History Why did you see more Ford Race cars than chevys?

Why did you see more ford race cars on the oval than you chevys in the 40s and 50s? Was it due to the ford v8? It's wild most pics I see are early ford coupes but then I will come across a picture like this with some giant sedan. Just curious on the history and what you can provide. Thanks!

 

Availability, price and yeah likely the flathead v8

 

That photo is in Australia.

 

First On Race Day

 

^^^^I knew that was coming ^^^^

 

I guess because a lot of old stock cars were got from the junkyard and there a lot of old Fords in them because they were cheap everyday transportation....

 

Did you ever run an old stovebolt hard? The lack of full pressure oiling is a serious disadvantage. Full pressure 235's weren't available until the advent of the Powerglide transmission, and Jimmy's were hard to find and expensive.

 

No knowledge, but how about the amount of wood in Chevys?

 

Far less wood in the bodies? Many interchangeable parts over the decades? Cheaper?

 

If you notice in that picture I think that is a 39 Ford four-door a 39 Ford two-door "humpback" that is upside down and a coupe on top of about the same vintage. They are all technically the same chassis and none were really "boats" It's not like you had a V12 41 Lincoln Continental extend with a lot of little Ford coupes.

I would imagine the reason why you see Fords so commonplace in racing is early on the Flathead V8 got it reputation for being fast whether it really was or not could be argued But when Clyde (of Bonnie and Clyde bank robber fame) is sending Henry Ford love letters about how great the V8 Fords (yes plural) were that he boosted and robbed banks with Then the newspapers and AM radio reported on it all over the country that pretty much cemented the fords reputation as a fast car for its day as it was the only car to outrun cop cars. Today a lot of people think the letter was a fake written by a jokester but it was reported on as fact regardless if it's true or not. Then next thing you know you got guys in Southern California screwing around at Muruc (did I spell that right?) dry lake making cars that were designed to do a consistent 35 mph with quick chance to maybe 60 during passing and those young men They were pushing them to 130 or maybe even 140 in the pre-war period Also around that same time period You had the bootleggers screwing around with cars just so they can make money selling booze, Henry Ford's chassis was extremely robust and easy to work on in that time period and needless to say with that V8 it was a step ahead of most the competition and with It's popularity getting traction performance was starting to pop up not only in Southern California but in the American south.
World war II comes around and those boys at the dry lakes and the bootleggers went into the military talking about their hobby of hot rodding and I would imagine it would spread like wildfire in that time period. In the post-war period all those returning service veterans all had balls of steel after getting shot at for 3 or 4 years and they had real mechanical know-how from their military experience and the Ford flattie was already known to be pretty spry and by this point they were starting to appear in the junkyards by the thousands So everyone and their mother could afford to modify them, experiment with them and if they blew them up it wasn't a problem they just grabbed another one for a couple of bucks out of the local Pick-A-Part. I would imagine Ford outsold the competition in that time frame probably two to one other then maybe Chevrolet giving them a run for their money. Ford was the cheap mass produced V8 in the world (Cadillacs were expensive). By that same token which we all know 90ish years later a v8 is probably one of the best platforms to turn into a race car engine regardless of make and every era There is always one engine that stands out a little bit better than the rest in a time period. In the 1930s and '40s it was definitely the Ford V8 stock its power numbers for very similar to the competition but there was a ton of locked away power That just by putting on a different exhaust intake and heads all suddenly it could be double and power because Henry Ford choked it down so much with undersized factory BS.
Think about it Nash had a six cylinder (Probably one of the fastest six cylinders of the time period), Chevrolet had a six cylinder (which is a great engine but a terrible performer) Plymouth and Dodge had 6 cylinders (again great engines for reliability and durability but they weren't known for being fast) Buick had a straight 8 That was considered weak if you abused it. Pontiac was noted to be a decent performing car but a straight 8 As long as your leg it doesn't exactly fit in anything other than a 40 Pontiac type car lol , Packard, well it was a great car and one heck for performer for its day but the engine cost a lot of money that weighed a lot and there was no aftermarket support for it because there were so few of them made The same goes with Packard's competitor Cadillac, Hudson had a six cylinder but it would not be no one as a performer until the late 40s and at that point it was a brand new car most people couldn't afford to Hot Rod one and by the time they could afford to Hot Rod one the overhead valves have gained enough traction and were appearing in the junkyards also so nobody was going to mess with one.
You figure realistically the Flathead was yesterday's newspaper by around 1955 The only reason why you were still seeing them pop up and hot rods all the way into the early '60s is because they were super cheap and easy to find It wasn't because they were a good performance engine by that point they were just cheap with great aftermarket support. You couldn't claim this about any other make until you get into the 1960s then arguably it's small block Chevy and the small block Chevy has been the iconic hot rod engine Probably until about 5 or 10 years ago when the ulgy but great performance LS finally took over.

