Technical when did the flathead stop being king?

I like the way you think!

 

49 when the Rocket engine came out

 

every thing was obsolete the day the hemi was introduced. early or late model.

 

and the moon is made of cheese

 

Well its been King for the last 55 plus years of my life only now things that I used to get for damn near free are suddenly made of gold, The days of 250 buck rebuilds are long gone but we still do it the old fashioned way, by ourselves and it only seems right that way. Somewhere up there Henry is smiling and telling Edsel "I was right'...........

And a special thanks to all those backyard mechanics who went on before, and now to teach my grandsons all I can about the world being FLAT...........

end of discussion.

 

Right now I'm re-ringing and re-inserting the 59Y in the Bridgeport.

Yeah, by the late 50's the flathead was no longer king of all the tracks, but it deserves respect.

It's great to watch the young and old, rich and poor, smart and stupid all marvel at the "boat anchor" in my old rod.

 

Flathead never stopped being King!

SBC just started to be faster, thats totaly different!

 

As they say. "The King is dead; Long live the King."
Such is the story of the flathead. It still lives on.

 

When the Dodge Red Ram Hemi appeared!
Interestingly the Chrisman brothers ran their coupe on the salt in 53 with an Ardun equipped flathead going 157 mph. (On nitro 163 mph.) THEN in 54 they arrived with a 241 Dodge Red Ram Hemi and did 186 mph!!
I have both a Flathead in my 32 Roadster and a Dodge Red Ram 270 in my new 32 coupe and love em both!
High Noon Speed Shop- 32 Spitfire
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/high-noon-speed-shop-rolls-out-its-new-32-coupe.862612/

 

An observation when this thread was started there was very little flat head speed equipment in NZ speedshops no they are full of it and you can buy French flatheads here does that tell you something?

 

yep , tells me you guys are starting to catch up , hang in there the Chevs and Mopar stuff will turn up soon

 

The flatmotor has a similar following to the SBC fanatics, and the only thing that alters a flathead mindset is an unrelieved flathead block and a set of ARDUN heads. These guys are very dedicated to their "cause".

 

I would have run a flatmotor in my Deuce roadster when we built it 4 years ago, but I had to have a/c(with curtains, of course) because it is so hot in South Texas. Fifty-nine days of 100+ temp in a row are unbearable without it.

 

"Nuff said !

 

The SBC guy has always been ENVIED. Thank you, thank you very much.

 

This thread went from a historical question to a pissing contest...

The flathead V8 started to become popular in lakes racing between 1938 and 1940 - finally achieving "majority" status in 1941. I would imagine there was some "lag" (although probably not as much) between the introduction of the OHV and its 'dominance' on the street/lakes - anyone have data showing when OHV entries surpassed the flathead 8 on the lakes?

 

Well Said!
Truth is nobody with a sbc dares open there hoods at car shows because nobody wants to see just another oil burner.

At the local car shows, A Flathead always draws a crowd, no so a sbc.


Flatheads have always been king, First as the original hotrod motor and now as the original hotrod motor.

 

It is still the 'King' in many of our eyes - just a fun, unique and cool sounding engine. When I was building them as a teenager in the 70's, I was one of the few in SoCal who was playing with them. Finding good used speed parts was a bitch - nobody cared about the ole' flatty. One had to take 'well used' parts and figure out how to rebuild/rework them. There were very few suppliers of parts we take for granted today - like pistons (cast Jahn's are what I used). Today, there are FAR more parts available than at that time - high quality NEW parts from a host of vendors. It is much easier to build a flathead today than probably about any time since the 60's (just find a good block!). They can be somewhat expensive to build - if you want a 'turn key' motor from an engine shop - but not out of line with any other 'custom engine' you pay for from that same shop. I just enjoy the renewed popularity we've seen in the last 20 years - along with the great supply of parts to choose from.

The 'King' will remain as such . . . for many of us . .

 

The 'King' will remain as such . . . for many of us . .

Yes Dale and as has been said many times "if you live long enough everything come's back in style". I guess I have lived long enough, because flatheads have sure come back in style and Henry is smiling.

