A pre-1935 anything frame, I'd say, if it's American. Many European bases right up to WWII might be suitable. What you want is a frame that will look good when exposed, especially around the front end. Best would be a radiator directly over a beam front axle, and a frame whose extention forward of the radiator is slender and simple. Of course, depending on legalities, you could build a frame from scratch, and then you might find '60s commercial-vehicle parts that do the job and look the part. Simplest way to get a project like this going would be to start with something like a mechanically sound, part-restored '33 Buick four-door, say, which might be got at a reasonable price. As in any other kind of hot rodding, it's about creativity and judgment.
Lotta info and pics on building a speedster (special) can be found here: http://www.nwvs.org/Technical/MTFCA/Construction.shtml
I haven't read the entire thread, so if this comment is redundant I apologize. There were (are?) road racing classes for 750 and 1172cc specials in England, based on the Austin 7 and the Ford 10 chassis and engine respectively. As I recall, the classes required that a number of components be from the original cheap car -- frame, engine, gearbox, axles -- but allowed a great deal of modification to engines and completely scratchbuilt bodies. I imagine that the number of cars built for these classes is in the thousands, and some of them were really neat looking little cars.
Further to my post above: I remember seeing a picture a zillion years ago of a 750 class special that used a chopped Austin 7 saloon body. Imagine that; a fenderless, chopped top, wire-wheeled road racer that looked like chopped Model A sedan in miniature. Bitchin'! Sorry, I have no idea where I saw the picture. Probably in Motorsport magazine, or some such.
In later years it developed into "Formula 750", which I understand is based largely on Reliant components:
The 750 Motor Club. They race about everything, from true vintage Austin 7s to their modern equvilants and about everything in between. Kinda the U.K. version of the SCCA. http://www.750mc.co.uk/
Huffaker Marston Healey Special: This is a one-off racer wearing an aluminum body by Joe Huffaker and is the first racecar Huffaker built. In 1953 Joe Huffaker, Sr. and Mick Marston made a plan to build a sports racing car. Mick procured a wrecked 1953 Austin Healey 100 and Joe began to fabricate the first Huffaker Special at his home in Novato, California. He race-prepped the engine and fabricated the tube chassis, aluminum body, and DeDion rear suspension. In May of 1954, the Huffaker Healey Special ran its first race in SCCA Class D Mod. Marston went on to race the car through 1958 at many venues including Pebble Beach, Cotati, Tracy, Buchanan Field, and the old Sacramento Fair Grounds. In 1957 Marston purchased a rare Hunter Twin-Cam Head and raced the Huffaker Special with the Twin-Cam 100/4 in Stockton, April 1957. It was fast....very fast....but only for short runs. Joe Huffaker went on to build and campaign cars in nearly all the country's premier racing series, including the USRRC, Trans-Am, Indy Cars, IMSA, and more. http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z15040/Huffaker-Marston-Healey-Special.aspx
Here is a vehicle my mate Ray Finch uncovered and restored in 1988 here in So Aus. It's the Bedmore Special, Sold March this year...and here is its story in brief... Created in 1948 by South Australian William Jolly, the Bedmore featured the remains of a 1929 Morris Minor that Jolly had crashed in competition, and a 4 cylinder motor from a Bedford truck. Why a Bedford motor? Jolly, like a lot of self-funded racers from the post-War period, was running to a tight budget, which excluded the purchase of a preferred MG motor, so the Bedford engine was scrounged from a wrecking yard. The single seater body was also Jolly’s own work, configured to position the driver almost alongside the motor. The ‘Bedmore’ name allegedly came from 'Bed' for Bedford, ‘more’ for 'Morris'! How competitive the Bedmore Special was is unknown, but Jolly campaigned it for a number of years, making running modifications along the way, like the fitting of disc brakes, before selling it to motoring journalist Tony Lucas in 1953. The Bedmore was then acquired in 1988 by Ray Finch, of Finch and Hocking, who restored and rebodied the car to its current condition. Ray is a retired Master Coachbuilder with a passion for vintage/veteran race cars. I am very fortunate to have him assist me with my current build.
I have built a good few specials over the years, here is a couple I built years ago. Both are Riley nine based cars. The green car was a race car built as cheaply as possible. The silver car is actually in bare aluminium and was built a few years after the other car, the customer gave me free range to build what I thought was 'right'. He was a fairly big guy and I felt heneeded amore full bodied car. I designed the body, made large sections of the chassis to replace rot, cut the wheelbase down by sixteen inches. I also made the exhaust, wings (fenders) wing stays and many other parts. When I built the car I did not know it was not going to be painted the customer decided not to paint it once itwas done. David
Here is a Bentley special I built a few years ago. Its a MK6 chassis with a new body made by me in aluminium. I modified the chassis front and rear to make itlook like an earlier car. I made the wings (fenders) and windscreen posts and frames along with many other parts. The cinema in the background is the oldest working cinema in the UK. There is some footage of this car on my youtube link. David
Very convincing in that view. The front, as in your video, will bother only the most discerning eye. And once one begins to consider an axle out of a recent light commercial vehicle one cannot help wondering about a more W.O.-ish ohc cylinder head, and then the requisite block to go under it; and before one knows it one has redesigned the entire car Come to think of it, there are a few large Japanese ohc diesel fours that might suit the character of a less literal interpretation.
Speaking of diesel-engined specials, here is one that appeared in Practical Classics in 2002. John Wright's Commer TS3-powered Leyland special:
Some people put axles from earlier Rolls Royces and Bentleys under them but like you say it gets to the point of where do you stop. Its never going to be anything more than what it is. I did not have control over the rest (I just built the body and modified the chassis) but if it were mine I would have done no more that was done on this car. David
Well its a Bentley and has all the right parts nice big engine and they fetch good money when they are done. (if done well) It would cost just as much to build something from bits of various cars but would not have as much value when done. As you say we have to have the paperwork. This customer could probably make twenty grand (English) profit from this car if he sold it. Of course he did a lot of the work himself. Of course I have done quite a few specials and this is the only Bentley mk six I have done. (I showed a couple of other cars above) David
Perhaps you like MGs a little better?. Here is an MG special I built a year ago. It is not a copy of any model but in the style of Q type and K type MGs. Its based on an N type chassis and is supercharged. David
Sorry, didn't intend to criticize but rather to expand on the "where do you stop?" theme. (but I do like the MG better. Beautiful!)
I found this in the course of looking for something else: the Harker Special. Of particular interest is the cobbled twin-crank U8 engine.
No offence taken, I guessed you think the Bentley six is pretending to be something its not. With a W O costing around ten times as much as the special its a lot of car for the investment and as close as most people could hope to get. Glad you like the MG. I have a few others I have done I will put up some more soon. I have some nice period photos of several Riley specials I will try to find them. I like the car above (Harker special) very interesting engine, you did not say but I guess its a british car?. sort of Bugatti in style though. Thanks Bob. It was not as good as I would have liked. The customer dictated the structure (small tubes and not much of it) and it caused me lots of probllems. David
Here is another photo of the two Riley specials I showed above. I had just finished building the one in the foreground, I made the body for the other one some time before. Both cars were brought down for a photo shoot for 'The Automobile' magazine. The car in the foreground is in bare aluminium. David
I presume so. The old photos show the same registration number as the new, and the other cars in the latter certainly suggest a British setting.
Archaic Go Karts, but with suspension? (Go Karts don't have suspension, other than designed in flexi-frames.)
You gotta love those chain gang cars!. out of interest are any of those cars driven on the road or just for race meets? David
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