The nose and grille area has a sort of 50s Holden-ish vibe to it, but the rest of the body, not so much.
Whatever it is, it is OT for the HAMB. Judging by the wrinkle walls and contingency stickers I would say 1970?
Correct. Could also be English Mk1 Consul that used the same body. My family owned the name 'Zephyr', first licensed to Ford of USA for use with the Lincoln brand in the 1930s, then crossed the Atlantic in the 1950s for the first series Zephyr/Zodiac/Consul range. I remember 20 or so years ago a same body shape being used on a UK altered/pro-mod.
Might be OT, but I like it. That was a time of big changes in F/C chassis design. Very possible it was a shortened Logghe-style chassis. I remember an Opel Kadett in similar style. And the F Troop Willys too.
C'mon Trent, that's getting pretty picky. There have been hundreds of threads about '70s drag racing over the years (how about Snake? Mongoose? Garlits? etc. etc. The Gasser Wars were late '60s and therefore O/T? How about the whole Jungle Pam thread?). The car is from the early '50s. If it was a photo of a Fox body Mustang I'd be right there with you, but this seems pretty ok to me.
Consul and Zodiac were basically the same body, but the Consul was a 4 cylinder car and the Zodiac a six. The Zephyr has a slightly longer front end, the drag car looks like a Zodiac with a chopped top and radiused wheel wells. Since they were a unit body car with a funky McPherson strut front suspension and lame-o drive train, the body is probably sitting on a completely different chassis.
ya, wouldn't the OT shaming also apply to all the drag week threads? maybe the OP should be banned... brit body, probably racing in England. i like it
It may look like an orphan but it checks all the boxes for me component wise. At least the components that are visible, to me, a giveaway to a "budget" built car of this class of drag car from the 60's are the wheels, usually it's the more entry level mag wheels marketed to the street car crowd. It may just be me but prior to the Centerline and Super Trick era, the wheels I expected to see were the big rear Halibrands and front spindle mounts like the Americans or Hals. I know there were plenty of top race cars in this category seen using five spokes such as Cragars or Americans or slotted wheels from Ansen or Fenton but my mind usually goes "them must be their backup wheels". Many times it was whatever mfg that was involved with a given car as a sponsor that dictated the wheels used. The other odd thing about the car is the fact that it has a four door body and yes, there were a few others but generally they were more from the "mainstream" mfgs of the era. As @kursplat said, the first thing that comes to my mind is this car may have been a car built by an Aussie or a Brit that relocated to the states, it will be interesting to see who can unravel this mystery cars' lineage.
This race car is so super cool and a thrill to see, sorry if it seems O. T. to some. I find it fabulous and am so pleased to have seen it.
(first posted 10/28/2013) If I told you this was a mid-fifties Simca, or English Ford, or a Vauxhall, or Morris, or a Holden, or even a lost prototype of the GM Cadet, probably quite a few of you would believe me. The size and shape looks like so many European cars of that vintage, but just not an American one. The Willys Aero is a car that is all-too easily pushed into the rustier memory banks of the mind. And yet it’s such an utterly remarkable car: a thoroughly state-of-the art compact/mid sized American car, light-weight with unit construction. THE ABOVE DESCRIPTION HAS BEEN EDITED. BUT, without the 'fins' (sic) and a slightly chopped top, this is my candidate for the mystery sedan. Easily acquired during the time period of this photo, and American made, it would fit the bill for a duplicate if you ever decide to build yourself one. Might be a tad rare now, however, considering that the prices of scrap at one time meant anything that could be shoved in a crusher went back into the system.
Similar, yes, but look at the shape of the back door opening. No way someone changed that to build a drag car, and also added that body "swage" line or whatever that's actually called, along the full length of the car.
Most ingenious and I agree the Willys Aero is a forgotten car of considerable merit. Its downfall came because a small company like Willys could not compete on price and volume with the majors, and when Willys was bought out by Kaiser, they liquidated all their car lines except Jeep. But the Willys Aero lived on in Brazil which is where all the tooling etc was sent. Even so, the drag car that started the thread is an English Ford, you can tell by the grille as well as by the lack of tail fins. But you are right, they are remarkably similar in design and overall size for two cars by different manufacturers on opposite sides of the Atlantic. I never noticed until you pointed it out.
Definitely a Mark 1 Zephyr. I didn't think they had the Zodiac until the Mark 2 but I could stand corrected. We had lots of them in Australia as they were British and RHD. As stated earlier this was the big brother to the Consul that was a 4 cylinder. Zephry was 6 cylinder.
Just did some research and yes a Zodiac was available in the Mark 1. I don't remember seeing one here in Australia, just the standard model. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Zephyr
It's def. a British Ford Zephyr or Zodiac mid 50's. Originally ran a straight 6. The top of the grill is different to the Consul. The Zodiac had a bit more bling and a two tone paint. I ran a 54 Zephyr for a while till someone nicked it. Drove it from London to Spain twice. Great little car.
Mk1s have always been popular hot rod material in UK. The 6 cylinder sized engine bay makes them easier to put V8s in than a lot of other small British cars. Being a smaller cousin to the larger shoebox Fords mean they also get the custom treatment too.
I agree with the Brit origin....great looking race car........but speaking of Willy’s I wish I had time to do something with these two....may be powered by a Flathead.........Mark
What a great thread. I don't remember ever seeing on of those although I have heard the name. Definitely never saw one made into a BB/GS or BB/A but it sure is cool, all of the gritty attributes of a serious race car in the OCIR era. Looking at the photo that Fortynut posted, I never noticed what a nice roof line the later Willys had. A two door would make one hell of a nice hot rod.
There were two Aeros built I to gassers here in my area in the 60s. Cool cars, one is still around I know Sent from my SM-J337V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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