I am a fan of road racing hot rods .... Duffy Livingstone and Max Balchowsky come to mind .... I read somewhere that Jim Busby owned (he recently sold much of his collection) the first Hot Rod to win a road race here on the west coast .... The author failed to mention which car it was .... so, one of you guys must know, right? -Brian Weatherman -Boulder Creek,CA
Brian, Welcome to the HAMB. What is your definition of a Road Racing Hot Rod? Flathead Ford, Old INDY 500 Car, or scratch built special?
It's simply as stated .... a Hot Rod (usually a Ford) that was built to race against sports cars .... simply add a spare tire and fenders to your highboy or track T and you could run with the Jags and Allards .... as a handful of guys did back in the early 50's .... like the old article in Road and track was titled "Is a Hot Rod a Sports Car?"
Brian, Me too! I've not been on this list long but there there is a fair contingent of non-drag / non-land speed-based race fans on the HAMB. The majority of them are fans of vintage open and closed wheel oval track cars (me too). The sporty car types are a smaller group, but there are still plenty here who find it logical that a hot rod should stop and conrner well, too. Duffy's Eliminator is probably my favorite road racer hot rod of all time. It's just too bad more cars of that type were ever built. I have a small file of images of similar cars. Do you have any images to share? Thanx, Gary http://public.fotki.com/kitbashr/road-racers/
For sure the most famous would be Caballo de Hierro, built by Ak Miller, and raced in the Carrera Panamericana which was covered in HOT ROD, in the early '50s, when he raced in Mexico. Few people know that the 27 T was originally built by Wally Parks then sold to Ak Miller. Miller also went on to a Devin bodied Hot Rod.
I love these cars too. I guess I just love to vote for the underdog, that and I just think they look tough. Also they seem so simple and accessible compared to a Ferrari or Porsche or something like that. I would love to build something like the Eliminator and take on some snobs at the track. I found this today it is a nice article on the Eliminator with some good technical info as well. http://www.streetrodderweb.com/milestones/0402sr_eliminator/index.html The article is pretty vague about the details of how the car was built and tuned and modified but I was hoping some guys on here could provide some details on what was done to the car to make it handle the road courses.
My Jag XK120S was raced from 1953 to 1969. In 1956 it was converted to SBC power like many sports cars..Ferraris..MBs.. I bought it in 1973..put back on road after sitting fpr 3 years. Our tracks were shorter than Euro tracks..a lot of ours were on airbases..where torque was more important than high reving smaller displacement/high horse motors. Mine race C/M (modified under 5 litres usually 301ci) . I restored it that way..somewhat. I kept it SBC powered. Tamsoldracecarsite.com Take a look..incredible wealth of vintage photos..cars..drivers and history
Dont know the answer to that... Where did you read that? Who wrote it? Cool stuff... I'd like to know too...
Brock Yates (car's current owner) has a book on the Eliminator... there were numberous magazine articles on the restored Eliminator and it's visit to Peble Beach at the same time the book came out. I'm sure you can find out a lot on the web. Brock also built an Eliminator II, a modern version with a Viper motor and 34 Ford roadster body. Gary
I dig road racing Hot Rods. Ak Miller, how brave was he...road racing his T roadster in Mexico, taking on the factory rides and Europe's best. On the other end of the money spectrum, Lance Reventlow, the Chevy stroker Scarab, round tube frame, Halibrand wheels, hand formed beautiful body. Lots of Chevys found their way into road racing, even in a Ferrari Testarossa in So. Cal. The Devin SS is pure American Hot Rod IMO. So Cal Hot Rodders did the building of the Cobra. The line gets blurred when the Hot Rodders went road racing. I used to live near Riverside International Raceway years ago and I loved it. Tam's Old Car site is packed with hybrid sports cars with American V-8's. I hope I'm not too far off topic! http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/
A few years ago at the Monterey Historics, I saw a car called the "Old Grey Mare". I was busy with the Can-Am car so I didn't get the whole story on it, but it the announcer said it was one of the earliest "specials" known. I believe it is based on a 1935 Ford. Any more info would be greatly appreciated. Pic came from this site: http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/ZQZDABestShots1.html Hope they don't mind...
Sorry, I don't have the answer to either question - was the Eliminator the first hot rod road racer? (I doubt it, but it could be) or was the Eliminator the first hot rod road racer to win a race against them funny foreign cars (same doubts, but who knows). I'm sure we will get to the bottom of it. Anyone have Brock Yates phone number? Gary
A lot of the custom bodied sports specials of that era were built on hot rod chassis. Things like 40 ford suspension & driveline and a hot flatty frequently lay underneath a skin that you'd expect to house something more exotic. Probably makes defining the first pretty tough.
Forgot to add... I remember a page on the Socal web site documenting the restoration of 184... but I just looked and can't find it. Perhaps someone on the HAMB has the inside track at Socal and get those pages reinstated? Or repopped to fit here in the HAMB? Gary
The Williams Brothers 29 drag/lakes roadster that was on the cover of the Rodders Journal beat the hot sports cars of the day in a hill climb here in Ventura back in the 50's.
A 50s special, which I don't have any details of. I got the pic from a photo album of a recent vintage race at New Hampshire Speedway. Any one know more? Appears to be the car following the old grey mare in a earlier post.
Brian, Again, not answering your question... I found this Ford "advertisment" shot in my files. The date isn't clear, but the cars in the photos are 33/34 roadsters. I suspect these were just stripped street cars, too, rather than road race specials. Still, an interesting historical piece. Gary
isn't this one Chuck Manning's? i always liked Balchowski's 32 and particularly Phil Payne's '31 a-bodied roadrace special with the Chrysler Spitfire fllathead 6. though i think this picture is after re-building with a new body from the cowl back. Don Montgomery's book shows it with the A body
what all would have been involved in making your old hot rod turn curves decently...? we were talking about this the other day....road racing a hot rod...sounds like fun...
How about, low, light, stripped of frills, a compliant suspenion, some aero ideas, cool running motors that you can thrash reliably for hours, fade free brakes, a fairly large gas tank and perhaps a wind screen? Riding mechanic and spare tire optional! Gary PS... I once heard about a rod shop someplace in the Northwest that was evidently building road racer hot rods for the vintage sports car crowd. But I never found out who that was or if the rumor was in fact true. Anyone? I've noticed a few vintage sporty car and oval track racer fans on the HAMB, perhaps one of them could pipe in with some pix, stories, etc. The best selection of cars I've seen was from the magazine coverage of a recent meet at Monterey. Wouldn't it be neat of the Rodder's Journal did a work up on ALL (as in AS MANY AS THEY CAN FIND) of the road racer hot rods?
The Jalopy Journal
