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This Model A Sport Coupe is one that was a hell of a long time coming. Maybe not compared to some of the guys in California that are restoring and finishing cars they started just after the war but in terms of Hot Rodding in the UK, the car, or at least the chassis, has been around a while but not quite as you see it here. 

The car first entered my life in 1991 when a rolling chassis with an English 14.9hp engine and a 1924 Doctors Coupe body were bought from Dave Loder, a member of the now legendary Low Flyers. It didn’t take a lot of work to get it on the road, the chassis had been pulled from under a driving sedan and the body unbolted from atop an all original T frame only a matter of days before it came into my ownership. This collection of old Ford parts was hurried together and made it on the road for a trip to the first Supernationals held by the NSRA at Knebworth House. Although there was a plan to chop about a foot out of the top, that never happened and the car was run around in this guise for a couple of years, with the addition of a pair of 750x17’s on the back, till I got an itch for a roadster. The T body was sold to a doctor in Scotland, to be reunited with a T chassis whilst I bought a cheap glass roadster body to put on the frame as I couldn’t find a steel body at that time. Big mistake. I found out that fibreglass does not cure an itch it only worsens it. I got the car to an almost road going state and did pilot it on a few “test drives” but just couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm to finish it. To that end a call was made to serial importer John Reid and he made mention of a rough Sport Coupe body he had coming over for next to no money. A light bulb came on. Muroc, 1938, car number 25. Jack Rose in a Cragar powered A Sport Coupe. Pick up a copy of Muroc: When The Hot Rods Ran by William Carroll, you’ll see that same light bulb. 

After waiting for it to land in England for a while the phone call came from John to tell me he was sending it down with a southbound consignment. A small van showed up outside the house pulling a 3’ x 4’ trailer. My coupe was in the trailer. Flat-packed. Ikea hasn’t got a patch on John Reid. We unloaded it and laid it out on the front lawn and shortly after leant it together to roughly form the shape of a Model A. It was nasty. Real nasty. There was a swipe down the driver’s side that meant the door and rear quarter were completely lunched. John had supplied replacements but they too needed repair. I trusted the assembly and metal repair to a friend that said he was up to the job. Turns out he wasn’t up to it, though it didn’t stop him taking my money so needless to say I no longer call him a friend. This dented the project as I lost enthusiasm and topping this with a house move and lack of workshop facilities the project went cold, this was all around 1998.  

Moving forward to 2001, while I was kidding the rest of the East Coast Sidewinders that I would get round to building the car “soon”, Tony Cardy called my bluff and loaned me the body from his 26 T so that I could drop it on my chassis and get the damn thing out there again. There were two provisos, I had to paint the body as he didn’t want another purple T in Colchester, and I was to advertise the body for sale whilst I was using it. I agreed. A month of evenings and weekends saw the car ready to go. But it was still purple. A trip to the local motor factors for a handful of rattlecans was the answer. The decision on colour was made for me. The only colour with more than three cans in stock was Ford Copper. Dutifully applied the car was taken for an MOT and passed first time. I was back on the road but not for long as a buyer came through for the body, still it was fun for the six months it lasted. It even made it to the Flathead Meltdown and holds the record for the slowest pass under full power, a blistering 31 seconds.

With the T body gone and a driving chassis on the drive I had run out of excuses for not building the car I wanted. A plan was drawn up. The copper paint on the T had gone down a storm, so I ditched the original idea of a stock A colour and stuck with copper. The wheezy 14.9hp engine had thrown in the towel so a new motor would have to be sourced and this time it would be bigger, better, faster. A set of 16” Kelsey Hayes wires had found their way into my possession for not a lot of money courtesy of a lunchtime (heavy) drinker in Bakersfield, California. I rented a workshop come pig shed with fellow Sidewinder Adrian Rayner, who would be my accomplice and body and paint man throughout the construction of the car. Finally the build could begin. 

