Model T Racing Thread

[s1b]

You and me both,hahaha.
I'm trying to build something "speedsterish", Kind of GOW.
Hard to find the parts in FL.Reading throught the Model T speed and sport book at the moment, next Model T fast Ford book.

Originally Posted by FL&WVMIKE

MAN ! ...................
This "T" Racing Thread is fantastic. It makes me want to go out and start gathering up "T" parts to build a speedster ! ........If I ever get caught up ! ......
MIKE

[FL&WVMIKE]

BARREL RACING AT DAYTONA BEACH .............
In the teens and twenties, they had Barrel Racing right on the beach. One looks like a "T" Model to me.
MIKE

[t-head]

BARREL RACING AT DAYTONA BEACH .............
In the teens and twenties, they had Barrel Racing right on the beach. One looks like a "T" Model to me.

FL&WVMIKE..........Great photo, the car on the right appears to be an Essex. T-H

[t-head]

A little more info on the Craig-Hunt Company;

The Craig-Hunt Company was formed in 1915-1916 when Wilbert L. (Bill) Hunt, a well known mid-west dirt track racer, teamed up with businessman John P. Craig in order to supply their own 16-valve Peugeot-type racing heads and underslung chassis kits for the Ford Model T, the vehicle of choice for the region’s burgeoning grass roots racers.

The firm rented an eighth floor office (suite 835) in the Lemcke Building at 235 N. Pennsylvania and E. Market Sts. in downtown Indianapolis and operated a small factory at 1500 Madison Ave. In 1917 Craig-Hunt added a bobtailed Model T speedster body to their Model T Ford speed catalog.

Bill Hunt was an early airplane enthusiast/pilot and placed the following classified ad in the Dec 1913 issue of AERO magazine:

Aviator - W. L. Hunt is now open for position, building or flying. Curtiss preferred. Want party to furnish motor for Curtiss-type. 2926 Kenwood Ave., Indianapolis, Ind.

By 1918 they had relocated to larger quarters at 910 N. Illinois St. Craig-Hunt’s 1918 Ford Speed Specialties catalog offered their own Peugeot-type 16-valve Speedway Head and the complimentary torpedo-tailed “Speedway” body which was inspired by the Peugeot’s famous Indianapolis racers. The Speedster bodies were supplied by another Indianapolis manufacturer, Morton & Brett.

[t-head]

I think that Mutt and Jeff here in this photo had a canoe company for a racing sponsor.

One of them sent this card back home to keep the folks on the farm up to speed.

[t-head]

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I found this photo mixed in with a quantity of photos that were left over from San Francisco area new car dealer promo photos. Nice looking Speedster..... can anyone identify the body maker??

Unfortunate choice of location for the spare tire and wheel in fact, I think it would drag on occasion.

[Roadster62]

We need to start a shop tour of Indianapolis in the 1920's. Morton & Brett were located at 811-813-815 Eest 23rd Street in 1929.

Originally Posted by t-head

By 1918 they had relocated to larger quarters at 910 N. Illinois St. Craig-Hunt’s 1918 Ford Speed Specialties catalog offered their own Peugeot-type 16-valve Speedway Head and the complimentary torpedo-tailed “Speedway” body which was inspired by the Peugeot’s famous Indianapolis racers. The Speedster bodies were supplied by another Indianapolis manufacturer, Morton & Brett.

[t-head]

By 1918 they had relocated to larger quarters at 910 N. Illinois St. Craig-Hunt’s 1918 Ford Speed Specialties catalog offered their own Peugeot-type 16-valve Speedway Head and the complimentary torpedo-tailed “Speedway” body which was inspired by the Peugeot’s famous Indianapolis racers. The Speedster bodies were supplied by another Indianpolis manufacturer, Morton & Brett.

A transcription of a 1919 advertisement for the Craig-Hunt Speedway Body follows:


“The CRAIG-HUNT Speedway Body has proved itself the most popular special body ever marketed. The metal work is of 21 gauge Auto Steel, and all important seams are welded and finished. The flared cowl, a feature found only on the highest priced custom built racing bodies has a tendency to direct air currents up and over the driver's head.

“The body is heavily bound with round metal which makes it rigid and free from vibration. All wood work is of oak, gained together with glue and screws. The seating space is exceptionally comfortable for two people, having ample leg room, and the cushions, which are 34 inches wide, are upholstered with a good grade of manufactured leather over curled hair and long coil springs.

“The hood is hinged top and sides louvers on each side panel. Tail is of the famous French Peugeot Torpedo design. It is formed over a canoe type light wood frame. The tail is exceptionally rigid, all seams welded. The radiator shell fur nished with the body is provided with a filler cap which screws into place in the stock Ford radiator, making it unnecessary to use another radiator. It entirely eliminates the Ford appearance.

“The apron or drop is a permanent part of the body and is designed to give the car a lower appearance, covers the frame and assists in forming a stream line effect.

“There is ample room for carrying pump, jack and tools. The tool box is reached by unsnapping the rear seat cushion and removing same. The FORD gasoline tank may be used in the tail, by shortening same. Hole for filling is on right side, immediately aft the mechanic's seat.

“The body is so designed as to make instal1aUon simple, and it may be installed in a very short time. Bodies are primed with a heavy coat of filler. Painting, $25.00 extra. Weight of body, ready for shipment, about 250 pounds.

“Price, complete with radiator shell, $150.00. F. O. B. Indianapolis.

