to the owner they have been like that since his father acquired the car. It looks a bit like the centres have been hand riveted into later rims, and I couldn't work out how the wheel nuts worked, it's most odd.
NOT William Clay Ford's car. It's safe in a US museum. - https://www.stahlsauto.com/automobiles/1939-ford-midget-racer/ I'd like to see their provenance. It may turn out to be the other car IF THERE WAS ONE but there do appear to be ch***is differences. https://www.stahlsauto.com/see-us-wxyz-channel-7-naias-2019/ Notes it's a one of a kind car. Ford employees set to work, starting with a custom fabricated ch***is. To this ch***is is affixed an I-beam front end, with running gear from what is believed to be a British Ford Model C. Of course, the engine was thoroughly warmed over by engineers to include a lightened flywheel and custom outside exhaust. Power went to the rear end via a three speed gearbox and the suspension featured friction dampers, with mechanical brakes on the rear axle only. The ch***is was then clothed in a tiny, yet beautiful and expertly proportioned body that, particularly from the front, bore more than a p***ing resemblance to a Miller Indy car.
Very interesting indeed. Even more interesting is that the text say rear brakes only, yet the image shows what look to me like juice front brakes with no hoses connected. The UK one has more period looking mechanical ones. The wheels also look similar, hard to see with the reflections, but the peculiar centre pieces on the UK one look like they could be the right size to locate similar hub caps to the US one. There seem to be more similarities than differences, so they may have been a matched pair that have both been changed over the years, like most race cars have, and Sir Malcom Cambell definitely was a master tinkerer. The owner did tell me how his father acquired this one, but the precise details escape me now, but he also owns other Sir Malcom Cambell vehicles and also his Bluebird K3 record breaking boat. As to which car is which I have no idea! The owners museum: https://automuseums.info/united-kingdom/filching-manor https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=filching manor motor museum .
I have no intention of changing my name, but I gotta admit that if I did, then "Mad Barkby" would be a cool choice . Cheers, Harv
William Clay Ford was only 10 years old in 1935, so something doesn’t add up. It’s more likely that this is an example of great minds thinking alike. Donald Campbell was 14 in 1935, and it wouldn’t be surprising for Malcom Campbell to have his shop build his son a fast toy. I’ve seen those wheels before, but I can’t place them right now. They look late 50s/early 60s to me.
[QUOTE="SR100, post: 15346310, member: 237511" ) I’ve seen those wheels before, but I can’t place them right now. They look late 50s/early 60s to me.[/QUOTE] Very similar to 1935-1940 BMW 328 wheels which i believe are being remade.
That makes more sense. Two things that still don’t make sense to me: 1. I can’t imagine someone with Edsel’s eye for design signing off on that intake cover. 2. It was first registered in 1941. Britain was already at war. When was it shipped to England? Also, what would Campbell use it for, being limited to daytime running? Did he add headlights later?
That intake cove is different in the b/w photo & the colour, it also looks like the red was yellow at one point. I wonder what the og colour was?
Benson was born in 1919. William Clay in 1925. The museum car has a different front axle than the Campbell car. Benson would have been 16 and William 10 in 1935. 1939 for the William Clay car is also suspect the description of photo on the museum site says it's a 1936 midget. Did Benson get one when he was 16? And, a year later was Henry tired of seeing his grandsons fight over whose turn it was to drive so he had another one built?
Comparing the two pictures, the seam around the intake hump looks the same. Is the apparent difference in the humps an odd reflection?
It does to me, also the large washer under the cross member rivet looks the same too, as do the tyres, not that that means a lot.
I just remembered the other link to John Dahlinger... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ry-built-street-legal-midget-race-car.657711/
The photo of the 2 cars in the linked article have different tails and noses than the 2 we are talking about. The Dahlinger car was noted to be red and the William Clay one black. The existing William Clay one in the Michigan museum is black. The one with the Campbell connection is red. I'd offer that when they were restored they were painted the colors that were found on them and the Campbell one had belonged to Dahlinger.
The Jalopy Journal
