Thought some of you might like to see a few shots of historic East Coast cut downs, late forties to very early fifties. They were finally outlawed as too many guys were getting hurt in them. While some were pretty nice, lots of them had flimsy angle iron bars, and were bolted together with !/4 20s.They were sectioned, narrowed, shortened etc. and some got down to less than 1700 pounds.The Curtis brothers #43 Buick was driven by Whitey Brainerd and was very well built, and a good runner. It's shown at Stafford. the others are unidentified. The Hamb police won't like the rear mounted radiator on the Ford, but I think it's pretty neat. May have a few more if anyone is interested.
I have developed an interest in these cars which seem to have been a New England oddity. I first discovered them on the vintagemodifieds.com site. I think David ****s does an in depth write up on them. As you mentioned, injuries and I believe a fatality caused their demise. I would like to see more photos of them. I see the recreation of that 621 cut down at the New England shows. Thanks,George.
I read an article in Open Wheel years ago about a driver named Garvin Couper. He was called the "King of the Cutdowns". Real character. I'd have loved to see him race. Those cars eventually evolved into the ISMA Supermodifieds.
I have a picture of the cut down J-2 that mostly ran in New England. I also have a footage on a DVD of that car being built and raced which is pretty rare. I think it had 23 feature wins in 1953. How would you down load a dvd to youtube. This dvd was bought from a guy out of M***. and Im not sure if i would be in trouble for doing so.
Have seen that video, it's really neat, don't see how you'd get in trouble with a 60 year old video, unless someone had maintained rights for all that time, although some folks are real protective of their collections, even though it's not their work. Never really got that.
I remember seeing these a lot in the 50's when I was growing up in M***achusetts.There was an earlier thread about Pines Speedway in Groveland that had some great pictures as well. When we first started campaigning a car in 1960,we raced at West Peabody,Pines in Groveland,Seekonk,and Brookline New Hampshire. We had what was called a Cl*** B car.This cl*** allowed no body modifications other than opening up the window areas to allow the driver an easier exit in an emergency.Choping the top;channeling the body,or any narrowing or shortening was not allowed.Engines had to be of the same make as the car:i.e.;Fords had to have a flathead V-8;Hudsons either a six or eight;etc.Engines had to be stock dimensions(no boring or stroking)but block relieving and high performance camshafts were allowed(tolerated). Cl*** A cars were the ones featured at the beginning of this thread.There was absolutely no restrictions on body/frame/engine combinations that I recall.I remember one that Bruce LaBonte from the East Lynn Garage ran that was a Deuce 3 window body(originally)that had been narrowed and shortened and had narrowed 53 Ford rear fenders and decklid grafted onto it.The trunk opened and the taillights functioned and it didn't llok all that bad. I remember seeing cars with radically modified flatheads;Hilborn injected Chevys;even a couple of Pontiac powered cars.These cars were so powerful that they could drift under power all the way around a 1/4 mile paved oval.Most of these guys drove that way too.Red Seguine(sp?)had the Flying 5;a 389 Pontiac powered car that actually had TOO MUCH power for a short track.I believe he got killed on a 1/2 miler somewhere. There were a lot of wrecks but the mortality rate wasn't all that high and most of the cars I saw were very well constructed.
The J-2 was built and owned by Henry Smith out of Cheshire Ct. which was my mother's first husband and no relation to me. My mom left him in 1962-ish. I gave a dvd copy to my step sister (her father) and she was balling her eyes out when she watched it. Priceless!! My mom said that they raced alot back then and it was affordable. The drivers for the J-2 was Bud Matter and then Melvin"Red" Foote.
Found a few more photos, the 999 is Danny Gaudiana's recreation of his Plainville Championship car, using some of the original parts. Was also driven by Red Foote, as well as Charlie Webster. That is Gene White in Dodge, the others, don't know. Also posted another of the Buick, because the pit scene is neat.
hugh m crazy stuff. see I learned something new AGAIN here on the HAMB. Thanks. But what the hell is going on with that New England Auto Body car...window screen covering the engine, plywood wing!? and help me out here, are those the headers in the rear? What kind of speed did they run? And what distance was the tracks? Was it all dirt tracks? NUTS. Slim
I've heard the New England Auto Body car is related to Frank Marratta, didn't post that as I'm not sure. I do know some old timers have said they don't like that car, as it isn't representative of their history...didn't want to give the wrong impression, I suppose. Guess it proves that rat rods really do have a tradition of sorts. Most of our local tracks were 1/4, 1/3,1/2 mile, some dirt, but quite a few were paved, even in the forties. Someone said that shot was at Waterford, others exist if you can believe that...would be nice to see some more cut down photos.
The Jalopy Journal
