Vehicle Description
This car was campaigned in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. In its day, it was very successful, holding track championships.
We bought it as a rolling chassis. The straight axle/suspension, roll cage, interior, body work, rear axle/suspension and design were already in place. We installed the engine/transmission, wheels/tires, cooling and fuel, electrical, exhaust and resurrected the car to its present state.
The engine is set back quite a bit. There is an aluminum dog house/firewall/dash configuration. It is well done. The floor is aluminum sheeting, some windows are lexan and the hood tilts forward. All done for weight savings, accessibility and function.
The rear end was in place. It is a Ford 9? with 31 spline axles and a spool. The gear set is 5.87. We felt the car must have been powered by a high-winding small block.
We installed just that. A fellow gasser driver from Illinois provided us with a .030 over 283. We call it a 301. It has matched date code 1.94in 1.50ex heads CC’d to 62CC, good internals, 11.0/1 compression, a good .525? lift hydraulic street/strip cam and is freshly built.
We added an Edelbrock Trix tunnel ram with a set of Holley 4150 carbs on top. The velocity stacks give it the look and the reach to clear the hood.
Our local transmission builder provided us with a built Turbo 350. It is currently forward pattern and the valve body is automatic. With 5.87 gears, we don’t want to over-rev.
The distributor is a Mallory dual-point. The headers are Corvette long-tube chassis style. The three inch exhaust is stainless and exits in front of the rear wheels. There are no mufflers.
We have aluminum slotted wheels all around. The tires are like new. The fronts are 6.00×15 and the rears are 31.0×11.5×15 Phoenix slicks.
The cooling is by mechanical pump through a new aluminum radiator. An electric pusher fan allows for ease of cooling while waiting to race.
There is an alternator, a complete switch panel, full gauges, a Sun tachometer and a master switch. The battery is also new.
The body isn’t pretty, I would call it a twenty footer. It sure does draw attention. We don’t see rotten sheet metal, in fact, it is rather nice. The paint is old, but still shines.
The interior is spartan. There is a padded cage, race seat, race harness and removable steering wheel. This car is certainly not street legal.
We hope to get some track time and will report our experiance. We have it ready to go, but don’t know if the weather will cooperate.
The chance to find a historic Henry J doesn’t happen very often. We are pleased to bring this one back to race again. Thanks for looking at our Lil’ 301 Henry J.
