Hi to everyone. I have purchased the purple 1940 Willys Coupe Sour Grapes ex drag car. I live in Plymouth England and just had the car shipped over from New Jersey. The car is featured on Youtube when it was sold in 2010. I purchased the car from the previous owners estate as he sadly passed away. I would be very interested in any of the history, as none came with the car. I gather it has been raced from the sixties and may have belonged to one owner for 30 years. Kind regards, Kevin.
http://nationalvehicles.com/viewlisting.php?listing_id=95685 Google is your friend, originally had a Hemi and another paint scheme. Looks like it's been through a few renditions over the years before the BBC. http://www.engine-parts.com/company.htm
I remember seeing that car for sale here in Jersey a couple of years ago,asked around back then and no one had heard of it but we're not hard core drag racers either.
Bob Maida owned the car in the early 2000’s running a Big block Chevy. I raced against him a few times. Great guy.
I know plenty about the car. I wrenched on it and drove it for Bob Maida for a couple of years. The car you own is not the same Sour grapes car in the older pictures. Bob and I lost touch about 12 years ago but I know the car was sold and stayed in NJ. The estate that you purchased it from, I believe, is the person that Bob sold the car to. The adverts for the car are still up and online so I have seen pictures of the car recently. The way it is now with the carpet and seats is not the way it was when it was raced. Also the current engine is not the engine that was in it when it was raced. When I met Bob it had a 454 cid in it and after a couple of unfortunate instances that engine finally spit a rod out of the side of the block. The engine that was in it after that was a 540 cid Steve Schmidt short block with a set of Brodix aluminum heads, Weiand team g intake and a 1150 Dominator carb. I am going to assume by the recent pictures that it still has the Mallory ignition and the Power glide trans. I don't know the timeline of when the current engine made it into the car. As for the interior, some the safety bars have been cut from the car to accommodate the seats. When we raced the car it was fast! Like 10 second quarter-mile fast. Attached is a photo of (from left to right) Me, The late Jim Shores and Bob just so you know I'm not full of it. If you want to know more about the car let me know.
Some more pictures I found from Atco. I think it was from Sep 24, 2005. Me driving. You can see the dial in for the one round was 10.08. I'll have to try and find my time slips.
Sour grapes raced @ the now closed Englishtown N. J. race track. I used to see it there every year at the old time drags. Don't know much else
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