A Hot Rodder’s Economy Car

A man by the name of William J. Flajole had a vision of a compact, easy to use vehicle fit to navigate the freshly paved streets of post-WWII America — the Metropolitan. Never did he imagine that one of his bathtub-esque shells would be bolted to a tube frame and catapulted down the 1320 at more than 120 mph.

Jim Lakey of Lakey’s Speed Shop in Piqua, Ohio took a fresh approach to his competition machine. Starting with a $50 Nash Metropolitan body, he welded together a standard 96.5-inch chassis equipped with CAE and Chassis Research components. Between the rails sat an Algon injected 384 c.i. Olds, capable of pushing the B/Competition coupe to 10.70s in the quarter mile.

Lakey’s Nash was named the Best Appearing car at the 1962 NHRA Nationals at Indy,  subsequently landing a two-page spread in the January 1963 Rod & Custom and a feature in the July issue of Hot Rod the same year.

It’s very likely that after 1963 the body was scrapped in an effort to save weight, making the once-unique car another non-descript dragster. According to the R & C article, “With the body removed, making it a B/Dragster, Jim won class at the Mid-Season Championships, Salem, Ohio.�?

Regardless of the stout coupe’s fate, I’m wagering that it’s a hell of a lot better than the Flajole’s econo-car dreams. Wouldn’t you agree?

–Joey Ukrop