By the time I turned seventeen years of age my beloved Model
A Ford continued to motor along quite well. But, it did not look any better
than the day I bought her. Despite all my dreams of driving a gleaming
Victoria, the reality was that my wishes exceeded my abilities as a body man.
To my amazement a 1932 Model B Ford Victoria turned up on the used car lot of
Hart Buick in our hometown of Clifton, NJ.
The B looked strange surrounded by late model Buicks and
other current makes. Close inspection of the Model B revealed a good looking
vehicle in jet black paint, and lurking under the hood sat a 24 stud dual
carbed 100 horsepower Ford V-8.
Originally the Model B was built with a 50 horsepower
four cylinder engine. Mr. Ford introduced the V-8 60 horsepower in 1932 to
compete with Chevrolet's smooth running 6 cylinder engines. They were known as
the Model 18. The body styles offered by Ford of these two models were identical
to each other. The only outside difference was the V-8 insignia on the headlight
bar.
What could be better than owning two Ford Victorias?
Nothing! I just had to buy my second car. I am sure the Buick dealer just
wanted that old Junker off his lot because I was able to cut a great deal on
that car.
This time it was my middle brother Fred who drove the Ford up to Massachusetts.
Fred and I had an uneventful run. Of course we just had to try out the power of
that wonderful Ford V-8. Just as we were exiting the parkway in New York State,
a Trooper signaled us to slow down. Those were the days!
Now I had a real car with plenty of power. My brothers had
joined a sports car club called Scuderia X. They held track days at Lime Rock
Park in Connecticut. Whenever my brothers drove their Jaguar XK-140 MC and 1957 Corvette I
would show up in my Hot Rod Ford. It was probably as fast as most the small
bore sized sports cars as long as the road was straight!
The new Vicky had only two small drawbacks. One was the vacuumed
activated windshield wiper. When it rained, and I wanted to see where I was
going, I had to lift off the gas pedal so that the wiper would work.
The other
small item was the lack of a cooling fan. As long as I maintained a speed of
about 35 mph all was fine. At slow speeds the steam would start pouring out of
the radiator.
One night my friend Dewey and I were out diving around. The
subject of who had the faster car came up. Now Dewey had a new 1957 Ford V8
with a standard transmission.
We lined up on a dark country road to settle our
disagreement. Off we went, and I stayed right next to Dewey until I hit third
gear. That is when I “chickened out” and backed off.
We still laugh about this
moon race in our Fords.
I was able to keep my Deuce for several years and always
loved her.
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