 

Frustrated Owner Really Disappointed,” “Fiercely Overrated Racing Disaster,” and “Fast Only Rolling Downhill.”
Or backwards "driver returns on foot"

Edit: (for the record I'm an American car guy I'm not brand loyal when it comes to the pre-48 cars I have a soft spot for Fords when it comes to engines I love them all except the Ford three valve 5.4 for recent years and the 6.no! diesel because they are garbage almost as bad as a Chevy vega engine).

 

Great information and explanations as always! Thanks

 

And then there's the Ford buggy spring front and rear suspension. Easy to modify, lighter and stronger than most of the competition (Ford used forgings and high quality steels in the suspension). Think wedge. It gets the name because old time racers would put cross weight into the chassis by inserting a tapered (Hence wedge) spacer between the spring and crossmember. Easy compared to 4 spring chassis of the era.

Oh and cheap, light, available, much interchangeability. And the v8...

 

...Best answer yet.

 

In the early years it probably had a lot to do with all the wood in the Chevys, having helped restore a 1932 Chevrolet sedan that car was nothing but a wooden skeleton with metal body panels nailed to the frame work. HRP

 

FOUND ON THE ROAD-DEAD or FIXED OR REPAIRED DAILY

 

First On Race Day, HRP

 

Fords were cheap, plentiful, mechanicaly simple and relativley light weight.

Chevy clung on to timber framed bodies and had complex and hard to modify suspension systems in the mid 30s

 

Not really. As pointed out in another thread, by the 50s, most dirt track cars were pretty well built. Which typically included lightening the car as much as possible. An easy way to go faster is to cut weight, so bodies would be gutted, and turned into a very light shell. Chevies had an advantage in that regard, removing wood was a lot simpler and easier than cutting out inner sheetmetal structure. And regardless of the stuff on the inside, the remaining body panels were welded back together and supported by the rollcage. Here's an example of a 20s era Chevy body: This body was on a couple of different chassis over its lifetime as a dirt car. Rod Fifield was its owner/driver. An aside, the track announcer nicknamed it the "Bonnie and Clyde" car.

Picture by me, early 70's, Poloroid SX70 camera. Not the best format for keeping pictures long term. This one is a survivor somehow...

 

The body on my dirt modified is a 1934 Chevrolet coach. The car was built in the mid-sixties, and I can tell you, there's not a sliver of wood left in that body.

 

Attrition. Shear number of Fords and the flatty. The end.

 

the bodies were cheap and plentiful

 

Simply put, it was a numbers game. Ford produced more cars in the early years then any other brand. They were cheap, light, and plentiful.

By the late 40s things were changing, but it took years to trickle down to many local tracks.

By the mid 50s, lots of "race cars" were not very factory stock anymore. Once the racers didn't have to rely on whatever an auto factory gave them years before, the brand of car was not as important as the years rolled by.

In the 30s, that flathead V8 was hot, but by the late 40s, most of the modern 6 cylinder motors were equaling the flathead V8 hp. By the time the boys were returning from the war, the flathead V8 was loosing favor. The boys were discovering through their military service that other car companies made good motors as well. HP could be gained through other motors, and when those other motors started showing up in junk yards, the racers were scooping them up and using them.

