History Trip No. 5

I would love to know more about this car.

It's four wheel drive, but what did it use for an engine and transfer case? Was it a frame stock Ford or a tube chassis?

Home built, a highly modified old Champ (Indy) Car, or one the old Ford-Miller Indy Cars?

 

I noticed the guy with the Alfa carefully taped up the nose and wheel well edges for protection from flying rocks. I wonder if it was his daily driver and not a dedicated race car (or maybe he borrowed it from someone and didn't tell them what he was going to be doing with it. )

 

Yes, john's car had the 430 Lincoln engine at the 1959 PPHC. it wasn't the only one either, In the Sports Car Class, Merritt Gano drove a rarely photographed 1959 T-bird that ran Latham Blown 430 Lincoln motor.

 

The Bob Jones Special was driven by Jimmy Good in 1959. The car ran an Olds Rocket 4 carb motor.

 

A local sports car dealership Powell Motors sponsored that car . After the race the roll bar would be removed and the cars sold on the lot. It was a common practice especially in the stock car class.

 

I don't know how to bring over the pictures from the post, but a special car Tom captured was the Kurtis 500. The car was driven by Danny Jones from Long Beach California. Notice the front fenders. They look a lot like the Flying Wings George Barris did for a Kurtis 500 race car a few years before. Dan's car ran a Cadillac motor at Pikes Peak in 59. Wonder if this was the Barris car, if not those fenders were certainly inspired by his work.

 

An otherwise great shot ruined by some guy on his cellphone.

 

At least he’s not texting

 

It says "Jeepland" on the hood in the photo. So I'm guessing Willys Wagon (Dana 25?) axles and the matching transfer case (Edit: Dana 18).

Neat to see it all done with Ford transverse-leaf springs and wishbones!

ETA: Looks like a Ford front crossmember, too.

 

@colorado_aircooled welcome to the HAMb, at least since March!
Thanks for more info and background on the history!

As for bringing over pictures, if you want a specific picture, right click and then select Copy Image Link.The link is now in your Clipboard, ready to paste into your reply.
Type your reply, then but the cursor where you want the picture. At the top of your dialog box, there is an icon that looks like a picture of a sun over mountains. If you hover your pointer over it, it will say Image. click on it and paste the Image Link you copied (you can also use Ctrl+V for paste). Click on Insert and the picture will be part of your reply.

 

If this one is the picture, the image link will be this (in text)
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/No_5-27.jpg