“OUR $125 BODY OUTFIT

“We also offer this same general design with hood of three pieces, but not hinged, without tool compartment and hole for filling gasoline tank, and with less expensive upholstering, built throughout of lighter wood and metal, complete with the light weight underslung parts. Price, complete with radiator shell and underslung parts, $125. F. O. B. Indianapolis.”

[t-head]

On March 17, 1920 the Craig-Hunt Motor Company was incorporated in the State of Delaware with a capital stock of $1,000,000 by John P. Craig, Wilbert L. Hunt and Chester L. Zechiel who hoped to built a low-cost 103” wheelbase, 16-valve roadster and touring car of "wonder performance".

John P. Craig and Wilbert L. Hunt, were the very same Craig and Hunt that produced Craig-Hunt Speed Specialties and Chester Leonard Zechiel (1884-1953) was the Indianapolis attorney who financed the capitalization.

A preliminary advertisement stated that the car would use the Craig-Hunt 16-valve overhead cam head and their proprietary underslung spring suspension, but the vehicle never made it to production. In June of 1920 the firm was enjoined against building its new Maple Road Blvd, plant by a new Indianapolis ordi nance that prohibited erection of a manufacturing plant within 500 feet of a boulevard.

On October 14th, 1920 the Craig-Hunt Motor Company was forced into receivership for an outstanding debt amounting to $125.50. With their hopes of automobile manufacturing squashed, the three partners went their separate ways. Zechiel returned to his successful law practice, Hunt created a new firm, the Speedway Engineering Co., in order to market his 16-valve heads and Craig organized the Race-Way Body Company in order to produce speedster bodies.

Hunt kept the firm’s 910 N. Illinois St. factory and advertised his 16-valve heads which were now available with an optional bevel gear drive for $215, or the original chain & sprocket drive for $165. Also available were complete race or road cars which were competitively priced starting at $1200.

Speedway’s 1921 catalog included all the parts needed to put together your own underslung speedster ranging from Splitdorf magnetos to their own pistons, crankshafts, camshafts and 8-valve heads and continued to offer the Morton & Brett-sourced “Speedway” speedster body.

Hunt was historically more interested in his racing activities than in business and by 1923 he had run Speedway Engineering into the ground and Carl Rogers, another Indianapolis-based racer and parts dealer, purchased his inventory at the receiver’s auction.

Hunt then opened up a small garage called Imperial Motors, where he rebuilt engines and installed aftermarket speed equipment between 1923 and 1925.

For the 1924 Indianapolis 500, the Chevrolet Brothers prepared three Fronty-Fords for Barber-Warnock, an Indianapolis Ford dealer. They hired Hunt to pilot one of the machines, and he qualified 19th in a field of 22 eventually finishing 14th. Now that he had accomplished one of his life-long goals - albeit as a hired gun - Hunt gradually withdrew from racing and returned to his first love, building and flying airplanes.

John P. Craig’s Race-Way Body Corp. was headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, and claimed to have its own body factory in Muncie, Indiana. The Race-Way speedster body was very similar to the Craig-Hunt/Morton & Brett “Speedway” body except the tail was lower and more rounded in order to better conform with the fenders of a stock Model T.

Their bodies were well thought of and following Race-Way’s 1922 bankruptcy, continued to be distributed by Morton & Brett, as the “Roadway” race body, which was available in two models, the 6 and 6F.

Most speedster experts believe its remaining inventory was purchased by Morton & Brett and Race-Way’s owner, John P. Craig, withdrew from the automobile business and became a real estate agent and investor.

A search of newspaper classifieds from papers across the country reveals aftermarket Ford speedster bodies were most popular between 1920 and 1922. The earliest ads date from early 1918 and by 1923 I noticed a sharp drop-off in frequency. By 1925 only used bodies were advertised, typically priced between $20-35, including windshields. I could find no ads for any Ford, Chevy or Dodge-based speedster or generic speedster body dated 1926 or afterwards.

[t-head]

This reprint from the Vintage Ford shows the only photo I have been able to find of the bevel drive set up that replaced the earlier chain drive to the cam on the Craig Hunt head.

[FL&WVMIKE]

t-head ........................
Perhaps that spare tire and wheel, on your last photo, was mounted on a spindle, and would roll, if it encountered anything. But, it's still a bad location.
MIKE

[t-head]

One of the early system of using levers to increase valve lift was made by Riley. These early systems may have pre dated the overhead valve heads.

The description tells you how they work.

[t-head]

A 1920 Ford with what appears to be a manufactured body. The radiator is an after market Peerless. The car was raced in NY State in its day and has been run at Syracuse on the mile track.

The body builder is unknown to me but a good perusal of the books covering the subject would probably bear results.

[t-head]

This must have been Daddys little girl.

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Henry with one of the Trans-Con Race cars in 1909. Take a good look at them and the car and the conditions in the second photo. The photos really put into prospective how tough this was and how tough they were.

[t-head]

I got to thinking that this T service truck from the UK would have been ideal for a T racer to use and get his tools and spares to the track.

Instead of the mill rolls up on top it would have been perfect for tires and rims. The rest of the box would have been great for tools and parts.

[t-head]

A T Speedster in a parade in Maine.

[t-head]

How about these two cuties and an Ames Speedster.

[t-head]

A very attractive Speedster body which they tell us we can make money with.

The $100 wholesale cost, probably sold for $125-$150 retail. I found this add in an automotive trade paper.

[t-head]

I found 3/4 rear view photo of the Harrah Ames Cloverleaf Speedster that we looked at earlier.