We've all seen and admired Joe's A/GS coupe, here's an article from the Dec., 1960 Hot Rod it shows more detail and do***ents the original builder, Bob Egizi. Joe cetainly did the coupe justice but the original builder deserves credit as well.
A beautiful Model A coupe! (I shudder to think that having the pressurized tank in the car with you was a smart idea. We didn't do much better -- like using it out front for a bumper.)
Hilborn marketed a fuel pump drive that went below the distributor, it was eventually banned after a number of clutch explosions showed the danger.
Hello, Nice find of the article on a fast, well built Model A coupe. The 471 Supercharger was one way to go for more power. The other was a McCulough/Paxton supercharger. Our plans were for a Paxton version as no one had the 471 regulated for being daily drivers as yet. Drag strip, yes, but a real dual purpose 471 for the daily driving was there, but specifically used for the drags. Back in December 1959, we saw the Joe Pisano’s Red version of the Model A coupe sitting in the pits at the Riverside Raceway big drag race in So Cal. I had to take a short video as we did not have a 35mm camera as yet. Sorry, no action shots, but it is the only color photo of the nicely built Model A coupe from 1959 in drag racing circles. Jnaki My brother was impressed as that was how he had envisioned our Model A Coupe as a daily driver and weekend drag racing coupe. A supercharged SBC, but we were going for a 301 c.i. motor Except for the fact that he had sold his 51 Oldsmobile two door post sedan and the running 4 cylinder Model A Coupe to buy his new 58 Impala for all of his teenage activities. Go figure… YRMV As far as the tall distributor, it is a Joe Hunt Magneto. They were long and usually stuck out of any engine. The shown motor is a 471 smaller supercharger and that gives more room for the distributor to show up in engine photos. By early 1960, the newest blower drive and manifold for using a 671 supercharger was created by Isky and used a Gilmer drive belt + Edlebrock manifold. See below: The first Isky Gilmer 671 supercharger set up directly from Isky cams. It was kit Number 1. We got kit number 2 by chance and our connection to our friend in Los Angeles. He had ties to Edlebrock family during the early years. Our 1940 Willys Coupe in the Lion’s Dragstrip pits, with the 671 Isky Gilmer supercharger drive + 6 Stromberg carbs on our 292 c.i. blower spec motor. Note 2: As far as the heads, Reath Automotive and Tom McEwen were the first to use modified Chevy truck heads in their builds and SBC race engines. Jocko’s was located in Bixby Knolls and a complete port and polish engineering was done to most engines. Ours included, when we rebuilt the truck heads from our first 283 block during the build to 292 c.i. and all blower spec motor parts. The ported and polished heads were very popular for instant h.p. gains.
Sprint cars are that way but the one big difference is there’s no danger from a flywheel or clutch grenading on a direct drive sprint car and taking out the pump.
Hello, Just about everyone who had built a hot rod for the street and weekends at the dragstrip utilized the Moon Tank and pump just an arm’s distance from the driver’s position. Yes, that set up for the daily driver mode would not go over on a Friday night cruise with a companion or two. I can attest to having to put my feet over the tank to get some seating position for the street cruise on our night time test runs. Similar Willys Coupe interior set up. Below aluminum floor boards were the legal ****tershields. Top and bottom units sold almost at every major speed shop. (If you have a doubt, a solid Lakewood Industries 360 degree steel enclosure has saved plenty of lives after it was on the public market. We missed that development by several years. Our legal inspected two piece ****tershield was what was sold at the time to most racers. But, we had a hard time finding all of the pieces (if any) of that ****tershield on the track and/or where the Willys was stuck in the fence.) On one of the fastest Corvettes in the sporty car cl***, the Moon Tank, shut off valve and pump were prevalent prior to September 1960. The famous Gene Adams Oldsmobile sedan that ruled the Gas Coupe/Sedan Cl***es was a trend setter with his fast sedan having a complete interior full of gauges and a direct line(s) going through the firewall to the motor. Easy shut off at an arm’s distance with the Moon Equipment hand pump and shut off valve. Oldsmobile Sedan Jnaki The ****tershields were usually two piece and covered most of the bellhousing and below. But, the full 360 degree shields created by Lakewood Ch***is and Joe Shubeck did not come to the market until later in the timeline. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-shield-identification.1310200/#post-15134873 Note: It wasn’t that the gas tank was inside, but the connection, unless run through or inside of the protected floor/frame/firewall to the motor, there was not a concern at the time. So, any explosion of the clutch or transmission ****tered pieces all over, including cutting through the gas lines. YRMV
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