I know the fat fender fords were popular for stock car racing. How long were these bodies ran? And was there any that ran engines other than flatties? In particular would a Y block in say a 37 coupe be something that wouldve existed on the track back in the day?
Depends on the local rules, and time period. After flathead V8s, OHV 6 cyl were popular. A Y-block would have been legal in north east Modifieds in the 60s.
I would believe a '37 Coupe with a "Y"-block would have been a popular combination in some circuits. I say this because most of the Racing Organizations back in those days had a lot of rules would limit the choices most time. For example, my dirt modified ran in what was called the Minnesota Stock Car Racing Association back in the mid 60's. Although they were called stock cars, they were far from it (take a look in my albums to see what they called a "Stock Car" back in those days). They had a minimum weight rule and a 330 cubic inch maximum for the engines. My car was champion of that association for several years. It ran a 324 Oldsmobile with at .030"overbore (so they said), so it was about the biggest engine they could run and the builders spent a lot of time and money getting the most power out of it that they could. It reigned supreme until the 327 Chevrolet became available in the junkyards, when it was immediately relegated to an also ran. (Don't let the Hemi that's in it now throw you. When I got the car, it had no engine and I had no idea of the history behind the car. Over the first few years I owned it, I met a lot of people and learned a lot about the car. It was so famous in Southern Minnesota and Iowa that ERTL even made a model of it, which wasn't very accurate.) These days, vintage racing associations sometimes let you run just about anything because of low car counts. I've run against flathead-powered track roadsters, 427 powered '66 Chevys and just about anything in between. It's still no fun to lose.
Glad to hear that could be an option. Ive had my 37 for about 6 years now and its kind of rough. Too rough for a real nice hot rod or custom...well maybe not if i had more money and time. But i was thinking, man this could make a real cool stock car tribute. Its got a 292 in it with a 3spd, so now i think i will go forward with my idea. Time to do some researching to get it as accurate as possible
In Muskogee, Oklahoma, at Thunderbird Speedway in the sixties they ran the Ford Flathead and any six cylinder in one class Juniors IIRC. Then they had a class that ran the V8s. I remember seeing guide a variety of engines back then, but there were definitely a lot of Y-Block Fords there. Some FEs, Chrysler’s ,SBFs and the sbc . Over the years they ran different cars and classes. Bones
One of the Wood brothers had a y block in a '37 Ford in the day and won a lot of races. Keith Hightshoe ran an F code blown 312 ina '34 2 door in Lincoln Nebraska in the early 60s and did pretty good.
This is a Y-block w/FI in a Ford coupe,lot of set back and off set,so very trick from back in the day in south Florida early 60s
My Dad ran a 37 Chevy coupe on dirtback in the 60s/70s. They had cube limits but there were 6 and 8 cylinder classes and the 427 was a popular engine in the modifieds . Dad's car was channelled so much that other guys racing coupes said they could read his roof numbers. My dream is too make a replica down the road. What fun that would be.
I say rock on because if you make it street legal all eyes will be on it at a car show. Maybe the local police too
There were so many different tracks that had so many different rules. You can put together nearly any drive train in any body, built in nearly any form, and you could still have something that may have been a competitive race car at some track, someplace. If you follow some sort of theme, you really can't go wrong, however, if you are building a car to represent a particular time and location, you will need to be historically correct, and if you intend to race it, you need to build it to the rules of the organization you intend to race with. I strongly reccomend putting one together as a street car. You can drive it any day and won't have to wait for some kind of an event. I promise it will bring thumbs up everyplace you drive, and will be a conservation piece every time you stop. Most people won't really care what drive train you have, or how you did the car, as long as it looks like something that could have race locally. We drive our coupe all over, its about the most fun you can have with your cloths on. Gene
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