In the collective concience of the "traditional" hot rod world, it seems everyone must have lived a previous life racing a highboy roadster at Muroc, a channeled tudor sedan at Lion's Dragway or delivered Weiand superchargers in a lowered pickup truck with a Watson paintjob. Let's face it, it wasn't like that all over the country. Here in New England, I estimate that 30% of the hopped up cars in the post war era were used for street and drag racing. The other 70% were run on the many circle tracks in the region. Most every gas station, construction company and welding shop had a car. The speed modifications made to the flatties were just as clever as the drag strip cars. Most modifieds ran a straight axle all the way up until the early 70's. With that said, here is tonight's adventure. My Pops has a 36 Ford 5 window coupe that he had restored about 15 years ago. He found it as a rotted corpse in someone's back yard. It raced at Waterford Speedbowl in CT in the late 50's-early 60's. It has a flathead, 3 carbs, magneto and a 3 speed trans. The car is cosmetically nice, but not race safe. The Speedbowl had the NEAR club and their bunch of vintage stockers there tonight. The driver of Pop's car is still alive and asked Dad to bring her down. Pops is ill, so Chopper Chet and I drained the varnished gas, loader her up and went to the Speedway. Here are some pics of the cars that ran tonight. The did a 10 lap warm up session, then later, a 15 lap feature. Some of the cars were really hammering at it. Of course the 70's style Pintos and Vegas were the fastest. The red/white 63 sounded best. I tried to post them, but the files are too large right now. Go see them in the gallery. http://murdercycles.com/v-web/gallery/albums.php Ray in CT
Hey thanks for posting those pics!! They sure brought back a lot of memories as my dad raced the modifieds on dirt and a little pavement all through the 50s. He had a 34 five window as a "stock" car then ran with a full house flathead with the coming of "modifieds. Here in the midwest it was like you said. 70% of the hotrodders were running the ovals. Lots of hot flattys and a few hot 270 jimmys to add a nice sound to the racin!! They were running pretty stock bodies with all kinds of engines. I have no pics of my dad's car on the computor, but I do have a pic of one of the best looking.......and fastest flattys that my dad ran with that I picked up at another site. It was metallic blue and white Fiat body. Bet they have a ball with those cars..........so many hobbies, so little time & money!!
The Jalopy Journal