Once a week Adrian and I would get together to put the world and my Model A to rights. He soldiered on repairing the bad repairs whilst I got on with construction and spanner turning. Slowly over a period of a couple of years the car neared completion, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Early on in the assembly process I got a call from Kerry Burch, another Sidewinder, telling me to get my arse over to Whittier as he had found the man to build my engine. So, trusting his judgement I booked a flight and was over there a couple of weekends later. I’d taken with me a pile of parts I had been nursing for years, including a Winfield head from Specialty Ford, A Winfield SR B carburettor and intake from Pomona swap meet, a Brierley M57 grind cam and a few other odds and sods. Saturday and Sunday saw Kerry and I out at El Mirage, roughing it in his Chevy truck, watching the races and talking turkey with the racecar owners. Monday morning came around and it was time to meet the man I was entrusting the build of my engine too. The man was Jay Steel, the shop Taylor Engine, I couldn’t have picked better for the job. I had a chat with Jay telling him what I wanted, presented him with the parts and Jay said he would have a quote ready for me over lunch the following day. Lunch was up the road from Taylor Engine at Marie Callenders, I had a chicken salad, Jay the chilli. You remember the small details on important days in your life. Jay slid the quote across the table, it was a little more than I expected but Jay was going to supply everything, bar those parts I had already given him, from sump to distributor, from fan to clutch. I was a long way from home so there was only one thing to do and that was give Jay a deposit to start building. Jay was truly excited to be taking the order, I asked him if he got this excited about every banger he built, he replied that he did and that was about 50 to 60 times a year! The next day was my last day of this whirlwind trip, I returned to Taylor Engine and Jay showed me what had had already assigned to my build. The block was an A diamond that he told me he had been saving for a special project, as was the “C” crank. The crank was ordered by a customer 15 years earlier and never collected or paid for. It was already machined and polished and ready to go and now it was mine. Things were starting to get exciting but all too soon time ran out and I was back on the plane bound for Heathrow. 

Back in the cold dark pig shed the A was looking more and more like a hot rod as each week passed. Jay was keeping me up to speed with the build of the engine and I could see a light at the end of the tunnel. When the engine finally arrived in England it was everything and more than I had ever expected. Jay had surpassed himself. It was taken from the crate and installed in the frame. I couldn’t fire it up just yet though as the Winfield carb was still with Bill Neilsen in California being rebuilt. That eventually arrived home and was installed. It was ready to be fired. But I was chicken. It sat there for a couple weeks waiting. October came round and it was Marco “Juarez” Warren’s birthday. I asked him what he wanted, he replied, “to hear your A running”. Bugger. Can’t refuse a friend. Bought a fresh battery, got a can of juice and off we went to the workshop in his AV8 Coupe. From throwing the doors open to whooping like a pair of demented baboons took about ten minutes. What was I scared off? It fired straight away and ran like gangbusters. What a beautiful racket it made straight from the header. Thank you Jay. Right, gotta get it finished and get it finished fast. The interior went in, Andy Dowling covered the top wood which I had already shortened by three inches, Adrian finally applied the paint, and I finished up the wiring. It was done. The piles of parts at the far end of the pig shed and on the shelves were gone. All installed, nothing left to do except get an MOT and get it registered. All plain sailing, just time consuming on the part of the DVLA. The car debuted at The Rockabilly Rave Indoor Car Show in 2006, but had to get there on a trailer. The DVLA took just a little too long with the documents and it really pained me to trailer the car, but as soon as we got there it was unloaded, my girlfriend Jacqui and I bundled into it and blasted off around the Pontins campsite, what a ride! The official road going debut was at the Flathead Meltdown Reliability Run. Over 100 miles of driving through the Norfolk countryside including an impromptu five abreast drag race at Eye Airfield. It didn’t miss a beat all weekend. Man, was I proud. 