 

Not only that Carl - her is smiling down on YOU . . . cause you're not just talking about it, you're building and racing the darn things. Great Stuff!

 

Didn't mean to call ol'e' Henry a 'Cross Dresser' (her), sometimes my keyboard has fun with my comatose brain!

 

As i remember it started when the ohv Olds andCaddy V8's came out. In the early 50's you could hardly give a flathead away. People were trying to sell them for $25.

 

Introduction of the small block Chevy V8 forever changed the game.

 

1oldracer has it right. 265 SBC's buried flatheads for good.

 

You cant make any other engine look or sound like the flat head

 

Amen brother!

 

Flathead engines were obsolete by the end of WW II. All of the manufacturers were working on OHV designs. The flathead V-8 or even the flathead sixes were yesterdays news. They had their day in the sun but the new OHV engines of Olds and Caddy were the writing on the tombstone of the old design flathead. When the SBC came out the flathead was mostly abandoned by rodders. Who wanted to go slow and get your ass kicked by the Chevy's? There was no feeling of nostalgia or loss, guys just stepped up to modern stuff and never looked back. Some guys want to make the past into something that it never was. Suddenly nobody cared about the flathead and by the sixties it was just another boat anchor.

The flathead is an oddity today, an anachronism. Just like the limbo, hula hoops, and lava lamps. The flathead was king, so was the Hudson Hornet, the Packard, and the Nash. But where are they now? A curiosity for sure and something different that's all. But faux retro is some peoples cup of tea so whatever floats your boat.

Myself, I've always been a king of speed. If it didn't go I wasn't interested. For those a little older than myself who actually drove 53 Mercs and 48 Fords with full race mills I can understand the nostalgia. But for all the guys who started burning rubber in the late 50's or early 60's the flathead was a dinosaur.

 

I'm with you through the first paragraph, after that you've lost me...

Anything manufactured more than a few years ago is anachronistic by current standards...that's not the point; our focus is on rods & customs built in a style representative of 1965 AND earlier. The question isn't whether or not a component fits in 'now', but rather, whether it is correct to the time period we are building towards.

The fact is, flathead 4 and V8s dominated the hot rod landscape until the last decade (give or take a few years) of the time period covered by this website; thus, they are more-or-less the 'gold standard' among those aiming to build a rod/custom representing these decades. Passing off of such a monolithic block of hot rodding's past as little more than 'faux retro' is utterly nonsensical.

 

I agree with 'gwhite', the flathead couldn't really compete with the OHV V8 engines that were becoming easier to obtain by the late 50's, that's all true. We love the flathead V8 for it's innovation and simplicity, and because it together with the 4 banger laid the foundation for our hobby. We are not part of the HAMB because we choose to disregard the old for the new in an effort to go fast. If that was what we wanted to do we'd put a turbo'd stroker SBC into our easter egg coloured billet street rods and take on the world.
We're here because we acknowledge the men that have gone before us to pioneer a new age in speed that began on the salt lakes in Southern California in stripped out, souped up early Ford roadsters and coupes. That's what we love, and that's why we're here. So, in my mind the flathead V8 will always be King! It's not how fast you go, it's how you go fast...

 

Let me run you back in time;;;Being that I'm old as dirt ( 72)and was building hotrods in the late 1950's,yes I now have more repect for the flathead v8's then I did back then,but at the time as a hotrod nut,when I build my first rod there was no way to even think about anything but OHV V8,and by the way SBC was still not very well used by 59 but were just starting to run real well= Older Ford Y blocks had been kicking SBC ass tell 58. So I was looking to find a Olds Rocket or Ford Thunder Bird "Y" maybe a Cady V8 { note 6cly were for grandma's like auto tranny's an 4doors. My Dad had got a brand new 55 Chevy Nomad wag w/V8=the 265 was a smoken oil dripen POS,so I was looking for a good v8(by at the time known info) I had some v8 flatheads laying around for free. It took tell around early 80's before that old junk was good for trading.
Later in the late 60s I raced my SBC's for 40years of stockcar racing an won a lot,but still have a lot of repect for how great my Ford Y back then kicked ass. Pic is my old "Y" powered rod with fresh new paint an other repaired parts + new headers too,as it now looks today 2014