Back in the USA - my first drive with the Ford special racer

[Rob]

My first drive with the Ford racer. My initial conclusion?
She's fast......

Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5tmay5vhten5w ... M.mov?dl=0

[CudaMan]

Congratulations, great video!

Will you be bringing it to Hershey?

[Rob]

Mark, I hope to bring it and the K or F. We'll see how things go this summer.

Another video showing the engine "barking" a bit:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o8j9gob0dnskx ... M.mov?dl=0

[MWalker]

Dayyyyuuummmm!! That's nice!

[Quickm007]

Great sharing this with us! Very nice car!

[DHort]

A canadian teaching an american how to drive a new ford. Priceless. Car looks super Mr Rob. When I get to Nebraska can I touch it?

[Wayne Sheldon]

( I don't get "speechless" very often.)

[Rob]

We have our first speed record. This was on a curvy stretch, so not much chance to let her out:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8alqxy0ct2tql ... M.mov?dl=0

[DHort]

I see you didnt get a chance to get it out of low on that curvy road. Sounds good.

[Rob]

This motor has incredible torque. Even with 3:1 diff and 32 inch tires you shift to high at about 10-15mph. After that, you accelerate as quickly as the clutches allow. 58 mph on that road is now our highest speed.

[Daniel828]

Rob , is this car based on the fairgrounds racer with frank pictured in the drivers seat? If so how’d you get a pic of the exhaust side of the car ? This is a very cool build I’ll have to go back and read your build write up on it
Thanks and keep up the good work

[Wayne Sheldon]

Daniel B, If you haven't been following this for the past year or so, you have missed a lot of fantastic history and discussion! That car is built up from one of two (Maybe three?) surviving Ford "Special" engines built by Ford for racing between 1910 and 1912. The exact number of such engines originally built is not known, but somewhere between five and maybe seven (could be a couple more?) of differing displacements were built. The only other one known to survive is in the Henry Ford collection/museum with its original 410 cid motor. Rob's is right about 300 cid, and the chassis is faithfully recreated from photographs of the original Ford Factory racers using original pieces as used by Ford on the original cars.

I highly recommend searching out and reading as many of the threads about this build and the original cars and racing history as you can find. It may take a couple hours to read it all. Easiest way may be to search by Rob's postings for the past year and a half.

[Retro54]

Rob... fantastic! Want to shake your hand at Hershey!

So, when does the book come out? I want to pre-order a copy!

Andy B

[John Warren]

Very Nice, so see you in Lincoln? I did get my engine back and am currently getting it back together.

[Rob]

John, just saw these last posts. Yes, I'll be in Lincoln.

Wayne, as far as I can tell, Ford made 8 or more motors.

The exhaust manifold was made up, and based on drawings from THF, I think only one cyl should exhaust out the fake tank, the other three our straight pipes through the hood.