Читать книгу Ford Flathead Engines - Tony Thacker - Страница 6

FOREWORD BY RAY EVERNHAM

The flathead Ford V-8 was long gone from the NASCAR circuit before I was even born, let alone before I began racing with Jeff Gordon in the early 1990s. Nevertheless, NASCAR can trace its roots back to the pre–World War II “shiners” who preferred the Ford V-8, as did Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde fame, who said in a letter to Henry Ford, “I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got every other car skinned.”

Although it would take some time for the average racer to cotton to the newfangled V-8 (they preferred their familiar Model A “bangers”), Fred Frame, winner of the 1932 Indy 500, took his lap of honor in a Ford V-8 Roadster. The following year, a Ford V-8-powered race car was fielded at Indy in what became known as the Junk Formula. Unfortunately, driver “Doc” Williams failed to qualify; however, he did hit a speed of 104 mph. Two Ford V-8-powered cars were entered in the 1934 race, and one, driven by Chet Miller, qualified at 109 mph but sailed over the wall on the 11th lap.

The Ford V-8 fared better in contemporary road races, such as the 1933 Elgin Road Race for Stock Cars, where Indy winner Fred Frame set an average speed of 80.02 mph for the 203-mile race. The following year, similar races were held at Mines Field, Los Angeles (now LAX), where “Stubby” Stubblefield won in his ′33 Roadster, and at Ascot Legion Speedway, where Lou Meyer won.

The wins were a signal of what was to come as the V-8 picked up speed and became the darling of the hot rodders. Ford V-8s found themselves hopped and swapped into every conceivable style of race vehicle, from P-38 “drop” tanks to “cracker box” racing boats, and from the dry lakes of California to the beach at Daytona. There, in December 1947, “Big Bill” France organized a meeting to discuss the problems facing stock car racing. At that meeting the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was born. A scant two months later, on February 15, 1948, “Red” Byron won the first NASCAR-sanctioned race on Daytona Beach in his Modified division flathead V-8–powered Ford Coupe. Byron went on to win the Strictly Stock race the following year, but in an Oldsmobile. The flathead had had its day in the sun.

You can’t stand in the way of technology, and the flathead is definitely old school, but it remains the touchstone of the hot rod fraternity, and for that we are all truly thankful.

Some of the most prized cars in my collection are powered by vintage flathead Fords. When driving those cars, I swear I can feel the ghosts of all those old racers, hot rodders, and maybe even a bank robber or two looking right over my shoulder. The true spirit of man’s search for speed still lives in the rumble of a flathead Ford V-8, and nobody understands that spirit better than the guys at H&H.

(Photo Courtesy Ray Evernham)