1922 Model T Ford Boat Tailed Speedster

1922 Ford Model T Description

This Speedster is located in Huntington Beach, California. It has taken first place in class T4 at the Devore and Murrietta, California and Lincoln, Nebraska hill climbs where it won over some RAJO's, Frontenac's and even a Roof 16 valve engine and some good running Model A Fords, it is very quick. New eight to one compression ratio Pruss aluminum cylinder head after those contests and it is now much quicker, it has trimmed rods, Bosch front plate with an 009 distributor with manual advance-retard, Stromberg 97 carburetor running number 44 jets with special intake manifold with directional routing to resolve the 1243 Model T firing order intake port syndrome, Exhaust header with 3 1/2" diameter tail pipe and removable resonator for competition. Model A camshaft ground by Sig Ersonwith gives lots of lift and dwell with adjustable lifters for surprising performance.

About 1500 miles on a freshened engine, drive-train, and both Ford two speed planetary transmission running wooden bands and a Layne-Warford three speed constant mesh transmissions giving six forward speeds and three speeds in reverse. It has a polished Lemuel Pratt finned aircraft aluminum heat treated accessory oil sump.When we purchased it in 1997 it put out 47.6 horsepower to the rear wheels on the dynamometer with a bad crank, cracked valve seats and into the block, and failing triple gear bushings at that time but must be doing much better now after all of our replacements and modifications. Stock Model T's put out 20 horsepower at the flywheel.
Aluminum marine gas tank pressurized with a period correct hand pump and pressure bleeding valve. Rocky Mountain brakes, Powder coated Buffalo wheels with stainless steel spokes, new Firestone tires with new tubes, and boots. Dyna-bead balanced wheels, Hartford type shocks, Drum headlights with high and low beams. 12 volt system with G.M. three-way regulated generator, five pound air pressure fuel gauge, Polished stainless steel boat-deck latch and hardware. carpeted storage in boat tail, Custom built pressurized radiator with core as thick as the top tank and an overflow system. Electric cooling fan and six forward speeds makes it a good parade car for us as well as a racer or touring car. We can drive it slowly in high pedal low gear Warford with ease or cruise with modern traffic on the highways with its three to one gears in overdrive and we feel that it has been built to be the best of all worlds in the Speedster classification.
Many of our modifications were done for safety and ease of operation. We have an electric cooling fan, downdraft carburetor, and a 12 volt system. we have used more modern parts for safety and ease of maintenance and performance, fun, and safe to drive.
Fat-man wheel, walnut dash, and fire extinguisher. 26-27 rear axle recently rebuilt with roller bearing spindle and all new stock Model T gears. Emergency electrical master switch. Hand throttle, emergency brake and seat belts. Chevrolet front spindles lowered the front end along with altered springs front and rear, roller bearings, altered rear cross member, English leather hood straps with period correct tensioners and hardware.
This is a very fast reliable car with lots of "Secrets of Speed" tricks that has easily traveled 725 miles on a five day national tour in Missouri. Although it has been modified for higher performance it can be driven along with stock Model T's on Club outings.
Seating is currently good for a driver no taller than 5'9". The light weight boat tail can be removed and an external gas tank installed so that the seats may be moved farther aft to their original position and then a person over six feet tall could fit in the driver's seat again. I am only five foot six and Mary is Five foot two with eyes of blue so we removed the oval tank in order to have some storage for our jackets, water bottles, some tools and a picnic basket.