|
|
Roger Phillips photo
(This article was first published in the May 1970 edition of Custom Car magazine)
Bucket Model Ts come in all shapes and surprises. Here's one you've got to believe that runs zoomie headers and a turtle deck plus enough chrome to sink a Caddy. And it quarters pretty good too - cutting down the 1320ft strip in 11.89 seconds with a trap speed of 117mph.
Owner/builders Dereck Benbow and John Fullerton hail from Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire, where they've got a lock-up that's seen seven months' hard graft and £400 go into producing one of the cleanest Competition Altereds in the country. Apart from being regular drag competitors, Dereck and John have proudly put their creation on show - including participation in a big exhibition held last summer in Jersey.
Turtle T is a Buick-powered machine, 5.3 litres of '56 vintage to be exact. With one or two modifications of course. For a start it's fed fuel (pump gas) through a 600cfm Holley four-barrel mounted on an Edelbrock manifold and topped by a bugcatcher scoop. The original hydraulic lifters were made solid with the aid of lengths of tube and a set of adjustable Isky pushrods were installed. WRA Engineering of Harrow, who specialise in race preparation, were responsible for reprofiling the camshaft to allow the change to solid lifters to be made.
Those up, up and away 1½in bore zoomie exhaust headers and the valve covers are chromed, while the two-gallon Moon fuel tank riding high out front is polished alloy.
Turtle T's dressed up mill is connected to a Plymouth three-speed box which was made to mate after modification to the original automatic transmission bellhousing. Smoothing out the rumpety-rump is an E-type flywheel, adopted together with an E-type clutch. Rear-end is from an Austin Westminster - ratio 4-to-1 - and it spins Austin wheels widened to 8in and fitted with 12.9x15 Goodyear race boots from Watford Motor Accesories. Despite running the Goodyears at only 12lb pressure the guys are still getting traction problems and it could well mean investing in a set of slicks for '70 before the car's full potential is realised.
The car's 100in-wheelbase chassis is fabricated from 1½in diameter 16g chromed steel with a 2in 10g front cross member. Being a competition car there's no rear suspension and the brakes, which are operated by both the foot pedal and a hand fly-off, apply to the front wheels only.
Drag racer/builder Allan Herridge built the 1⅝in diameter tube front axle, which carries Ford Popular spindles and works in conjunction with a transverse leaf spring (also Ford Pop) and Mini dampers. Flat plates that were once 100E brake drums carry 100E wheels with 5.20x13 Dunlop rubber. Steering follows dragster techniques, using a super-lightweight Austin A35 box with shortened column. The operating shaft has been extended outside the chassis and fitted with a home-made drop-arm and drag-link with Heim ball-ends. Wheel is a 13in Astrali design.
Like most good plastic T-buckets, the bodyshell is a Geoff Jago production and it's finished in a glorious shade of cherry red with white lettering.
Cherry is the word. Just check it out with your eyeballs.
Mike Lintern
|
|
