Hot Rodding, Then and Now

Tom was one of the Denver Timing Association charter members (#38) when it was formed in 1949.  

Tom graduated from East High School in 1947.  He remembers the time he and Ralph Baird, also a charter DTA member, pulled the body off a stock engined ’34 Ford sedan.  This was in 1948.  They secured (?) a couple of wooden crates on top of the frame using some rope  They bolted the steering wheel onto the unsupported steering shaft, attached a length of baling wire to the accelerator linkage on the carburetor…... and then took it for a ride!  No seat belts or anything to hold themselves to their bodyless one-off creation!  Ralph handled the helm while Tom jockeyed the custom throttle wire.   Down E. Montview Blvd. they went at something around 30 mph.  Imagine the sight of a bare chassis bouncing down the street with the steering wheel flopping around while the two laughed and carried on.  It had to have been quite a sight.  All was going according to some kind of plan (they had a plan?) until Ralph decided it was time to turn left…... or implement a quick “U” turn (Tom doesn’t remember which it was supposed to be).  Problem was Ralph neglected to inform Tom of his recent decision.  As expected, the sudden change in direction caused Tom to exit stage right…. rapidly.  And onto the surrounding rough grit of sandpaper normally referred to as asphalt.  Which instantly gave Tom road rash on his arms, back, head, and posterior area as well as various other places Tom didn’t want to talk about!  Tom said he has never gone for any kind of a  ride on stripped down rails again.

During ‘48 and ’49, Tom, along with other gearheads, would meet at the South Pic-A Rib between 6 and 7 PM every Friday night preparatory to going out to race on the Rocky Mountain Arsenal road in Aurora .  The “South Pic”, as it was called, was located on the SW corner of Speer Blvd. and So. Broadway.  They’d all jump into their hot rods and take various odd routes (so as to not attract attention) to meet on the Arsenal Road .  It didn’t take long for the local law enforcement people to figure out what the rodders schedule was.  They were soon lying in wait for them on Friday nights.  After narrowly escaping being caught a few times the racers changed to Sunday.  But they didn’t race every week as they had previously.  Instead they ran sporadically.  Tom said his good friend, Mike Staffree, would race his A-V8 regularly.  It was one of the faster rods.  Mike often said if someone ever beat his A-V8, he’d go home and get his other Model A.  It was powered by a four port Riley overhead valve setup and was considerably faster than the A-V8.  Tom said Mike never made the trip home.

One of the first DTA club events was a top speed event held on the old Buckley Field Road in 1949.  This has been discussed in previous articles, but in case you didn’t read them, I’ll go over it.  The DTA worked with the Colorado State Patrol who would periodically shut the local traffic off to permit the hot rods to run flat out over a measured section of the road.  After some hot rods ran, they’d stop racing activities to let the backed-up normal traffic to use the road.  Just try getting anything like that today!  Tom raced his ’29 Ford hi-boy roadster at this event.  It was on a ’32 frame.  Tom found the roadster body in the small town of Deer Trail.  The deuce frame was purchased from a private party in South Denver .  Jim Alvey, a friend of Toms, did the excellent bodywork and paint.  Ray Kessler did the maroon Naugahyde upholstery.  Tom did everything else including the hydraulic brake setup and all of the running gear.  Tom built the ’34 mill and had John Bandimere bore it out 1/8”(making it a big 239” engine).  The stock 21 stud heads were milled and a Ford 5T cam was used to bump the valves.  He used Novi pistons and a McCulloch blower (supercharger).  It was a pretty hot mill at that time.  He turned 100 mph on his first run on the Buckley Field road that morning.  On his second run, he again turned 100 mph, but the rear end decided it had had enough fun and let go during the run.  Tom said Roy Leslie, another DTA member, made a phone call the following Monday to a local wrecking yard who had some new ring and pinion rear end gears.  Tom said he remembers they were pretty expensive…. like $9.00 for a new matched set!

In 1950, Tom, along with Hank Van Fleet, Jack Schnoover, Tom Metzler, and Charlie Palmer, drove to California to visit some of the speed shops.  Roy Leslie and Bill Kenz made some phone calls to arrange for the five hot rodders to tour a few of the more famous speed shops.  While at Barney Navarro’s shop Tom saw Tom Beatty’s belly tank.  It had a Ford flathead with a GMC 471 blower.  It impressed Tom to say the least… he had to have one.  After the five of them left California , they stopped at the Bonneville Speed Trials in Utah where Bill Kenz and Roy Leslie ran their newly constructed streamliner for the first time.  It was power ed by two Ford flathead normally aspirated engines.

When Tom got back to Denver from the salt flats, he replaced the McCulloch blower on his ’29 with a GMC 471 blower topped off with four Stromberg 97 carbs.  Tom said it made the light roadster a lot faster than when it had the McCulloch blower.  The car in this mode was featured in the May 1953 issue of Hot Rod Magazine.     

In 1955 Tom got the urge to build a dragster.  He built the whole thing!  It was powered by a 331 cubic inch Chrysler  Hemi with a 671 blower and ran on pump gas.  He made all the patterns for the various castings himself.  A friend, Jerry Lair of Aluminum of Denver, made the castings using Tom’s patterns.  Dale Young did the final machine work on the castings.  It didn’t run as he had expected it to.  Tom soon sold it.  It was in the Forney Museum in Denver for a time; He doesn’t know what ever happened to it.

In 1960 he got away from drag racing and street rods and hooked up with Dale Young.  Several gearheads (including Frank Carney, “Sprocket” [nickname], Ed Ohearn, and Bill Young) combined their many talents and built a sprint hill climber.  Bill Young worked in the parts department at Burts Chevrolet in Englewood at the time.  A good connection for sure.  The sprint car ran a small block Chev 283” V8 engine with a Duntov solid lifter cam along with lots of  other speed goodies. Dale entered the car in the July 4, 1960 Pikes Peak Hill Climb.  They won their open wheel class.  Orville Nance was the wheel man broad sliding the turns.

This past few years Tom has built a fantastic black 1923 track “T” hot rod.  Dale helped Tom build the one-off front and rear hair pins, kick off bars, nerf bars, in addition to various other pieces.  Ody Fellows did the superb body work, made the track nose, and full belly pan.  Seat Treat, on 38th and Stuart, did the upholstery.  As expected, Tom did all the running gear and assembled everything.  He built two flatheads for the low hot rod…. one a bored out 59 AB block which now has 252 cubic inches (by removing the cylinder sleeves) and another 59 L block bored and stroked to 276 cubic inches.  He uses Offenhauser hea ds and dual intake manifold with two Stromberg ’97 carbs, a cam designed and built by two local flathead gurus, Tom Barton and Jerry Zimmer.  It’s very much like a track grind cam.  It has a lightened stock flywheel with a 10” clutch.  The front tires are 185/60H13.  The rear meats are 235/60D15.  The engine transmits power through a floor shift pickup Ford 3 speed transmission and has been converted to an open driveshaft.  The rear end is from a Chevy S10 with 3.43:1 gears.  This track roadster is low, really low, like the nose has 2-1/2” ground clearance and the oil pan has 4” ground c learance!!!!  Tom says it makes a pretty good street sweeper……


P.S.  A short time after this was written, Tom changed out the dual carbs for a Hillborn injection.  It ran, but Tom didn’t like it or the appearance as well as the carbs.  He put the carbs back on.

Now Tom has come up with a Quad 4 mill and is thinking about replacing the flathead..... some guys just have way too much time!!!!!