Hot Rods Hot Rod Sports Cars

??? 260???
Oh the memories I have.
Fastest car I rode in ( when I was a kid).

 

RE the rear fenders... a couple of years ago I was out measuring a Spriget hulk to see if some of the body parts were useable ICW my 29 Model A. Surprisingly, as small as the Midget / Sprite cars are, they are 1-2" WIDER than an A in several places. With some fab work, I think a chopped windshield / frame and certainly the cowl mounted wipers are usable. The rear clip, which resembles in many ways a mini version of a 55-56 Chevy, could be fit fairly easily - again IMH-as a non metal worker-O. But it would still have the open-wheeled look of a 60's sports rod in the back - like the little pickups that were so popular with 57 ford or early Mercury Comet rear fenders, etc.. If you wanted to enclose the rear wheels for better aero, I'm thinking perhaps some of the "rounder" vintage truck fenders? Stude? Willys? Gary

 

can a regular guy even buy a devon or are they over the top? ive never seen one for sale.

 

You might ask around here. http://www.forgottenfiberglass.com/
Gary

 

Geoff Hacker at Forgotten Fiberglass is definitely the go to guy for this stuff. When you need a chassis for it, let me know!

 

Yeah, they're around, and available. My cousin has one. He's got too many projects (Muntz Jet, Glasspar G-2, Victress, Woodill Wildfire, etc.), I'll ask him if he wants to sell it, or if he knows of any for sale.

 

MoparMontana... Sir... did you see my PM (conversation) question? Gary

 

Back in the 70's, I bought a 1965 Ford Cortina GT that had been modified professionally by a shop in Sausalito to handle better. The original owner then had the shop install a Ford 289 out of a totaled Sunbeam Tiger backed up by a C4 tranny. The only indication that the car wasn't stock was the dual pipes and the hood pins (had to replace the hood latch to make room for the radiator. I have owned a lot of fun cars in my many years but none ever came close to matching the absolute thrills provided by this little Cortina. It had a shift kit and you had to be careful when you hit second gear. Too much throttle and the little car would turn sideways. Way too much fun!

 

awesome! .......no double awesome!

 

To be clear in your searches online, you'll want to know that the correct spelling is DEVIN. They built a number of bodies in various sizes to fit various chassis, and they also built a complete car called the Devin SS which was SBC powered.

 

Greg,
I'm not quite there yet. I just picked up the 500S frame jig, body bucks, and tooling in mid-October after two years of negotiating. My own 500S body is currently at the Ravon Streetrods right now having a mold made from it (there are photos of that process on my Kurtis-Kraft FB page. A loaner original 500KK chassis is at Shuken Racing Fabrication in Fresno to have a fixture built from it. Once that fixture is completed the 500S fixture is headed there as well to make sure it's still square and up to snuff after having been moved back and forth across the country a few times since the early 90's. Geoff Hacker and I are having conversations about the Allied and other 50's body molds to co-op information and share resources for bodies and chassis. my first real client is interested in an exact replica of the famous Merc-powered Bill Stroppe Kurtis-Kraft 500S, and that car will be the mule from which all fabrication photos, details, and future pricing will be generated from. I'll keep you updated via this forum, or you can email me anytime at [email protected]. Thanks for your interest! Pete

 

Does anyone own the Allied Swallow body molds?

 

The first road race I ever saw was at Chino, CA in 1953. Stroppe won the main event in his Kurtis, followed by Ken Miles' MG special, Harry Morrow (I think) in an F3 Cooper, and Jim Kimberley (I think) in a 4.9 Ferrari.
Flatheads forever!

 

Fell in love with the Ken Miles MG special the first time I saw it, I think that was in 1954. My dad had a '52 TD that had been raced before he got it, a fun car and we went to races at Pomona and Palm Springs. He never raced it, but ran a lot of rallys and slaloms with it. That was the car that got my car addiction going, I was 8 years old in '54 and have been hooked ever since.

 

Sure does look like Ron Lee's Place in So. Pasadena.
The 30 Ford Roadster Sports Job used to belong to Ed Dwyer who lives in Burbank.....

