DTA Member September 2000 Newsletter
Jack Richards was a resident of W. Los Angeles during the summer of 1941. He had a ‘29 roadster with a ‘34 flathead V8 which was his only means of transportation. Like most youngsters of that period, he wanted to build a hot rod. Jack purchased another 1929 Model A roadster body on a bare frame for the princely sum of $15. This was to be the basis for his hot rod (or gow job as they were often called in the early days). Jack sold the first ‘29 roadster (with the ’34 engine) to raise some money to build his hot rod. But he kept the three piece hood, the ‘32 Ford grill, and the deuce shell for his new hot rod. He already had it under construction and these parts and pieces would be used on it. They are still on the hot rod today! Jack accumulated the various parts needed for his ‘29 roadster hot rod from wrecking yards mostly. Things like a late ‘36 engine (came with insert type main bearings), a ‘39 floor shift transmission, and a Model “A” rear end with 3.78:1 gears. Jack had the ’36 engine bored 0.100", used a Winfield racing cam, Thickstun dual carb intake manifold with dual Stromberg 97’s, Denver heads, and a Lincoln V12 distributor converted by Clay Smith to fire a V8 mill. The porting and relieving were done by Jack using what he had…. a quarter inch drill. It was his first port and relieve job, but would be far from his last one. The word quickly circulated as to the quality of his port and relieve workmanship. He soon had several blocks from other hot rodders to port and relieve. These helped finance his in-the-works hot rod. His roadster was fitted with Kelsey Hayes spoked wheels with 5.50X16 tires on the front and 7.50X16 tires on the rear. He chose ‘ol Henry’s favorite color for the body... black. Jack joined the Low Flyers Club in late 1941. This was mostly because SCTA dry lake racing was restricted to car clubs only. In early 1942 his hot rod was on the streets and racing at the dry lakes.
One day he was tooling down Olympic Blvd. when he happened to see an Auburn car in a wrecking yard. As he continued down the street, he got to wondering if the Auburn might still have it’s instrument cluster. These were the “trick” dashes for a hot rod in Southern California . Only one way to find out. He burned a quick “U” a mile after the wrecking year and sped back to the bone yard. Sure enough the dash was still in the Auburn . The owner knew what he had and Jack had to pay $5 for the complete dash, but it came with all the instruments and switches in it! Jack says he had to deliberate for quite a while over the high price! But he ended up buying it. It’s still in the roadster after all this time.
Like nearly all early day rodders, Jack had but one car. It was his only means of transportation, for impromptu street racing, and for dry lake competition. World War II was being fought and Jack got a job in an aircraft factory. The hot rod roadster took him to and from work. Evenings Jack would drive around to many of the local car hot spots looking for a race. His roadster was one of the faster rods and Jack was a very competitive driver. In those days, much racing was done on the streets and were pretty impromptu. But there were times when sums of money would be wagered. This mostly happened when a couple of the hotter rods with reputations would pair off. These races would have rules agreed to at a drive-in café. The bet money was held by a non-contestant. The two racers, followed by a string of rods, would lead the way to the agreed upon deserted road and race.
Jack’s competed his flathead powered roadster mostly at four major dry lakes... El Mirage, Rosamond, Harper, and Muroc. Fastest speed it turned with the early flathead was a very respectable 109 mph at Rosamond dry lake. The hotter roadsters were running in the 104-107 mph range at that time with most of the rest running in the 80-90mph range.
One night he paired off with another hot running flathead powered roadster on a deserted street. Nothing too unusual about this, but his hot rod had other ideas that night. The two racers were both ready and antsy to race one another. They got their nod from the flagman and both brought up their engine rpms. The flagman went high into the air and waved them off. As was his normal race practice, Jack side stepped the clutch the split second the flagman flinched. Oooooops! Seems a minor problem had developed. His roadster didn’t even budge! Seems the pinion/ring gears decided they were tired of the constant abuse. The pinion gear climbed up the ring gear and tore up the Model “A” rear end center section! The other roadster quickly disappeared into the night. Such was street racing in those early times. Jack replaced it with another Model A rear end mostly because they were plentiful and cheap.... besides being very light weight… and light weight meant improved acceleration and speed.
Jack got the big nod from Uncle Sam in ’44. From 1944 to 1946 Jack served his country in the Navy. While in boot camp, the black ‘29 high-boy was stored in the garage of his girl friend (or should this read one of his girl friends?) in Beverly Hills . Following Navy boot camp in San Diego, Jack was assigned duty at a Naval air station in Oakland where his job was the same thing he’d done at his aircraft job in civilian life!
