The rest of the story....
As ya'll are aware, I am a bit of a Maverick. I went to high school 1956 -
1969 at Oxnard Union High School in well Oxnard, Calif. Most of my buds had
spiffy cars, but boys and girls, I came from the other side of the tracks
and was poor most of my life. So My very first car was a 1053 Henry J. Yep,
flathead six banger. Drove it nearly to death. The I spotted a 1954 Kaiser
Manhattan Deluxe on the car lot. Iffn you havent seen one of these, it
is/was sorta spacey looking. Big thing. 3750 pounds or so. 231 cubic inches
of SUPERCHARGED flathead Contenential 6. Wow, all of 140 hp or so. GM
hydramatic three speed. 2.88 to 1 rear end (same as my tiger, Dana 44). That
car was not quick by any stretch of the imagination but could get to a
fairly righteous top speed and was safe and comfortable. However, my friends
all had cool hot rods (50 Olds with Lasalle tranny, 3 carbs plus the inside
stuff, a 40 Ford with a hemi and the stock tranny (wow, I made a million
trips to ford obsolete in LA for parts - cluster gears), a 46 ford coupe
with Columbia 2 speed rear end and hotted up motor) so I needed something. I
keep looking at that engine bay and imagining a hemi in there. So one day I
decided to do it. Went to the "yarde" and got a hemi. From then on, pain and
agony. I had to make a bell housing, throw out system for the clutch, and
any number of odd things to make it go. And go it did. Had fun with it till
it broke. It was about this time I started thinking of science related
things and even thought up a rail gun of all things ( I think of weird
things at odd times). Then I reversed all the engineering and reinstalled
the original motor and tranny. Drove the car for a long while after that.
Finally sold it. Bought a 59 Ford four door sedan. I bought a second Kaiser
with blower just after I got married, used it as my tow car for my Tiger
when I moved to Seattle in '75. Whole 'nother story here! Rebuilt that one
and then sold it when we headed to Oak Ridge, Tn. I will not own another
Kaiser...
mayf
///
/// land-speed@autox.team.net mailing list
/// To unsubscribe send a plain text message to majordomo@autox.team.net
/// with nothing in it but
///
/// unsubscribe land-speed
///
/// or go to http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
///
///
|