The car in the photo is a Ford Model T based speedster. It is identified by the very distinctive Model T engine oil pan visible below the body. During the era of the Model T many companies made aftermarket and conversion parts. The pictured car has aftermarket wire wheels; the chassis was probably lowered. The body was likely a kit. It is very professionally made. Many speedsters were quite crude.
...The one pictured has a complicated, streamlined shape and probably dates from the mid 1920s.
Speed modifications were also made to the engines, including converting them to overhead valves and installing pressure oiled crankshafts.
My dad was a pretty inquisitive, curious little guy in his youth, asking everyone to show him how to do things. At age 12 or a bit older, he bought a Model T for around $5 and worked on it a lot, rebuilding the engine and transmission and modifying it. He watched Fronty Fords race at the fairgrounds in his home town of Napoleon, Ohio and decided to convert to just such a speedster. At the point that he had removed the body, so that the seats were all out in the open, he and his friends decided to attend the Cleveland Air Races. So at age 14, he drove two buddies across the state and spent a couple days driving around the Cleveland area (cops shooed them away from Public Square), camping out at what is now Hopkins Airport, and watching the great air racers of the day. Then they drove back without incident. No rain! I don't think he ever got that bodywork finished, but I'd bet that something like this beautiful little car was what he had in mind.
He had plenty of stories of grinding OX-5 valves for barnstormers, building radios, building a primary glider, hunting for Mad Anthony Wayne's cannon off Girty's Island in the Maumee, etc. Kids then had some great adventures. I would have gone crazy for that little speedster.
SK
Topic: Interesting old car (Read 3330 times)
