32 Ford 3 window coupe , Antarctic Hot Rod Association

I've had this one sitting around for a year or more waiting for inspiration to strike , and now it has . It's mostly going to be OOB , just different wheels etc , and I'm trying to do this as a fairly quick and easy build to get back into my more complex builds ....



First coats of colour , yes , it's fairly bright orange but there is a reason for this which will be obvious when it's finished ...





EDIT , I haven't decided if it will be fendered of fenderless yet so have painted everything anyway

I like the colour on the outside, not so sure about inside the car though...

I'm painting everything body colour first then will do the interior colour scheme over it so any exposed body work inside (panel gaps around doors , edges under carpet etc) will be body colour like in a full size car . Just easier this way then trying to pick up the edges in body colour later (definitely not leaving it Hi Viz orange inside , would need some serious shades to drive it otherwise ...) , especially given my thick fingers and unsteady hands .

Mmmmmm. orange interior...

Well , when I said hopefully a fairly quick build I didn't intend for it to be this quick but since it's rained most of the afternoon here I've just kept going . Now , for the full explanation of the colour , all vehicles taken to Antarctica are to be painted bright red or orange to make them visible in blizzards and since this is an example of an AHRA (Antarctic Hot Rod Association) Rod it also has to be Orange

The tracks and ski's are from the AMT Super Sno-Sport snowmobile dragster kit (so yes , they are rated for this engine ) , just need to scratch built some extra detail on the tracks to hold and mount them and also brace them to the chassis . They are direct drive off the standard rod's diff as a lot of snow vehicles are , and since the drive sprocket is smaller than the orriginal wheels the gearing will be lowered sufficiently to let this thing burn up the ice and snow ...







Now , to get this finished and then challenge a certain tracked '57 Chevy to a snow drag ....

go jesse james

Heh heh heh.

James Bond would be proud of this! Very creative indeed, but where's the Mini bodied version?

tezza43 wrote: but where's the Mini bodied version?

Funny you should mention that Terry , a model of the Mini-Trac is being planned , just got a few more things to figure out for it .

This photo has been doing the rounds of mini forums for years and being misquoted as being a photoshop or a mockup built for fun etc , One of the guy's on Ausmini workd for the Antarctic Division and recognised the ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) logo but coiuldn't find anything else on it .



I started digging and found the email address of someone currently in Antarctica , he put me in touch with a former ANARE guy , who put me in touch with someone else , who put me in touch with someone else etc ... About the 8th or 9th guy I spoke to remembered seeing it in a workshop in Sunshine , Vic owned by Terry O'Hare . I sent letters out to every O'Hare in the greater Melbourne area and found Terry (and his cousin who also told Terry I was looking for him) . He has a very sharp memory and was able to tell the full story of how he was asked to convert a cheap car into a snow vehicle by the ANARE . At the time he was the Australian agent for Sno-Trac snow vehicles and Nodwell tracked trucks so he used the Swedish Sno-Trac tracks onto a modified mini , the original mini engine/box/diff drove the tracks through a chain drive and steering was done by braking one track and the mini diff putting power to the other track . 3 were built , one went to Canada (I found the remains of it for sale on a Canadian website , it's now just the body on a Bombadier chassis) , one to NZ (missing) and one to Antarctica and then back to Aust (still missing , last seen at Mt Hotham in late 60's , Terry lost track of it prior to that) . Terry also built his own snow vehicles including the Hydratrack which was Holden powered with hydraulic drive . He also built Waltzing Matilda the jet powered drag truck and he still has a jet powered drag car .





Just after I found Terry I got an email from another former ANARE member who's heard through the grapevine that I was looking for info on the Mini-Trac , he provided me with this video copied from super 8 his mate had filmed of it being trialed at Wilkes base in Antarctica .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F961y5Npsv4

I then contacted Mark Forecast who took the movie to get his permission to use it (which he very generously provided) and also sent me some photo's of his own VW he took to Antarctica ,



It's still down there at the bottom of the ocean , Mark and another guy were using it on the ice shelf when the ice broke and 4 qt (4 being so he was sure it wasn't attached to 1 and 2 which were provided by VW several years before and 1/4 or qt for cutie) .

Now that ShawnS has provided me with some correct morris 850 grilles I just need to finish some other planning and then I can start the build .

Talk about determined!

Well it had been forgotten and the photo misquoted for years , considering it was built by a guy in his 30's in 1964 the people involved in it are all getting older (several times I heard "so and so would have been good to talk to , he drove it but he died 10 years ago )and as it is everyone in the Mini-Trac in the video has already passed away . A 4 page article I wrote was published in The Mini Experience and one of the photo's was blown up as the center spread poster The antarctic division in Hobart rescanned the old photo's for me in brilliant resolution so they look magic .



Anything like this needs to be recorded and documented in books or magazines before they pass out of living memory , too much automotive history has been lost like this .

Far out. I love stuff like this.

Looks like the body is moving separately to the track guards. Was it rubber mounted onto the tracked chassis?

No , the guards could have done with some extra bracing and flexed a bit , they were welded to the body and also two RHS "chassis" beams running full length of the mini body that supported the suspension for the extra wheels . The standard mini subframes were bolted to the beams .

All these 'tracked' vehicles...and then you 'trackin' down the history...all I can say is..."Keep on Trackin!!!!" Great model of the 32...now add in the Mini...bring in the 57...and don't forget the 37(?) from Germany and you could have a trackfest! Love these off the beaten 'track' models.

sports850 wrote:
Now , to get this finished and then challenge a certain tracked '57 Chevy to a snow drag ....

Well I guess the key word here is, to get this "finished". You do that and I'll go do some practice runs.

Love the build, looks awesome.

Unusual build but it looks good, keep going.

I've taken a different direction again , I can't not build the snow dragster so found these new tracks on a Tonka toy , just need to cut some ugly mounting lugs off them and paint them . It does give it a bit of a cartoonish look but I like it