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[Fot] TR3 exhaust...revisited...

Subject: [Fot] TR3 exhaust...revisited...
From: yellow-green at sbcglobal.net (Dennis DeLap)
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2018 20:35:23 -0500
References: <1630892018d-c89-d54a@webjas-vaa011.srv.aolmail.net>
Bill - your "smitty" muffler story made my day.  I have a Smitty on my Mini, my 
TR4, and I had one on my P1800. I love those mufflers - and you can still get 
them. The stamping in the muffler is actually 'Smithy'. They aren't really that 
loud - just sound good.
Thanks Bill


-----Original Message-----
From: "Bill Dentinger via Fot" <fot at autox.team.net>
Sent: ?4/?27/?2018 8:03 PM
To: "fot at autox.team.net" <fot at autox.team.net>
Subject: [Fot] TR3 exhaust...revisited...

Amici...


This is a Long Story for the FOT, but directed mostly at old farts who were 
actually around in the mid-20th century.  These are people who might actually 
understand how the 'Smitty Flow Through' glasspac attempted to provide proof to 
the local police that your car actually had a muffler back in the day.  "See, 
officer.  There it is.  That's my muffler."  Newbees, who can't relate, might 
want to hit their Delete Key now.


Back in 1957, when I was a senior in High School, my paternal Grandmother (God 
Rest Her Soul), who was also my God-mother, had given me $350 as a graduation 
present.  $350 was the most money that I knew existed back then.  I did not 
know that my Grandmother had $350, much less that she might consider giving it 
to me.  And it was a good five months before I was scheduled to graduate.  Talk 
about opportunity based on an Act of Faith.  Anyway, I took the money and I 
bought a very,very used, but very nice looking 1951 Ford convertible.  It was 
powder blue, and had an extended rear deck and continental tire kit.  I shaved 
the front deck, added eye lids to the headlights, and blue dot lenses (illegal) 
to the tail lights.  I added fender skirts and I replaced the rag top's rear 
window (several times).  I also lowered the rear end about two inches (to a 
point where that extended rear deck would drag on driveway ramps).  Out on the 
West Coast they were lowering the front ends.  Here in the Midwest...we were 
lowering the rear ends.  But that car looked GOOD!  It looked like a Classic 
Lead Sled.  It was fantastic, and in my pre-Triumph, Bebopper days, duck-tailed 
Hollywood haircut...the whole nine yards.  This is the car I used to court 
Shirley Jean.  Her long pony tail used to flop in the breeze as we tooled down 
the street with the top down.  


That's all the Good News about that car.  There is some  Bad News too.  This 
car had a Ford six cylinder engine and Fordamatic.  It was so slow, that Roger 
Bannister broke the four minute mile before it did.  And it only broke the four 
minute mile once, going down a steep hill.  But that wimpy drive train probably 
saved me millions in exposure to speeding tickets, etc.  Another issue was the 
fact that the car used more oil than gasoline.  Talk about 'blow-by', the 
engine was shot...and made pretty blue smoke.  How did I deal with that wimpy 
drive train on such a great looking car?  Well, I always was more into 
Presentation than Performance, and what I did was add 'fake headers' to mimic a 
duel exhaust system.  They looked great coming out of that extended rear deck.  
I also installed a 'Smitty Glass Pack', and BINGO!  The car sounded like a 
screamer.  I'd hold the car in low gear, working the transmission against the 
engine cruising down even a slight incline...and that car sounded like it was 
capable of 200-210 mph.  I had lots of offers for a drag race, but always was 
careful to say, "No thank you...I need to save these rear tires...".


Sad to say, I do not even have a picture of that car.  I do not know what 
happened to it.  When I graduated from High School in 1957, young men still had 
an eight year military obligation, which I decided to address.  I joined the 
Navy two months after graduating.  I was gone for four years (Plankowner, USS 
SPRINGFIELD CLG-7).  Shirley Jean waited.  The car didn't.  I suspect my 
brother Ron ended up with it, and it probably died.


Pity, but make a note that the 'Smitty Glass Pack' is a hero in this story...it 
helped make me and that car appear to be more than we deserved...and I still 
got Shirley Jean.


Bill Dentinger   


 
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