For as long as I have been a member of the HAMB there have been a number of threads about Connie Wiedell's Cad-T built post-war. There are numerous photos of Connie's T but none have ever shown the tail lights. I was looking through my collection of 1940s SCTA programs and came across a pic, I never paid much attention to this photo before today but it caught my attention and quickly realised it was Connie's T. @PEDDRO
Hop Up and Hop in......well maybe the doors open enough to wiggle in...why did they run the exhausts along side the bodies rather than tucked in along the lower bodies to keep the function of the doors...cooler exhaust helps boost speed? If it was my Hotrod I would have mounted the cats eyes higher...but I know many times the focus was tailights on, looks not so important...this is of course just my opinion...perhaps they just spaced them strategically between trunk line and bottom with any seams in between considered as of no importance...or they just swapped them into existing holes from another former style...sorry long winded... I still find it all awesome regardless of position because that was just part of the ambience...I just have the luxury of sitting back and wondering ... Caddy powered...monster... Anyways it's been a great day and week for old Hotrods...Hambtastic...like you I many times find connections after the fact with images and it's great to actually put them together...
Very cool, I don't think I ever saw the car from the rear before now. This car is one of the cars I had pictures saved of as inspiration during my own T build.
Tail lights look like 39 or something real close. As far as the exhaust exiting high on th engine and running back, remember that a Flathead Cad has the exhaust exit out the top next the intake. No routing though the block and around the cylinders. Rather than dipping down like on this one snagged from a magazine photo on the net, the ones on that roadster flowed straight back. Getting in an out the doors probably wasn't an issue on that car or much of a consideration at the time.
Young whipper snappers... Yeah I know those Caddys had unique exhaust setups and I'm thinking about bends adding restrictions to flow... I thought they call 39 tailights cats eyes but maybe they're referenced as teardrops...or Stogy's striking out and 39s are 39s... Learn a new thing everyday I always say...
Definitely 1938-39 Ford. 1939 Plymouth tail lights have a similar shape but have a squarer top shoulder.
Another photo of the back on Connie's T, only recently realised this was his car, had photo 10-12 years.
I always enjoy seeing old photos, and the stories they tell. Is this Roadster still with us? The Caddy flatheads were in WWII Tanks and sold as surplus up into the 1960's. Bob
Thanks for the update @Jimmy B...that's a fine set of standalone Hotrods in that photo you just shared.
@Jimmy B , I thought your rear view of the cars, would have been taken the same day as the front view panoramic I have. I do see a different windshield on Connie's 27.
G'day Marty, your photo is from a Road Runners Picnic 1948. The two T's in that pic is Walt Rose V8 Cord T and Randy Shinn's T. Connie was a Gophers member.
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