The Don Small built #11 Mines Field Racer 33 Ford Roadster is back in Don's possession.
I remember taking the 5W body off of the chassis at Don's former Alhambra childhood home, right before Randy Canarozzi came down and took the body up to his home in Auburn. It became a very cool whacked 5W that Tom Fritz did a painting of. The original guy who chopped that car ended up giving the pieces that he chopped back to Randy earn Randy/Chris hosted the No Hill Climb Picnics.
Personally I view the Mines Field Racers and Targo Florio (Legion Ascot L.A.) as America's Factory Bred Road Racers. Great Thread guys.

 

Now we are getting some place! Love the history and images you guys are adding here now on the 50's cross-overs between oval racing, hot rodding / lakes racing, and road racing. Gary

 

Some required reading!

 

Jeez. I thought my Christmas shopping was over. Gary

 

OK, this one kinda rides a fuzzy line here on the HAMB, but it's bodystyle goes back to the cut-off, so I'll post it.....

I saved this little Fairlady from the scrap yard a while back. Its not quite as rough as it looks.... well, to me, anyways.
The motor is a Ford Pinto 4 banger w/ the auto tranny. Obviously, in its prime, it was a little hot rod sports car.

 

This is one of my hotrod/sports fun cars. It's a '56 Corvette built to "SR" or special racer specs. Super fun to drive. Been on road for 8 years now.

 

Mopar Montana (aka Pete)
Way back in your post #188 you showed an Allied body coupe wit #256. As I think you know, it is on a KK chassis and was Desoto hemi powered when we raced against it at the Monterey Historics in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
I think it got a Chevy transplant after being sold and prepared for the Carrera Panamerica.

 

Here's a neat story on Dean Batchelor's hot rod sports car. Missing from the story is the fact Dean was a partner with Alex Xydias on the SoCal speed shop Bonneville cars
https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php...helors-silver-bomb/?refer=news#comments-block

 

^Interesting article. Also interesting... the car has been for sale in the vintage racer mags for 25K less for quite some time. I wonder why it's such a "lemon" with that kind of pedigree? I'd love to have something like that, but... Gary

 

Not quite - Frank's own notes, as well as shop supervisor Don Hicks, document a less-than-pleasant
transaction. It appears that 1). Frank canned production of the KSC based on Indy success and subsequent demand for more Indy cars in May 1950 2). Muntz bought the rights the KSC from Ed Walsh, one of the KSC investors, not Frank (who was out of town) 3). Muntz was the deciding force to stretch the chassis, thinking it was a better fit for sales, thus killing any chance of being a sports car. 4) Sam Hanks was the technical advisor Muntz retained to add 13 inches to the KSC 5). The deal included Muntz being able to lease half of Frank's shop, what happened on that side was out of Frank's control 6). Frank had a public dislike for the Muntz, made public after the Muntz had failed 7). Franks was known as the nicest man you ever met, and often screwed in business by his
lack of cunning, or lack of capacity be a heel, or whatever you want to call it.

History will remember Frank Kurtis as the man that built America's best race cars, while Earl Muntz
an amazing salesman that sold damn near anything he wanted to. Frank lived for the art, Earl the money.

So no, Kurtis did not develop the Muntz from the KSC. He bit his tongue and did his contractual obligations while Muntz turned America's first Sports Car into a four seat Touring Car with a mini bar.

Sorry to be defensive, but I'm too big a fan of Frank to allow anyone to blame the Muntz on him. This man created the first V8 in a 2 seat, aluminum bodied sports car 14 years before Shelby, and 6 before GM decided to put a truck motor on a truck chassis with a fiberglass body and call it a sports car.

 

Just an update - Finally got it on the road last weekend
Projects like this always take longer than you expect - that's why there are so many of them unfinished.

 

Thanks for this more complete story. I'm happy to get the Kurtis/Muntz history more correct.

 

Hello,
One of the fastest sports cars at Lions during the late 50's early 60's was Sam Parriot's Kurtis. There were other sports cars racing in their own classes just like the stock bodied cars from the big 3. But, this Kurtis roadster was one of the fastest if not the fastest at the time.
Jnaki

 

Again, check with Geoff Hacker at forgotten fiberglass.com

 

I wanted to swap a baby nailhead into my bugeye when I bought it several years ago, but did a late four banger instead......shoulda followed my gut. Saw milwaukee midgets video above and it made the "yang stand like iron".......Really, it did...I checked....Anyway, out came the four, a few hours later with the sawzall and the 215 slides in today for a trail fit. These kind of pictures drive the purists nuts......I made sure to take several nice ones.