Thread: 1950-1960 street car

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Well this is just nostalgia, but I speak of the '53-'56 era. Many of my friends had '41 Fords and I still like that grill style, but they are scarce now. There were some pretty nice looking '39-'40 Chevy coupes but they had a vacuum shifter that was incredibly slow. The "baddest" car in my high school was a '46 Ford Tudor owned by a social butterfly GIRL whose uncle put a 4" Merc crank in the flathead for her. On the street I was driving a slightly bored '47 Ford convert whose main virtue was orange paint with wide whites, but it was quicker than the '41s which had 3 1/16" bore compared to the '47 which had 3 3/16" + 0.030". While we all thought we had hot cars because Hot Rod magazine showed almost exclusively flathead Ford V8s, we knew to keep an eye in our mirror for '50-'55 Olds 88s, '49-'53 Mercs, and, believe it or not, '49-'50 Hudson Hornets! Although the Hudsons only had flathead straight six engines they knew they were on the edge of bankruptcy and hogged out the bore for a total displacement of over 300 cu. in. and believe me they were FAST! Even today if you could find a Hudson Hornet and repro parts I think it would be a good street car. I believe in 1950 or 1951 Hudson dominated NASCAR because that was before the uniform displacement rule (now 355 cu. in. ?) and each company could race their actual "stock" engine even if it was larger than competitors. Still overall If I had a choice and a time machine I would like to have a '55 Olds 88 hardtop with the second color panel on the rear fenders. I recall seeing 300 HP Chrysler Fire Power sedans but they were so expensive and heavier that they did not apply to the youth market until the engines were used in other bodies. The Olds 88s were the street champs and had larger engines than the early Chevy 265s, although I was shocked to find out that my '47 could not keep up in any category with the '55 Chevy. Ford made a brief comeback with the '57 Y-block which was a good NASCAR engine in '57, but then when the Chevy 327 followed the 283, Ford sadly flopped with that dang long water pump in the 289 and most Ford fans started the Chevy-in-a-Ford movement. Ford had a chance to keep the Ardun patent which was designed for Ford flathead V8s, but they just paid off the Duntov brothers and let the idea go to Chrysler which then made hemis for Dodges, Desotos and Chryslers. A very interesting piece of history might be found if you had a 239 Dodge hemi engine and put it in an early Ford, because it is pretty obvious that the Dodge 239 is basically a copy of the Ford 239 59-AB block, except with five mains instead of three and with the hemi heads copied from the Ford-Ardun design. There were also a few Model-A coupes with flathead V8s in the area of Pennsylvania where I grew up, but few roadsters because of cold winters. Well there you have my wish list for "interesting and fast street machines from the '50s:

1. '55 Olds 88 hardtop

2. '50 Hudson Hornet two door

3. '47 Ford convert with '55 Dodge/Desoto Hemi

I can afford to waste time on this nostalgia this evening because I really did install my 4-bar Maverick rear in my '29 roadster frame today. At least I can get all the parts for a '29 roadster even though I will probably freeze my afterparts during winter here in Virginia! I am certainly NOT one of the "hot rod greats", but maybe my age gives some perspective from the '50s and I hope my '29 Tupperware roadster will be my "TIME MACHINE". This is a GREAT forum where we can get answers from the true hot rod greats and I am very glad I just happened to find this forum.

Best Wishes,
Don Shillady
Retired Scientis/teen rodder