This was great as far as Jack was considered! Now all he needed was his hot rod. It was only about 100 miles from Beverly Hills . Certainly not an insurmountable distance for a gear head pining for his hot rod. Jack hitchhiked to Beverly Hills to get his roadster. He headed back toward Oakland in the predawn (I asked where he spent the night? He just grinned!) on the two lane California highway 101. He was cooking along “like old folks might” when he backed out of it as he approached a sharp turn… it was then some flashing red lights in h is mirror got his attention! Jack shut it down and pulled over to the road’s shoulder. Seems a California Highway Policeman in his new Chrysler had been trying to catch Jack for the last EIGHT MILES! The officer was obviously hot under his collar and felt 100+ mph was stretching the speed limit a mite bit too much…. what with the mandatory conservation of tires and gas for the war effort! Jack felt it was mostly because the cop’s Chrysler couldn’t catch the roadster even though Jack’s right foot wasn’t yet on the floor! Jack pleaded with him to not write him a ticket since he’d get in real trouble back at the base. But the cop wa s pretty well torqued and said this had to be brought to the attention of the Jack’s skipper at the Oakland base. This was BAD NEWS. The skipper was sure to sentence Jack to some Brig Time. Jack returned to duty the next day fully expected all hell to break loose. But nothing was said about the episode for the next 2 months. Jack began feeling safe. Then everything went sour! The skipper of the base had Jack arrested and put in the brig until his trial date which was set for 7 days later. At the trial, his skipper gave him a good chewing out for speeding and assigned him some extra duty. He was confined to the base for a p eriod of a full month. Jack was relieved it wasn’t on his service record.
Upon getting discharged from the Navy in ‘46, Jack sold his trusty, but tired ‘36 engine. He purchased a brand new ‘41 Ford engine still in the crate from a local Ford dealer. This went into the black roadster and was eventually driven to Denver to see his father. Once in Denver he happened upon a ‘31 Ford Victoria body. This would make a good daily driver for the much cooler Denver climate. The roadster body was removed from the Model A frame and running gear. The roadster body was set aside for later use. The Vicky body, fenders, running boards, and a ‘32 grill and shell we re all bolted down to the roadster’s frame and running gear. The master plan was to build a roadster to run at the Lakes since Jack had plans to return to California as soon as possible. During this period Jack picked up a cherry deuce frame from Pioneer Auto Wrecking for $10. He also purchased a pair of new Eddie Meyer heads ($36), a Clay Smith cam, an Evans 3 carb intake manifold, an H&C magneto, and a button flywheel (no ring gear for a starter). He wanted more cubic inches than the 221 inches the ’41 had. A ’46 would give 239 inches in stock form. He found a ’46 Ford/Merc engine and had it bored 0.125” over size. This increased the engine size to 258.4 cubic inches . He used Jahn’s 3 ring Aluminum solid skirt racing pistons. Jack had done his homework before starting to build this mill. SCTA class limitation was a 260 cubic inches. Naturally Jack did the porting and relieving on this new ‘46 engine. With no starter ring gear on the button flywheel, he always had to manually push it to start the engine.
During this period in Denver , something happened to alter Jack’s master plan of returning to California ! Seems he was smittened and got married! All hot rod building was shelved while he worked hard fulfilling his family obligations. The roadster body sat from ’46 to ’50 with nothing being done to it. Jack joined the Denver Timing Association when it was formed in June of 1949 and is a charter member. In late 1950, he was able to return to his hot rod roadster. He burned a lot of the midnight oil getting the roadster ready to run on the Bonneville salt in ‘51. At Bonneville, in 1951, the little high boy roadster (now a two tone blue) ran a very quick 126 mph and was quick enough to win his class. He made 14 top speed passes that year! Jack said he remembers how great it felt to be back racing and hear the engine scream as it peaked!
In 1952 Jack ran the roadster in the Georgetown Hill climb even though he had just put some very tall rear end gears for an impending high speed event. His first run up the hill was a sizzling 2 minutes 58.00 seconds…... which easily beat the time of the fastest Jaguar who had owned this hill climb for years! The newspaper reporter (who loved hot rods and wasn’t very fond of the sporty car set) gleefully wrote “.......a Ford flathead powered hot rod easily surpassed the fastest time ever turned here by a Jaguar sports car.” Too bad his editor killed much of the rest of the story since he blistered the sporty cars. All i n all there were 6 hot rods who were faster than the Jaguar! Jack ended up second fastest for the day with his second run speed of 2 minutes 49.31 seconds. Pretty fast for being geared for top end.
In 1953 Jack again entered the flathead roadster at Bonneville. He was entered in the same class as a ‘53 Dodge small hemi (241 inches). It was faster than Jack by a whopping 12 mph. Jack could see the writing on the wall...... the days of flatheads were numbered. He ended up being second in his class that year...... behind the Dodge hemi.
In 1955 he entered the flathead in the first national drags in Great Bend Kansas in the B hot roadster class. He ran well and won his class. 1955 was an exceptionally good year for the roadster. It won the distinction of being the High Point Car in Colorado that year with the same 258 inch flathead Ford mill. This was truly a huge honor for both car and driver. He went to Bonneville in ‘56 and ‘57, but not in his roadster. Instead he was part of the pit crew for the Kenz & Leslie streamliner. He drove their roadster push car in addition to mixing all the nitro-alky fuel for the multi flathead engine streamliner.
But Jack wasn’t finished with racing his roadster. One year he showed up at Bonneville with a blown Chrysler Hemi stuffed in the roadster. This got him a very impressive dash plaque for the high boy roadster dash...... 187 mph!!!! Remember this is with open wheels and no streamlining! He said he intended to return for the next few years, but the Hemi let loose on the return run.. probably because of the high percentage of nitro it was consuming. He still has the hemi and blower today. It hasn’t been touched since it came apart at Bonneville.
