Showing posts with label speedster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speedster. Show all posts

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Ford Model T Mercury Speedster.


 This car is a custom-bodied T speedster with kit made by the Mercury Body Co of Louisville, KY. This particular car includes a complete kit, as well as Ashe wire wheels and a Warford aluminum transmission.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1211889002164076&set=a.1211888955497414&type=3&permPage=1

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Jerry Miscevich saw a photo of the 1929 Packard Boattail Speedster and spent the next 20 years thinking about it. Finally, he built a replica, the same way they built the original


And Jay Leno interviewed him



Just like Packard, Miscevich got his hands on a 626 chassis and the engine from a Super 8. Then he got to work fabricating the rest of the car, modifying existing parts and using authentic ones where he could for the next 19 years

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/videos/a30491/meet-the-man-who-built-his-own-1929-packard-boattail-speedster/

Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Edsel's 2nd speedster, the famous one

Edsel Ford's 1932 roadster was at the 2007 Grand National Roadster Show, in an "as found" condition, but was throroughly restored and auctioned off for $770,000



The all-aluminum boattail body was made by Ford's aircraft division. It was just what Edsel Ford wanted and had described. No running boards and a steeply raked split windshield that disguised Edsel's continental car's humble assembly line origins.

Edsel drove the Speedster to work on several occasions. An updated Ford flathead V-8 was later installed for more performance. In 1934, when the 2nd Speedster was built, this car was sold to an Indianapolis mechanic Elmer Benzin.

By the 1940's it was in a Connecticut wrecking yard, where it was saved - but underwent extensive modifications by the new owners by replacing the damaged alloy fenders with a set of four steel fenders, which were sourced from a 1935/36 Chevy. No one knows how it got from Michigan to Connecticut and this is still a mystery.

The car was purchased by John Cox who had no idea what the car was, and sold in the late 1940s. He came upon the car again in 1984 and re-purchased it. He completely disassembled it. Shortly after this it was realized to be Edsel Ford's 1932 Speedster. After Cox's passing, the car was sold to the current owners.

The current owner purchased the car several years ago, and decided to return the car to its original condition. It has been repainted in 1932 Ford Tunis Gray, mated to a sample found on the underside of the cowl vent. Power is from flathead, with a Stromberg 81 two-barrel carburetor, and dual exhaust.

http://www.edsel.com/pages/edslford.htm
http://www.conceptcarz.com/profile/8980,17516/1932-Ford-Special-Speedster.aspx
https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2016/01/25/edsel-fords-first-v-8-speedster-set-the-stage-for-fords-design-department/





http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/1478604,17516/1932-Ford-Special-Speedster_photo.aspx
https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2016/01/25/edsel-fords-first-v-8-speedster-set-the-stage-for-fords-design-department/

Thursday, December 26, 2013

A Ford dealership in Portugal, or maybe all Ford dealerships in Europe (don't know) pledged to give a year of free roadside assistance to any Ford brought in for service, so Joaquim brought in his 1915 Ford Speedster



I love that.

Another great post by http://autozine.com.br and why they have a place on my list of favorite websites

http://autozine.com.br/uncategorized/ford-modelo-t-1915-e-inscrito-em-plano-de-assistencia-gratuita-na-europa

1923 American LaFrance speedster



200 hp, 527 cu. in. American LaFrance Model J overhead valve V-12 engine, three-speed manual transmission with double chain drive, solid front axle with semi-floating rear axle and semi-elliptic leaf springs, and two-wheel mechanical drum brakes.

On the short list of ultimate hot rods, there has to be room for an American LaFrance speedster. The company did build a small handful of two-seater vehicles, which were theoretically reserved for use by fire chiefs, but most of which were ultimately sold to ALF executives.

This unique vehicle was handcrafted using period correct accessories over a two-year period by J.S. Hadley, of Delaware, some decades ago. Chassis 5022 dates from 1923 and is believed to have originally been from a pumper truck. Mated to it is a low-mileage 200 horsepower American LaFrance V-12 engine, which was a rare find and produces a throaty exhaust roar. These engines were designed in the 1940s and derived from the twelves designed and built by Lycoming.

This speedster was built in the spirit of not only the LaFrances but also the Stutz Bearcat and the Mercer Raceabout. It retains early LaFrance features, like the signature cast aluminum floor pans and brass-trimmed instruments, and it is also equipped with an enormous period brass searchlight built by the Portable Light Co., of New York, New York. Other features include the Vesta drum-style headlights, Royce MotoMeter, monocle windshield, dual gas tanks, dual rear-mounted spares, and original 25-inch wood wheels with Goodyear script tires.