The number of V8 Fords available was still a reality into the mid 50s, but they were not as competitive against the other cars. Many tracks set up a flathead V8 class so those still plentiful Ford flathead V8 coupes could still race (they had their own class, which put on some great racing because all the cars were pretty much the same). Those Flathead V8 classes made many people think the cars were so fast they had to be put into their own class, but in reality, the truth was the opposite. Their own class allowed them to race against each other competitively because they couldn't compete with the other cars.

 

I dream of buying cheap fords, what ever happened to them? HRP

 

Long gone. A lot after 1965 we’re just junk off the lot.
F#%&ed Ona Real Deal.

 

You are just a little late to the game, about 50 years too late.

My dad's buddy used to buy the 32-34 Ford coupes from people for $15 back when they were racing them at our local track. The told everyone he bough them from he was only going to use them for race cars. He kept his word. When thy quit racing the coupes back around 1967, he drove his D-9 Cat over the 3 he had in the waiting. Crushed them flat and hauled them to the scrap shredder place! His kid was going crazy "Do you know how much you can get for those bodies?" His response was "I gave my word son."
Not many left that would keep those promises.

 

Full Of Rust Deposits

 

Hello,

One year, I met this girl at a school party. Some of my friends had gone to Lakewood High School and it was in that area. They knew the girl and so, we started talking during all of the noise. Well, soon afterwards, I asked her out for a nice dinner at our local restaurant. The small restaurant was well known and down the street from the local drive-in restaurant, where everyone hung out as teenagers.

The drive in was impressive, but for a couple out for a great meal, the small restaurant down the block was the place to go for great food. Russell’s Restaurant… the place only seated about 20 people when it was full and had a line down the block on most summer nights.

We had a great time and said that next time, her dad would like to meet me when I came over to pick her up. I had met her mom on this first date. Her dad??? Now, for the next week, I was wondering why her dad wanted to meet me, other than to see who was going out with his daughter. Yikes!

My worries were tense and when I did meet her dad, he was a little gruff and came right to the point. He took me out to the backyard garage and proceeded to show me his modified Ford two door sedan. What??? Whew… It was a 62-63 Ford sedan with numbers on the side and a full roll cage inside. The sedan was one of those stock cars we used to see at Ascot, where he raced.

Jnaki

Come to find out, he said his neighbors were also into “stock car racing” and they, too owned Ford Sedans. They were all Ford fanatics and not Chevy supporters. But, since he heard from his daughter and mom, when she peeked out of the front window as we left the last time, I drove a nice 58 black Impala. So, the dad wanted to see it in person and show me his Ford stock car racer he built and raced. Impressive and no more worries about…what the???

He, too, was impressed with my Impala. We talked about what was in the motor, the transmission set up and the sound of the 348 in the dark of night on his driveway. He started his Ford sedan and it was impressive. But, he did like it when he heard the sound of my 348 motor through the mufflers on his driveway. He was very impressed with the installation of the C&O Stick Hydro, too.

So, my worries about a “dad” wanting to meet me was for naught. He was just a car guy that raced and was proud of his Ford creation. And approved his daughter going out in a nice, cool looking black 58 Impala with some cool sounds as we drove away.

At the time, the Impala had this look

I was in the middle of changing colors on the stock steel wheels to silver. It was too bad that I did not have my last version of the Impala, which happened a month or so later in the year.
Thanks... @themoose
I had changed the final look of the Impala to add in some cool Buick Skylark Wire Wheels. But, by then, we were just friends and not dating any longer. Something about her comments about a surfer and lifestyle did not agree with me. So, her car racer dad did not get to see this version of the 58 Impala.

 

Well, too bad for both of you! She missed out on the current version of you, and you missed out on a better relationship with her dad. With him being a real Ford guy, he might have turned you away from Chevrolet . On the plus side, from your writing, it sounds like you did just fine when you found the girl who became your wife .

 

Now you've done it! All the Ford guy's heads will start swelling again..