My right hand drive MGTD had a flathead 60 with a 3 speed and closed driveline rearend when I got it in 1970 just before I got drafted. Needed a driver so I swapped in MGA running gear. Still have the car and part of me wishes it still had the old 60 in it but I sure hated that front mount dizzy.
Sammy obviously has the hp edge but there is some choreography going on there the same as in NASCAR. If the same guy won all the time, the fans would lose interest. They make a good show of it though. The midgets are a different story..Sammy just blows them all off as quick as he can. His kid in not bad either. They have an outstanding engine builder.
There never were any Bugatti sixes. Le Patron didn't believe in them. Only fours and eights, and fascinatingly weird twin-crank U-16s.
I love Hot Rods...and well, pretty much anything on wheels but, here's something I would really like to build...someday?? A sketch I did back a while.Kinda Indy, race/sportscar...doors and a trunk!
A good friend of mine has a TR4 with a 327/4speed that I would kill to own. The car looks factory inside and out. It even looks right from the underside. I like watching him eat up rice burners with those 6" fart can exhausts.
I'm not sure why, but I got to poking around on ebay awhile back looking for info on 50s hot rods and sports rods, and I'm happy to say I've found some interesting old periodicals. I'm not sure if I need more of them, but this group is really satisfying my interest and got me stoked - full of ideas for my next project. As you'd expect, the pages are yellow and there is a distinct aroma of vintage spores and / or amebas. I'm keeping them in the garage until I can determine how to "safe" them from the rest of my stuff. The earliest ones are titled Sports Cars and Hot Rods, published by Mechanix Illustrated. I got the October and December 1953 issues. These are standard sized mags. The range of cars, builds, suspension types, brakes, drive trains, etc. is amazing. Neater, too, is that there's no us versus them going on - the sports cars and sports rods are all seen in favorable light. Another "Sports Cars and Hot Rods" pub (I can't find a publishing date but it has to be in the early-mid 50's range) is a very cool, and thick, mag in the little pages format by Fawcett simply called Pub 109. This puppy has 140+ pages! About 2/3 are about sports cars, OEM and home-built, the rest on rods. Since most cars are covered in two pages, there are a LOT of vehicles covered in this rag. An October 53 Hot Rod has the article on the Tatum Special and a July 66 hot rod is the famous Oval track special issue. I also got a Sports Car Illustrated from Sep 56 that features the famous old "Stovebolt Special." Lastly, some R&C rags. Jan 73 is a special track roadster issue and the Feb / Jun 71 issues have info on revamping the Niekamp roadster. I'm sure some of you have collections far larger than mine, but I've never had any of these kinds of pubs and they sure are fascinating reads. Gary
I got the Aug 2012 issue of Street Rodder today (lots of great stuff in it) but pages 144-47 have an article about a sports rod / racer that was being built by the late Al Barnes of Oregon. Crazy cool, Gary
The Eliminator is still alive and going strong. It is owned by Brock Yates and was restored by Barry Brown in E. Rochester, NY: http://www.streetrodderweb.com/milestones/0402sr_eliminator/index.html
I think turning right would make it a sports car, since oval racing tends to be turning left. A few formula one courses are "anti-clockwise", but they are the exceptions.
Interesting concept. Sounds a lot like this little beastie. http://murraybrothersgarage.com/theandrewpages.html Hi all: Long time lurker and first time commenter. Love this type of thread, and the 50's, sports rod special, concept. I've got a couple of MG TD projects in the garage that I'm trying to decide how, or even if, they can be modified in the same idiom. I'd love to figure out a way I can slot in my spare Datsun Z car, inline 6, with 5 speed, and clothe the whole thing in a Maserati A6GCS replica body. That would be my ideal, but actually doing it and making it work, is the problem.
I disagree. They are like apples and pears. Both started out as a desire to take an existing car and make it better by updating the drive train and suspension to make it accelerate and/or handle better. I don't think hot rodding means take an imitation model t body, drop an sbc and pay someone to assemble it. One of the great hot rodders is the great (and, unfortunately, late) Carroll Shelby. He took an existing car (AC Ace) and updated the drivetrain with (mostly) off the shelf Ford parts. The European sports car tends to put more emphasis on the handling rather than engine, due to the much more expensive gas prices. But the object is the same - better engines, better brakes, better suspension. I now relinquish the soapbox.
I reckon the post WWII era thru the early 1960's was a high water mark for hot rodding, when racing and hopping up cars crossed over to all types of performance contests - drag racing, speed trials, oval racing, road racing (sports rods or specials), boat racing and even possibly to aircraft. Well, that's my story (belief) anyway and I'm sticking to it! Gary
Probably the definitive authority on hot rods and sports cars is the late Dean Batchelor. He was not only part of the original SoCal Speed Shop racing team and partnered with Alex Xydias, Dean was editor of ROAD & TRACK magazine for years. Dry Lakes and Drag Strips: THE AMERICAN HOT ROD by Dean Batchelor is a must read by every HAMB'er.
Agreed! By far the best book I've ever read on American racing/rodding. Essential reading for any modified car geek.
It didn't used to be "hot rods VS sports cars" it was "hot rods AND sports cars". Everyone used to mix and mingle and get along just fine... car guys.
I want to see a lot more about that car. Do you have a website? If not, please post up a journal on the British V8 site
Not quite a hot rod, but this is Indy winner Roger Ward in a ten year-old Kurtis Kraft Offy midget at the Lime Rock Park (CT) Formula Libre race in 1959: Roger beat all the sporty car guys driving Aston-Martins, Maseratis and such-like. Here's the whole story: http://www.barcboys.com/LimeRock TheRace.htm
The 1936 Jensen-Ford. I wonder if a car like this could be considered a sports rod? Just a custom? A grand touring car? Were any other 30-50's cars similarly modified / customized? Gary http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120706/CARNEWS01/120709937
My little maroon 1960 Austin Healey Sprite with the fibreglas top didn't like not being revved when using it as a salesman's car. After the engine let me know this the second time I riped it out in my drive way and dropped in a modified SBC 327 and powerglide with two fours. No room for three pedals. Did all work right in front yard and driveway except having a friend come over to weld the homemade subframe and have a shop cut my driveshaft way down. Used a Ford crossflow radiator and top fill purge tank. Only problem I had was flooding on fast turns so went to three two carbs. Somehow I managed to not tear out the stock rear end. This was in mid 60's. when Ford came out with the little Cobra. Figured if they could do it so could I. Used chisels, hammers, hacksaws, and a shade tree with a pulley from the branch. Friends and neighbors thought I was nuts till I finished it. I'd call that a hotrod sports car. Drove it for several years and traded for a 1933 Chevy.
I find it a bit difficult to tell where the sports car ends and the hotrod starts with my MG. The car was V8 powered way back in the late sixties, so it's been a hot rod most of its life. It was raced in SCCA compition at Watkins Glen a long time ago. I bought the car in pieses in 2009 minus engine and trans. Did some suspension and brake mods and rebuilt it to a hotrod/sports car. Goes like hell but stops and corners like a slot car. I have other cars in the stable, but this is the one that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Ppwer is 350 Chev, t5 trans and Corvette IRS with carbon fiber mono leaf. A very quick rack and pinion and GM front suspension with power disc. These kind of cars are traditional from the fifties, hot rods means small car, big engine. Thanks for the cool thread
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