It is reported that when driving this machine, Hadley got it up to a speed of 75 mph before coming to his senses and letting off the gas. Finished in white with maroon trim and black seat upholstery, this LaFrance speedster announces its oncoming presence long before it can be seen

Sold at RM Auctions for 66 thou in Oct 2012



info and photos from http://www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?SaleCode=HF12&CarID=r215&fc=0 via a post on http://silodrome.com/american-lefrance-v12-speedster/

Friday, July 25, 2008

1913 Ford runabout speedster

No doors and no seatbelts; no front brakes, air bags, shoulder strap, safety glass windshield, roll over crush cage roof thingy to keep you from being squished under the car, no bumpers, no safety equipment of any kind.

And its one of the most fun cars you can drive legally on American roads. Because its all Ford, even though it's the best of the Model T and Model A parts, and built in a garage instead of the Ford factory.
Between the I beam and the radiator, above the leaf springs, are Hassler springs that reduce side to side sway and lean.

The above canister is a Carbonate powder gas generator that would have been supplying gas for the headlights, well before headlights evolved into electric illumination.
The silver canister above is the muffler
These two photos show the adapters for Model A rims, because they are wider and safer... the above is just an adapter, the below also has the gear set for the original speedometer. The above shows the Hassler shock absorber also, normally installed on the tall and heavy model Ts to prevent tipping when turning corners, but in a lightweight, it added stiffness to the suspension. Better for racing

The back area is also used for a pickup bed that bolts on.
The innovations that Henry Ford brought to making cars are historically and presently important, and were simple genius in action. Deciding to make cars for the vast majority of people in America was key to Ford's success, instead of the 1600 or so other car makers in America that didn't last past the great depression http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/07/prior-to-great-depression-there-were.html most of them weren't capable of producing enough, to profit heavily enough, to survive the loss of customers, however most that disappeared were catering to a small customer base that was looking for luxurious cars that stood out and were impressive everywhere the owner was chauffeured.
Henry Ford realized that the more you sell, the more you profit, and that means longevity in business. The key part of that for Ford was to make the cars so inexpensive, that in the time before a line of credit at the bank, before a second mortgage was common, before credit cards... when all you could buy was what you could pay cash for, and the most inexpensive cars would be the successful business model. So Henry learned as he went, and progressively made his cars cheaper. From 1908 to 1928 the Ford car didn't change very much for a 20 year time frame... not when you look at any car that has been made for the past 20 years and how it's evolved. Think 1988 Mustang compared to 2008 Mustang, 1988 F150 vs 2008 F150. Big changes in technology, design, and powertrain.
So Ford had huge amounts of raw material going into his factory, and cars coming out.... and very little change in the design, but lots of changes in production when some cheaper way to make the car was devised.
I just learned that the floorboards were one of the innovative money savers, the floorboards had started as hand formed and carefully made to fit due to the large differences in the early handmade cars that mastercraftsmen put together, but when the production shifted to assembly line unskilled laborers, and the tolerances of fitment became smaller, there was less time to get custom shaped pieces in place... so Ford had the transmission crates that were delivering transmissions to the assembly line made to specific dimensions that would be perfect to use as floorboards for the car! Brilliant! No longer disposing of the crates, or wasting them by reusing them to move more transmissions, they made a one way trip, just like the transmissions, and labor was saved from moving them back to repack more trans in.

When the early cars had wood for the frames, panels, doors, and most everything else, the craftsmen produced as a byproduct of their custom work, a lot of cast off trim pieces, odd bits that were cut off and not useful for any other car related item. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford noticed this waste, and realized that waste wasn't profit, so they invented charcoal, and used that to make profits too!


Henry Ford learned of a process for turning wood scraps from the production of Model T’s into charcoal briquets. So, he built a charcoal plant — and the rest is history.

The Kingsford Company was formed when E.G. Kingsford, a relative of Ford’s, brokered the site selection for Ford’s new charcoal manufacturing plant. The company, originally called Ford Charcoal, was renamed Kingsford® Charcoal in his honor.

https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/expert-sets/101417/  for a gallery of the images inside of the factory, the charcoal production, and the ford camping kits

How inventive and clever is that! Finding a use for the waste and the cast off byproducts of your factory to make more products, and more profit. Genius.



https://www.kingsford.com/country/about-us/#IseC9HlDlTXxSjf1.97