Features T roadster picture thread

its cars like this that make my head hurt and question why some people still dont get it

 

That is a Genuine 1930s Lakes Modified.

 

I just want the engine out of this one for MY roadster

This one sports an original DOHC Galivon "Indy" head on a T block! on a T block with an A crank/rods it will turn 3,600 RPM and put out a massive 175 hp with just the head and a down draft Windfield....tack on a Roots blower and and she'll churn out 275 hp!....That T is a rocket ship!

 

How do you stop it?

 

Didn't mean to offend the speed gods...

I'm with you Clayton- a Gallivan head would be nice to have! he made some for Chevrolet blocks as well!

 

I wasnt going to post a pic of ours in this thread, since ours is a coupe turned roadster, but.... Ironfly28 opened the door with the "roadster the hard way" page from the 57 Hot Rod, so...What the Hell!!!!

This is how our tribute roadster is coming along after 5 months of work, and mind numbing research and just plain staring at the thing.


Louie

 

VanHorton... Seems that you started a thread back on 12-17-08 with the same content, title and very similar opening post... Why not just revive that thread instead of starting a new one? Possibly you forgot. Here's the link below for ya.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=317836

 

>>>>>,

 

>>>>>,The T above used to look like this ,,ya ,,i don't like the paint job either ,,BUT ,,new owners are new owners eh?

 

Hopes and prayers my friend...Hopes and prayers! It most likely has rear only mechanical breaks like my roadster. They work, you just have to stop 10 minutes before you NEED to.

They are quite impressive! There was a guy up in B.C. that had one of these stuffed into a stock 1915 roadster (hood and all...a real sleeper) and said it would do over 100 mph in low gear! had only stock 2 speed trans and stock rear axle to boot! I think he said he drove it from Vancouver B.C. to Sacramento in under 36 hours...have the article somewhere, when I find it I will posy it.

Never seen a Chev model.....has to be super rare.

 

Clayton,

Have you read John Gerber's Outlaw Sprint Car Racer? It's a great book about his racing day in the 20's- lots of great info/comments on early racing and modifications done back then.

 

Jack Gallivan, by his own count, built 7 heads all for T's. Some were adapted later to B blocks so I'm guessing that someone did the same to a chevy. By the way, that Gerber book is fantastic.

He worked at the Curtiss Wright factory and was involved in the development of the Curtiss Aircraft engine for WWI. After the war while still working for Wright he developed his heads...on government time and using government materials. And for his efforts he was tried and punished and did time in Joliet.

The T Clayton is talking about in the '15 roadster was owned by Bert Lobberegt, "The Flying Dutchman" of Washington state. His car had a Model A axle with 2 3/4 gears in it and T ends adapted to it. Running a C crank and a reduced compression ratio, from 12 to 1 down to 9 to 1, he could run 100 mph in low and at 100 in high the engine loped along at 3500 rpm.The engine would buzz 6000 rpm in hit's racing days. He ran the car at a Indy car track in the late 60's called "Pacific Raceways" and evenly matched his son in his 911 Porsche!

He also had a counting tach and by the time he wrote his article had recorded over forty one million revolutions on the engine since the mid to late 50s when he built the car without a break down.

The Gallivan is considered by the old T guys to be THE finest head ever produced.

Note the size of the valve stem that the Dutchman is holding for the head, 5/8 inch! From a Hispano Suiza.

 

So why hasn't anyone ever reproduced that head?

 

I have not, but I will have to find myself a copy...would love to read it!

Flyin-t

Thank you!! I was looking for that article all night! I could not remember the specifics and it was killing me! Seems like Jack Gallivan got a bit too harsh a punishment for designing his cylinder heads. I wonder if his older brother Elwood picked him up in an old police car the day he got out?....sorry, you mentioned Joliet, I felt a "Blues Brothers" reference comming on.

I do love Bert's T....I wanna drive it!

 

My thoughts exactly! I would be interested in one!

