Troglodyte: 1930 Ford Model A Racecar
The Ford Model A was the successor to Ford’s famous Model T – and at one time littered the American automotive landscape like cockroaches at a food truck festival. Ford sold a
staggering 4.8 million of these little runabouts between
1927 and 1931 in an array of styles including panel vans, fordor sedans,
roadsters, pickups, roadster-pickups and coupes. Today’s next feature is built from the front half of a Model T touring, but uses the chassis/engine of a Model A: Find this 1930 Model A Ford Racecar offered for $8,500 in Taunton, MA.
The seller is listing the car exclusively with pictures taken at TROG — The Race of Gentlemen, which is the ultimate crossover of gearheads and hipsters. Think 24 Hrs of LeMons, but adding manicured mustaches, pour-over oil filters, skinny racing pants, PBR on ice, Lisa Loeb eyeglasses, and constantly taking pictures of every single thing they do…to later post on imgur. It looks like a smashing good time!
This thing with the Indian (Native ‘Murican?) on the side is powered by a Model A engine with a Snyder’s 6:1 head, Tattersfield single downdraft intake manifold, and Mallory ignition. The seller didn’t build it to be road legal, but it probably could be registered with a few headlights/windshield if your local DMV checks for those kind of things.
See a better way to start your hipster racing career? tips@dailyturismo.com
Very nice find. I have not yet attended TROG, but it is on the list.
Hot rods based on Model A bits seem to be a great way to be able to actually drive an early-era car. When I attended the over night stop of the Great American Race a few years ago, I was particularly taken by the Model A Speedsters. The owners told me that they can rack up tons of miles with very few hassles, especially compared to some of the more exotic cars in that field.
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It's slightly depressing to see all those generic silver Asian-branded hatchbacks in the background…
The Model A is the point at which certain things – clutch-and-thing-sticking-up transmissions, a brake pedal that does something to all four wheels – started to become common in cheap cars.
The evolution of the Ford is pretty intricate, the details of T vs '28-29 A vs '30-31 A vs the seemingly infinite variety of the '32-41 cars. There's an early Tudor channeled two and chopped two on my bucket list, with some real brakes and ideally powered by the Saab B234T I've got in my storage building. But it ain't happened yet.