Hot Rods A.J. Foyt's Ardun powered Deuce coupe

I don't normally post images of race cars but this is just a cool piece of history driven by a tough Texan driver. HRP





Ardun powered flatty

 

Love to have motor!

 

You and me both! HRP

 

count me in ! I 'd yank the SBC out of my 36 Coupe to put that in !

 

It's got a set of General Jumbo wheels on it, I've never seen this one before, thanks for posting.....

 

Huh? Look like standard issue dirt track wide fives to me (except for the left front).

 

Kool, Super Tex in an old modified! Would have loved to see him on a short track in that! Thx for posting that Danny.

 

At the California Auto Museum (nee Towe Collection) in Sacramento CA.

 

Amazing how far back they set that motor for the round track.
Thanks Danny. Never seen this.

 

If I remember correctly, the car was found on an uncles property, and the original Ardun, which had been replaced over the years with a sbc, was found intact in a small shed nearby! Fairly easy restoration.

 

The article was in Rod & Custom magazine in 1991.

It's a little hard to read due to the size but you can enlarge the screen and read it fairly easy. HRP

 

Maybe, this is what a General Jumbo looks like.

Maybe, This is what a General Jumbo looks like, they used the for racing in the day....
View attachment 2046763View attachment 2046763 Don,t see a lot of these anymore. 14 inch General Jumbo wheel on wide 5s.
Ran these on my 39 in High School.

 

Thanks Danny, I Love this stuff. Even better when it has A.J.'s name on it!

 

Looks like it has a 3/4 ton rear end, floater axle, break an axle and the wheel stays on??

 

Anybody know what fuel pump set up that is?

 

Yep.

 

thanks I really like the coupe.

 

fuel pump is Hilborn

 

As V8RPU said it is a Hilborn pump, they still make that style pump and mount but now the belt used is a timing belt rather than the v-belt shown.
Was it purely coincidence that the pump mount looks a lot like a flathead generator bracket, or did Stu copy the design?

 

I have that exact same injection set up but the hilborn pump that we have on it now won’t clear the stacks. Somewhere along the line the original pump was lost and the Hilborn pump we have now will not work in the configuration shown in that picture. We have pictures of it originally ran just like what’s shown in that car but the pump that we have now definitely will not work like that. Not sure what the deal is but The Hilborn pump we have is too long to clear the stacks.

 

Very Kool piece of history. Thanks for posting.

 

Would this car have run dirt & asphalt? HRP

 

The way it is presently setup, it looks like an asphalt car. My modified (from about the same era) was built as a dirt only car and was very successful, being Minnesota state "Stock Car" champion in '66 and '67. A lot of the exhibition races that I ran in it's later years were on asphalt tracks, because dirt tracks were either disappearing or being paved. I bought a set of asphalt wheels and tires so I could run. We could never make it handle nearly as well on asphalt as it did on dirt. Maybe we didn't try hard enough, or maybe the original design didn't lend itself to paved tracks. I received opinions both ways from the other "Old-Timers". It seemed "unhappy" on pavement.

 

neat stuff tubman! a dirt car with a hemi! im a big aj fan, sure would like to have seen him wheel that coupe!

 

X2 with @tubman on the left front drum, wheel and tire. Its is visible in all the pics. Did this improve handling, or was it a quirky good luck thing?

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In those days the left front was just along for the ride in the turns, often up in the air off the racing surface on straight axle cars, dirt or asphalt. Using the small left front took weight off that side's wheel so that going down the straight there was a diagonal effect putting more weight on left rear, then turning left into the corner shifted weight to the right, tending to equalize the weight on each side's rear tire for more equal bite thru and off the turn.
The wide 5 wheels were common on both surfaces also. In later years the left front also provided grip in the turns with IFS and, while a little smaller sometimes than the right, it was nearly as large.
Usually a paved track car had a stiffer chassis and springs that a dirt car. Nowadays dirt cars have a linkage arrangement that moves the left rear wheel forward by what appears to be 6-8 inches coming off the corner, helping to turn the car off the corner and down the straight. The right front nose goes way down and the left rear comes up, utilizing asymmetric 4 link rear trailing arms to cock the rear end around. I'm guessing the effect allows more wedge to get in the corner without causing push coming off the corner.

 

"dirty old man" - You're response makes me feel better about not trying too hard to make the "Ole' 102" handle better on the asphalt. We were too busy anyway, sitting around, drinking beer, and lying about how good we were before. "The older I get, the faster I was!".

 

I think it ran both the cars were not specialized like today.

I can't tell if the cars are on dry slick dirt, or really crossed up!

 

HRP, what month was this issue? I smell an 1/8th model coming... Gary