 

I'm just guessing, not being in the pattern making biz, but I'd think you'd have to actually own one first to be able to copy it and with 7 (or fewer now) of them around that might be tough to do. I wonder if speedy bill has one? I bet he does, he has everything.

I have an article somewhere that accounts for all the engines up to that time, late 70's I think. I'll have to look for it.

 

Yep, he does.

http://www.museumofamericanspeed.com/Collections/Engines/ModelTE085.shtml

 

With modern advances in CAD design and computer modeling, I think they could without needing an original to cast from. I believe that some of the new OHV setups that have been re-popped recently were redesigned from the original plans and reference photos so that the internals could be updated and refined for strength and reliability...they are very close, but not an exact copy. I don't see why they could not do the same, as long as you had the plans and a reference motor to look at.

 

With luck, the patterns are still out there, but with the current technology, a 3D imager could make a nice pattern... there's an episode of Leno's Garage that demonstrates how it's used.

It amazes me, the things these guys were doing in the 20's with black/whitesmiths, etc.

Gerber's book goes into it a bit- I would love to tinker like they did!

 

Clayton- you and I were thinkin' the same thing at the same time... now if we only had some MONEY to go with all these smarts!!!

 

AND our good looks

 

I'll second that one! I would love to have the means to design and produce something like that. I would love to re-pop Robert Hodge's one off SOHC head. His son lives in CA. and still has the patterns...but I doubt if he would let someone use 'em.

 

THAT'S for sure!

 

You guys have got some awsome cars.

 

This is kind of cool.

I found an article that says one of the original owners of a Gallivan head, Joe Lencki, ended up making his own pattern for the head and he is supposed to have entered one, still called a Gallivan, in one of the Indy 500s in the mid 30's. His driver was Johnny Sawyer. The team continued to race the car until 1940 when Sawyer set a AAA with the engine. I don't have any records of that 500 stuff but it'd be interesting to see if they actually did enter the engine.

Here's a shot of a Gallivan on a stand and one of Joe Gemsas dual overhead in LaRue Thomas hill climb car in the 1970's. As a side note Thomas was a Cadillac dealer and bought his dealerships from the Tommy Lee family after he committed suicide. Thomas also held the record for a while in the car in Long Beach. Anyway it's interesting to compare the two. I don't know if the Gemsa was, like a DOHC Fronty, a 4 valve per cylinder or a 2 like the Gallivan. My neighbor who also held the hill climb record here in Long Beach had 2 DOHC Gemsa's in his garage as well as a single stick. He moved to central Cali a few years ago so I can't get any pictures. He was a dick head anyway.





I did an article and interviewed quite a few people on the Hodge head, including the owners of the famous Huntington Beach roadster that had the only know completed head, before Bob Anderson bought it a few years ago. There was only 2 castings poured, one unfinished and no patterns exist. At least that's what I found out. In fact, one of the members of the 4 ever 4 club still has the unfinished casting, or he did when I did the article in the late 90s.

 

Killer info!

I love this kinda stuff!

The Hodge/Peterson/Anderson T is one of my all time favorites and the car that inspired me to build my roadster. I don't know what it is about that car, it just draws you in. I read the TRJ article on it a few years back and was blown away by his engineering and design on his motor, which is an impressive peice of American Hot Rod history. The design is so advanced and complex...yet simple and refined.

I would love to here the Hodge car run or "sing it's song" and hopefully we will again soon, but of course would also love to get my hands on the other castings and make myself one so I can listen to it "barking" away in my own garage!

TRJ mentioned that Robert Hodge's son was the one who still possessed the second, un-machined head castings and I thought the patterns too, but it has been a while since I read the article.

 

heres my t in the uk

 

Here is a T Track Car built in 1969 by a friend of mine. He is now 79 years old. This car is being renovated again now. He just finished a nice glass Mullins trailer and he is finishing up his glass 32 3W Coupe before beginning the next project.

 

What issue of TRJ was the Hodge/Peterson/Anderson T in? I'd like to pick that one up.

 

Issue #22, from '07 I believe.