Just picked up a pretty awesome and solid 32 5 window coupe. A respected friend is trying to talk me into building it as a competition coupe the old school way with an Ardun pushed up under the cowl..... Hmmm..... What's a guy to do??
Ever humble, Gene gave credit to Larry for the coupes success. He said Larry got the most out of it because he wasn't afraid of it.
I was wondering the same thing. it seems that I read an article about the orange crate a couple of years back but I don't recall what class it can in. I built a model of this car when I was a kid (I think) this is one that has always been floating in the back of my mind. Edit damnit: Just did some quickie research the Orange Crate ran A/A. So it is not probably good fodder for this thread but here is something that I have never ever noticed before check out the nose art.
Yep usually between the rows in the pineapple fields. orange crate aside I think that this is a pretty slick thread, although I don't understand why there isn't more interest in the old class or how it morphed over the years. Those old coupes were just rad.
Great thread guys, I am one of those old guys from back then that built a competition coupe. I built a 32 Ford five window, chopped seven inches, channelled five inches over the 32 chassis and the body set back about 10 inches. I had a 53 Chrysler Hemi hogged out to 376 cubic inches with a log manafold and six carburetors. The engine sat under the cowl. I had a plymouth 3 speed trans connected to an Oldsmobile rear with 4.30 gears. Depending on the track that I ran I would convert the carburetors to run either gas or fuel. Of course that car is long gone, back then I sold it for $400.00 without the engine. Imagine that !! But I was running fuel dragsters then and did not care to keep the coupe. Now I am building another 32 Fuel Coupe with my son. Check his page ( gbones32coupe ) on the HAMB to see the build. Also, I currently run a Fuel Coupe with Ted Brine that we built years ago. It is known as the 134 AA/Fuel Coupe. Do a search on it and you will see pictures and videos of it running. We last ran it at the 2014 NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion. Some of us old geezers are still doing it !!
Rfraze, they are some awesome competition coupes that you are posting. They are from the later fifties and early sixties. The comp coupes and fuel coupes that I am talking about are more similar to the 32 that started the thread.. The coupe that inspired me from my childhood was built by a group of local guys in Philadelphia known as the "Satans". They built a candy apple blue 32 five window with yellow flames and Satan on the grille. Here is a picture of it from the 1957 Nationals at Kansas City.
You got that right, but Gene and Sharp had there game on too. I talked to Larry's daughter in Bakersfield that night at the Double Tree. Her Dad was not there. She was drawn to the 134 Fuel Coupe because of the resemblence to the 554. We were the only non dragster invited to the ceremony. That is what this thread is all about, the folks still love those coupes.
This picture upsets me every time I see it. Two famous coupes in the back of the Freeman & Sons lot going to shit. The orange one is the Paul Sutherland A/Comp Simca, a real bad ass in it's own right. I don't know what ever happened to it, but I'm sure glad the 554 was rescued.
Well this bitch took off and flew, finally. it was like pulling teeth. Thanks for the pics guys, my bad day just turned out good(er).
Just like any early nhra class, Competition coupe cars evolved over the years. There's a bazillion cool photos but much of the time we are left guessing what year the car is from. A time line of photos to show the evolution would be pretty cool. Somewhere I read that there were gassers, altereds, and dragsters. Then since just a little past gasser put you into altered class, a little altered is the same as very altered so altereds grew wilder and wilder. At that point they redefined the highest degree of the altereds with the "competition" classification. The competition class grew wilder and wilder and then enters the "fuel coupe" classification.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...n-montgomery-32-3w.873097/page-3#post-9635115 When fuel was banned the NHRA had also merged the stock bodied, full fendered coupes into the Altered gas classes with Fiats, Crosleys and other non-fendered machines. So the old Fuel Coupes would not be competitive in those classes. The other alternative would have been to drop back into the Gas coupe classes. But it would take a major amount of work to move the engine forward, reset a firewall, add upholstery and things like mufflers, lights and windshield wipers. The rules for the gas class cars required them to be totally street legal then. Thus the old Fuel Coupes had no place to go and had a low value. That's why you see them rotting behind tool sheds in junk yards.
Old used up race cars were throw aways, no one ever even considered that anyone would want a used up old race car. Racing used to all be cutting edge there was no "Vintage" racing because it wasn't vintage yet. it was all just last years stuff.
Well if you got the cash outlay for an Ardun I would suggest that you do it the new millennium way and pay someone else to do it for you.
That second car the one wearing the poodle skirts is just freaky. I wonder how much difference the wheel covers made on the big end.
The second coupe is also Jerry Card's Simca, an earlier photo. All the skirts did was make tire maintenance a lot more difficult. They didn't last long.