Introducing the Question Mark Coupe – Supercharged A-V8

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Some of you may have been following along as Anderson and I thrashed to rebuild my Model A coupe for the 2012 Lone Star Round Up in Austin Texas in the build thread found here. I wanted to share a little background about how the idea was formed for the car and a little Dallas racing history as well.

A few years back, while visiting a local old time radiator shop, I spotted an old race car photo on the wall.






I asked the owner about it and he said, &#8220;That&#8217;s a car I helped build back in the late 40s. I believe one of the drivers of that car was Ed Sissum&#8221; I commented on how cool I thought it was and he said, &#8220;Would you like to go meet Ed? He still lives a block away.&#8221;

Wow! What an opportunity. We drove over to his house and had a chance to briefly talk and he and his son invited me back to talk some more and to see some pictures. The next week, when I returned, he told me about the races he had run back at the old Devil&#8217;s Bowl and shared with me the pictures he had in his album.







The common factor amongst all the cars was the fact that while the other cars ran numbers on their doors, Ed&#8217;s car consistently ran the Question Mark symbol. I asked about that and he said, &#8220;That was my number. Other guys ran their numbers, but that was mine. The Question Mark.&#8221; Something about that symbol jumped out at me as being such a great symbol of adventure.






He also looked at my car and thought it really had lots of potential. I brought my camera and my Model A coupe, which at the time had not yet been chopped or lowered.






Fast forward to 2011 and the swap meet where I found the Supercharger for the flathead. The seller told me a story about how it was pulled out of a 1940 Ford coupe with drag history around Florida for a jaguar engine swap. I had to have it.



I remembered that I had seen one on a car in an old photo. I returned to the collection of photos that Ed Sissum shared with me and there it was, on that war torn 34 Ford dirt track car.





Again, staring back at me was Ed&#8217;s Question Mark, the symbol of stepping out into the unknown, of uncertain outcomes, and confident ambiguity. This was the moment that I knew the coupe needed a rebuild, and now it also had a direction.
Anderson and I discussed if we thought we could do this build before the Round Up. We had three months, and we had the drive, but who knew if it could be pulled off. Would all the pieces would work together or would it be a total failure? Nothing worthwhile in life comes without a challenge. So, on January 22, 2012, he made the push on me and out came that little hopped up 4 banger.





We thrashed night and day, and almost killed ourselves, but on the Friday of the Round Up, April 13, 2012, it took it&#8217;s first successful drive with it's completely new driveline.







Anderson and I had met our deadline, but still a long road ahead for the car&#8217;s transformation. We loaded up the car and headed for Austin.

Saturday morning, Anderson arrived, and after all that we had been through, pulled from his pocket that shining Question Mark Symbol. He had made it the night before and said it was time for the coupe to reveal it&#8217;s identity, The Question Mark Coupe.







It&#8217;s the beginning of something new and exciting with a lot of unknown still to come. I couldn't have done it without Anderson and without the help of Revhead and SpeedDrome.
The car will continue to be transformed, but one thing will remain the same. The Question Mark Coupe will continue to honor those that have come before, who blazed the unknown paths for the quest for speed. This one is for you Ed Sissum.

 

Wicked.

 

Very cool! Congrats on making the deadline. Video was pretty fun too, that flatty sounds great!

 

Simply awesome!!! Car turned out great!!! I love that Question mark plate he made.

 

That's a great story for an awesome looking Model A! What else is in store for the coupe?

 

Plans for the future are to fix a lot of the little bugs that still need to be worked out, and then prep the body for paint and to do a full vintage style interior.

The time period I'm shooting for on this car is 1949-1952

 

Thanks for sharing Elrod! That's a really neat story.

 

Bitchin!!!

 

Great job man!

Thanks for the photos...

 

Very cool. I was at the Roundup and noticed the question mark in the window. I knew that it had to have a neat story behind it.

Does the supercharger give you noticable hp?

 

Well, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage when answering this question because I also added 4 more cylinders. It's definitely has a lot more punch now than it did before!

 

Very cool background to that question mark. Did Eric make that plaque or did he find it?


iPhone - TJJ app

 

Eric made it for me Friday night and brought it with him Saturday morning.

 

Have you taken it over to show Ed yet?? I bet he'll love it.

Good work! I followed your thrash build thread and it was pretty fun to follow along.

 

Actually I had another friend carve it out if some aluminum plate for us based on a drawing I did. Then I polished it up and painted it, and made the mounting bracket. Got lucky since I didn't have the car to measure up, but it fit nicely!

 

Awesome car and backstory! Shake Eds hand and thank him for the inspiration for me!

 

Elrod,

I am so glad you kept the fenders......I think on '30-'31 coupes they look great!

 

That's right you had a banger in there before. It sure sounds and looks like allot of fun to drive now.

 

Cool

 

Sorry about the drool I left on the running boards at LSRU.

 

Really nifty. Nice job. Gary

 

Sweet

 

Great job, both on the and the ? Plate!

 

Right on, thanks for sharing some of the backstory.

 

As great as she looks....to hear her run is BONER INSPIRING!

Sweet machine!

 

Great story and a great car! Well done!

 

really nice story. That ? plaque is one of the most awesome "accessories" ive ever seen.
Beats writin the name of the car on the car by a thousand miles!

 

The Coupe looks perfect. Was following the build-up on the other thread - the ? is the icing on the cake.

 

Great job on the Coupe, the dash is incredible, the whole car is bad a$$.