In a little bit of a rush this morning; I'm supposed to head out to breakfast and then
Iggle Crick with Shootin' Buddy at 0800 and I grievously and heinously overslept, no doubt involved with me being up and doing the Facebookenings at 0lordy30 in the Ay Emm.
Here are some pickchers of a neat ride in the parking lot of
the hamfest I went to with Bobbi in Peru yesterday in lieu of a real post. This car is pretty cool, but not really in my wheelhouse; best as I can make out, it's some sort of Model T racer? I'm assuming the rear-brakes-only thing is a dirt track artifact? Hopefully one of y'all can edjumacate me...
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| That exhaust sounded glorious... |
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| Note stylish radiator cap... |
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| The passenger accommodations were as austere as the dashboard. |
13 comments:
I'd rock that thing as a daily driver in the summer.
Show Brigid your Daily Kiri, when you see her.
Cool car.
A thing of beauty. Used to see more stuff like that when I was a kid.
Not street legal (license plates)? Trailered to the event? You would sure get the full Barney Oldfield experience in it though.
It's got a plate. We watched him motor off down the road. :)
it's a T speedster. I think it's a kit car, I remember seeing them around when I was a kid at car shows and drive ins.
Technically, a T had no brakes in the sense that we think of them. The "Rear" brakes were not road brakes but parking brakes, only designed to hold on hills and keep it from rolling. They didn't last very long as road brakes.
The brake, as such, was in the transmission, and consisted of a friction band which ran in engine/transmission oil. If you braked too hard you burned off the engine oil, which was icky.
If you didn't know which pedal the brake was (The right one) and didn't know how to get the car out of gear, you could easily start the car with the hand crank, and be run over by your own car.
Allegedly. So I'm told. Not that I ever did it myself (Walks away whistling nonchalantly)
It's a Model T Speedster. The brake situation is maybe worse than you thought. The rear wheel brakes are just for parking. The actual brake is in the transmission - nothing on the wheels at all.
Model Ts are a lot of fun to play with - very simple, yet capable.
I think the wheels are off of a '28-29 Model A, though.
"I think the wheels are off of a '28-29 Model A, though." Could be. They were almost the same wheel, at the end. But the A had a different bolt circle than the T,IIRC.
As said earlier, parking brake only... and the off seat was the 'riding mechanic' seat... :-) Leather helmet and goggles required, along with a damn good toothbrush to get all the bugs out of the teeth! :-)
Tam, OK, I just couldn't see a license plate in the photo.
Chas,
You can see a corner of it sticking out to the lower right of the spare tire. (IN doesn't have front plates.)
My little brother purchased our stepfather's '31 Model A a few years ago. He keeps threatening to pull the body off and build a resto-rod with it (absolute heresy, as it's a truly nice older restoration) but has agreed to sell me the frame and driveline if he does. My plan is to put a speedster body on it if it comes to pass, although a T speedster would be more in line with a long family tradition.
After my brother badly fractured his hand in a tire explosion (long, weird story) he bought a T bucket in lieu of rehabilitation for his broken paw. He christened it "Therapy".
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