Since the completion there have only been a couple of changes to the car of note. Firstly a quickchange has been installed, built by “Nervous” Bob Froch and a bigger Winfield is now supplying the fuel and air mixture. 

I have run it a couple of times at the drags whilst it was running the B Winfield and so far have a best quarter mile time at 1/100^th under 19 seconds. Not too bad, but there’s more in there. It will run it in 2009 with the aforementioned big ol’ D Winfield sitting on top and I’ll update this feature once I have the figures on how it performs, I’ll even be honest if it goes slower!  

I will never part with this car. It’s mine, it’s a keeper. If I sold it, what could I possibly replace it with? I have always wanted a hopped up Model A more than anything else and that’s what I have.  

Finally a few people to say thank you to.  

Firstly, Adrian Rayner. Without his help this car would not be as you see it here. Although only employed to paint the car he stepped up to the mark like a true friend and was there through most every step of the build.  

Secondly, my girlfriend Jacqui. She has to put up with this obsession of mine. It’s not my fault, it’s an illness, but she suffers along with me, maybe not with the same symptoms, but she suffers! 

Finally, Jay Steel. One hell of a man and one hell of an engine builder. I cannot fault the workmanship that has gone into my engine and it is truly a tribute to Jay. His knowledge of bangers is going to be sorely missed, as is his larger than life character. RIP Jay. 

Jay Steel  1945-2009

• BLOCK

 1.   Late Model A Ford Diamond block with 3 gusset rear main support.

2.   Pistons are Ross forged units +.060” oversize. Rings are 283 Chevy 5/64 x 5/64 x 3/16. Compression height is 1.875” uses .990” diameter gudgeon pin – 2.195” length. Static compression ratio is 7 to 1.

3.   Original Babbitt main bearings have been updated to use insert bearings out of an M.G. (some sort of British car – I think).

4.   Block has been align bored to use AMPCO 18 aluminum bronze cam bushings (stock Model A’s used no cam bearings).

5.   Engine features a full pressure oiling system via a special distribution affair inside the valve door. Filter mount is Taylor, external lines by Marv Miller. 

• CRANKSHAFT:

 1.   Original counterweighted Model B (“C”) steel forging.

2.   Drilled for full pressure oiling – mains and rods.

3.   Mains are ground to 1.6052” – rods are ground to 1.4800”. Oil holes are chamfered and bearing surfaces micro polished.

4.   Original oil slinger is ground off and finished to use a 360 degree neoprene rear main seal.

5.   Finished crankshaft is the electronically balanced to +/- zero +.5 inch. 

• VALVES AND CAMSHAFT:

 1.   Valve guides are one piece cast iron .343” i.d. x .596” o.d. – length is 2.61”.

2.   Intake valves are 1.687” diameter from EGGE blanks and exhaust are 1.560”. Stem size is .3415 and overall length is 5.700”.

3.   Valve springs are Lincoln Zepher (Isky 185G) and retainers are custom. Seat pressure is 75 lbs. closed and 155 lbs. open.

4.   Lifters are adjustable 1.125 foot with .5935” body o.d.

5.   Camshaft is Brierley M57 grind, duration is 225 degree at .050” (actual 290 degree) and lobe lift is .340”. Cam is ground and installed on 112 degree intake lobe center.

6.   Timing gears are billet. 

• MISCELLANEOUS:

 1.   Carburettor is a Model SR Winfield size is D on a BB intake manifold with Woods adapter.

2.   Mallory 2301105 distributor.

3.   Connecting rods are reworked Model A units with insert bearings out of a Continental forklift.

4.   Cylinder head is an aluminum Winfield – 126cc.

5.   Head studs are ARP.

6.   Oil pump is a reworked Model A with extensive modifications.

7.   Flywheel has been lightened to 44 lbs. and uses a Ford 9” three finger pressure plate.

8.   Header is a custom made 4 into 1 by ADF, exhaust is 2” pipe with no muffler.