Jack then changed to Pontiac . This happened when he got a great deal on a very low mileage ‘57 Pontiac engine from Bill and Al’s Auto Wrecking in Lakewood , CO . It was a stock 347 incher. Jack mated it up to his ‘39 Ford trans and ‘40 Ford rear end. He ran an Isky cam with a 6 Stromberg carb Crower log intake manifold. He didn’t even pull the pan on the engine and ran the stock distributor. He finished getting it together the night before Bonneville and, as he always had, flat-towed (no trailer) it to Bonneville the next morning. It was s till in gray primer. He got a third place for his 157 mph effort. It was still a high-boy. This would be the last year Jack would enter the roadster at Bonneville. Jack’s interest was leaning towards drag racing.
However, his son Bob, came across a 389 Pontiac engine for free during the winter! There was a hitch to it of course (isn’t there always?). The engine was still in the car and would have to be pulled out and transported home. No sweat...... right? Problem was the car was SLIGHTLY(?) squashed and in a somewhat difficult retrieval place! Seems the car had over-cooked a turn and disappeared over the side near the top of Lookout Mountain and had rolled and flipped about two thirds of the way down (about 1000’.. most of which is straight down!) towards Clear Creek. And it was still a good distance from the creek. In those days, any vehicle which went over that side of Lookout Mountain was usually written off by the insurance company and was simply abandoned to rust away. This meant it could legally be stripped. Oh yeah... there was one other slight problem..... it was winter time! One cold afternoon Jack and his wife, Bobby (his son), and Jackie (his daughter) gingerly walked across the ice covered creek and climbed up the steep mountain. They pulled the heads and intake manifold to lighten the heavy V8 engine. By the time Jack’s brother, Bob, arrived after work they had the heads and manifold loaded in Jack’s pickup alongside the two lane highway. It was already pitch dark as they set about pulling the engine with the tools they had drug up the mountain in Jack’s old Navy sea bag. The only light they had were a couple of flashlights with weak batteries. They worked into the night. Once the engine was pulled out through the front of the wrecked Pontiac , they tugged it onto the car’s mangled hood about dawn. This would be used as a skid to slide it down the mountain. This would have been something to see for sure! Once at the bottom something surfaced they weren’t sure of...... the creek was frozen, but was it thick enough to support the weight of the engine? Jack sure didn’t wan t the engine to become a permanent part of the creek bed after all the work they’d done in the cold. They knew the ice was thick enough to support them, but the heavy V8 engine????? They decided to chance it. But no one was to be close to the engine if it broke through. So one would push against the “sled” with a long pole while the others pulled on a rope from the highway side of the creek. Talk about primitive! But, it worked!!! The creek was about 20’ below the road. Somehow they got it up this mean embankment. Can you imagine tugging it up the side of the creek and then gett ing it loaded in the back of a pickup truck? They got it done and hauled it home.
Bob, Jack’s brother, borrowed Jack’s blue ‘29 roadster and put this 389” V8 engine in it along with a 2-4 barrel carb set-up, an Engle cam, some head work including milling, and a hotter distributor. Must have been pretty good engine since it turned 163 mph at Bonneville in 1962 with Bob behind the wheel. Who says junk engines don’t run?
Then Bob came across a 421 V8 Pontiac . This replaced the 389” engine in the roadster. It was run in the roadster at Continental Divide Raceways near Denver in the A altered class.
It wasn’t long until Jack retired the little roadster from racing (but you just know Jack still hears lots of voices from the old days and just HAS to light up the big rear meats periodically). He began getting it ready to be back on the streets. Since there was a Colorado law concerning fenders, he put fenders and running boards on. This was the first time Jack had ever had them on the car since he’d purchased the car way back in ‘41! Would you believe he still had the original fenders and boards stashed away?
In 1965 the Denver Roadster Club was formed and Jack was a charter member. During this time Jack was looking for an engine because Bob owned the 421” V8 Pontiac and had plans for it. With Jack’s usual run of good luck he stumbled on a super deal... a NEW Pontiac GTO 389 engine for only $100! And they even threw in two new 4 speed transmissions! Talk about luck! It was at this time Jack replaced the ‘40 Ford rear end he’d run for years. This time he went with a much healthier late model Olds rear end.
And that’s where the little blue ‘29 roadster is today.... still on the road and giving it’s owner all the fun a hot rod is intended to give.
P.S. Jack died in July of 2001 of a heart attack in his Golden, CO home. He was building another “A” roadster to run at Bonneville with a 3-3/8” X 4” flathead which would use nitro. He had said he’d have it at Bonneville in 2002.
His roadster is now with his brother Bob Richards in California. Bob drives it a lot on the streets. Bob is assembling pieces and parts and is going through the whole car. A new chassis is done. Bob came up with a crate 427 inch Ford which makes something around 550 hp! That should wrinkle some asphalt. The roadster will probably be finished sometime in 2006 at the rate Bob’s going on it.