V-12 Dry Lakes Modified

Another model from my archives by way of introduction. This one is the only contest winner I’ve had, and frankly I was surprised. It was built somewhat under protest at the insistence of two friends of mine for the largest model car show in the western USA, the NNL West. It’s enormous, over 1,100 cars are shown each year. Each year they reserve a table for a theme for the year. In 2012 it was V-12s. My friends came up with the idea of building a trio of “Bonneville” cars using vintage Lincoln flathead V-12s. Of course what they really meant was “dry lakes”, not Bonneville. I have to admit the inauthenticity of it all kind of caught me out, but once I started the project I got into it and it got recognized at the NNL after all. Here’s the write up on the car. I’ll cover the contest story in more detail later on…


Lincoln Flathead V-12 Powered Dry Lakes Style Modified

Built for the V-12 theme at the 2012 NNL West, this is a vintage dry lakes style Modified roadster. “Modifieds”, as they were called, were the earliest pure straight line racers in the hot rod lineage with the first ones appearing on the dry lakes in Southern California as early as 1926. Patterned after the board track racers of the period, they were made by taking a Model T body and chassis and narrowing them to a width just wide enough to carry the driver and the 4 banger motor. Modifieds ran at the lakes until the early 1950’s, evolving to sleek V-8 powered missiles capable of speeds well in excess of 150 mph.

This one is based on the cool “Hot Rod Lincoln” Flathead from Early Years Resin, a scratch built frame and a cut down AMT Ala Kart ’29 Ford RPU body and interior.

Here are the details:

Bodywork and Paint: AMT ’29 Ford “Ala Kart” roadster pickup body narrowed ¾”. Scratch built gas tank. AMT ’32 Ford grill shell. Duplicolor yellow paint, homemade “Lincoln V-12” logo decals.
Interior: AMT “Ala Kart” interior, narrowed ¾”, re-skinned with styrene “tuck and roll”. Cut down AMT ’29 Ford dashboard and ’36 Ford steering wheel.
Motor: Hot Rod Flathead V-12 from Early Years Resin. Scratch built headers, exhaust extensions and carburetor stacks.
Chassis: Scratch built from styrene strip with a Revell ’29 Ford RPU rear crossmember.
Suspension & Brakes: AMT ’34 Ford front axle and spring and rear axle, AMT ’29 Ford rear spring and rear radius rods. Scratch built steering parts, front radius rods and drive shaft. Resin ’40 Ford brakes.
Wheels & Tires: Modelhaus “milk truck” style wheels, Ma’s Resin “Rat Rod” rear tires, Revell ’37 Ford truck front tires.
 
Thanx for lookin',
B.

 Love it!  

That's one wild little racer  

This looks so right , I love it.

 I like it, very cool

Nice one Bernard, seen it before and still think it's way cool, love the V12

I'm waking up this AM to the shock of seeing my little modified in the header! And to all the nice compliments, too! Wow!!! Thanx for the welcome, everyone!  

Sweet little rocket!

Brilliant work.

Thanx again guys!

As I described above this project was done for the 2012 NNL West V-12 Theme  at the insistence of my friends Curt Raitz  and Raul Perez, both of whom live in the Bay Area near San Francisco. The NNL West is held in Santa Clara in the same region. Each year I fly down and stay with Raul and then meet up with Curt and other friends at the show. While Raul didn’t get his build done in time, Curt, on the other hand, finished a really cool chopped T coupe and even went so far as to build a salt bed display base for our two cars. 

Here's a couple of pics of Curt's Coupe on the show table:





And here are the two of our cars on display together:



Given that they were built without a single bit of communication or collaboration, I think the way they pair-up was remarkably successful!
So here's the payoff...



The pair-up was picked over a boatload of really stunning Ferraris, a very nice Hot Rod Lincoln Replica, and some other equally cool Lincoln Powered customs and hot rods. So special Thanx to Curt for his model and for going the extra mile and building the base, and to staffer Steve H. for his undeniably good taste and perspicacity... Seriously, I'm was really flattered and thrilled by the recognition which was totally unexpected.

Impressive work Bernard  !

Congrats on the win, cool little racer. 

Very cool:A+: