The pursuit of the "land" speed record on water is the kind of thing only a crazy man participates in. It would be like heading to North Korea with construction plans for a Liberty Statue tucked tightly under your arm... Only, your odds of survival o... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
1100 cubic inches at 6000+ RPM and straight pipes....I sure hope we can hear that melodious monster soon !!
Gar Wood's stuff is really interesting - and there's a huge history of boat racing on the Detroit River. In fact, one of the reasons the auto industry grew up in Detroit has to do with the boat-building industry already there. Michigan has lousy coal for use in marine engines, so gasoline engines became the standard. With that tribal knowledge already in place, it wasn't a huge step to start building road-going vehicles I also can't help but wonder if some young man in Detroit in the mid- to late-1920s was inspired to fit a Vee'd windshield to his gow because of Gar Wood and his cohorts. -Dave
I pointed that out when Hemmings featured this boat. The original carbs and superchargers are apparently still with the boat. -Dave
That's the first thing I noticed. Kinda like putting a pickle on top of your ice cream cone....It just don't belong there.
Cool video.... I should get pics cause you guys won't believe me, but we were cleaning the shop the other day and dragged an aluminium V-16 block and heads down from the rafters... Those things are BIG! Here's a link to a small page about the V-16 Caddy powered, '32 framed, 23 Dodge our founder picked up in the 50's. http://blakemachineprojects.com/V16PageOne.html
Gar Wood was an unbelievable talent. I have one of his boats, a 1946 Ensign. There's nothing like the thunder of those big engines in boats. I love to hear the Libertys, just rock the air when they are fired up.
Very cool! Thanks for sharing that. 400,000 to upwards of 1,000,000 showing up to watch the race... I can't help but feel that something is missing from our society today.
Great story , he says they pulled the Miller's before the race because of a failure and put the Packard's back in . Then later he says #8 is the only Miss America with the original engines that it was raced with ?
got to $700k at auction, it didnt meet the reserve... Hows about just a little audio of those Packard motors?? Cool...
Heres another little Gar Wood thingy that brings his boating career "closer" to hot rodding (sorta) How many of you have or have had an early ford big truck with a dump body? One of these was probably riveted to the dump box! This is off my '35 big truck.
yeah I saw that too...not sure how I feel about it, on one hand it probably has more power and is easier to tune, but on the other hand the only point of a boat like this is to be restored and correct
HOT RODDING? You bet your ass, this is such an awesome story wth beautiful sound and excitement. Thanx for this amazing story! ~sololobo
Wow, amazing Detroit history!! Ryan, doubt anyone on the board frowns upon you sharing this wonderful story. Thanks for sharing. Couple guys died in a historical boat race, north of Orlando, a few weeks ago. Tragic!! JT
Old vehicles of any kind, but especially the modified, altered, custom, powerful, artful and fast; whether they roll on wheels or float on water, should find a place on the HAMB! Many thanks for sharing that! Willy
I wonder if the Miss America VIII ever got sold after the auction? You know, in the sale goes on stuff that Mecum does. I also wonder what happened to the engines all those years that they were separated from the original hull? Where did they go? Were they ever put in another boat; either alone or together? Who ownerd them? This boat is just spectacular amd I can't understand why someone with the wherewithal didn't scoop it up. The point that the narrator of the video made about new boats costing over one million bucks and then being worth less than half that within the year would make one think that a one-off, never to be made again boat of significant historical value had to be worth a million all day long. Shows what I know...