Here is a copy of John Gerber's 1920s sprint car.... the Whippet Special that I built. Model T engine with an SR Fronty OHV conversion. Whippet grill she'll Modified T frame 87" wheel base 21" Hayes fronts 20" Buffalo Rears Chevrolet 490 front axle Small drum Ruckstel For more build pics you can check them out on my instagram @santiagormichael
WOW! That looks great! Is the offset something Gerber had in his car or artistic licence on your part? I'm slowly putting a Bobtail together based on the RAJO Jack and Noel Bullock cars. Sonething about those Bobtails that just looks so right. Bob
I figured you did with your knowledge of the chassis set up but wanted to make sure incase you needed any scans.
That's the way Gerber did it, I tried to build the cars as close as I could based on pictures. The offset help with the weight distribution. Both the Rajo Jack car and Bullock cars are really cool cars!!
It still has the stock transmission brake. we added an aftermarket brakes that slide over the rear drums. Similarly to rocket mountain brakes. This is hand operated brake only
Mike - Super cool ride - great to see your disipline to honor Gerbers simply intricate design philosophy. This (your) car is the racer I would want in my stable.
OK, So the right side gets a drum also? On second thought it now looks like you have a 26-27 axle housing on the left side and a pre '26 on the right. Bob
Mike You and Paul are the shit that thing is Badass what a bummer that the ROG was weathered out the fab work on that thing is the tits cheers to you guys B
Man you rule, been a long time since I've seen pics. of it but it just keeps getting better & better great job.
This pic your looking at has a 26-27 large drum ruckstel housing on it for mock up. We needed the ruckstel housing for building the seat and shifter clearance while the early small drum rear-end was getting rebuilt. Sorry for the confusion
Here is the front spring, bent forward the same way John Gerber did his. This allows the car to sit extremely low. The frame and axle would hit.
Great looking car. I like the Fat Man steering wheel. I have one like that stashed away looking for a good place to use it.
Couple questions: Any drive time in it yet? I saw on Intsagram that you tack welded the seam in the bones every couple inches. Has this shown any indication for cracking? I was going to do a similar application with front T bones, but thought I'd need to weld them solid. What radiator did you use? Custom made to fit the Whippet shell? Any close up pics of it and how the tapered sides look? Curving and re-tempering your spring really intrigues me. Could you explain the process more here? Have you done this before, and how reliable is the process to stay tempered? Are those the Lester tires like Universal sells? Just a regular sipe like the stock car guys use?
The Jalopy Journal
