Post by Bernard Kron on Feb 26, 2019 10:14:12 GMT -8
'29 Ford Roadster Pre War Lakes Style - The Race Of Gentlemen Beach Racer
This one's from 2018, that year's Theme Table at the NNL West in Santa Clara, California, the wildly popular The Race Of Gentlemen (TROG) meets that happen once a year in Wildwood, New Jersey. It’s dedicated to recreating the early days of hot rod speed trials and entries are limited to hot rods and motorcycles of the immediate pre and post-war era. Racing is in short, straight line contest on public beaches, along with various demonstrations of driving acrobatics and daring do. It’s a long-weekend affair and draws huge crowds.
One popular style of car that the organizers have always included is a pre-war style 4-banger dry lakes style car, very often a ’29 Ford. Quite often they’re festooned with period logos of racing clubs, garages and speed equipment. In point of fact this is not totally “accurate” in that, while cars decorated in this manner existed at the time, they were generally promotional cars used in parades, as starter’s or pace cars at race tracks, and for display work in showrooms and at trade shows. Race cars were somewhat simpler in their décor: while permanent painted on race numbers were very common, trade logos and trade names were used sparingly, and if you had a sponsor you usually acknowledged them by naming the car after them – in this case it’s the Gilmore Red Lion Special.
Gilmore Oil Company was a major regional oil and gasoline company based in Los Angeles. They were both drillers and refiners. Most of their drilling rigs were in the Signal Hill area down by where Los Angeles International Airport is now. They also operated a chain of gas stations. In the 30’s they sold a high octane ethyl gasoline called Red Lion and promoted it by sponsoring racing cars, speed boats and airplanes. This model celebrates Red Lion Gasoline, which featured some great graphics. All the decals on the car are home-made and the logos and trademarks are all authentic, lifted directly from period advertising. I tried to keep the color scheme and details as period correct as I could, inspired by Gilmore sponsored machines of the era.
The car itself is based on the AMT ’29 Ford Roadster. Like the real race cars of the period it is largely stock, with stock chassis and suspension. The motor is hopped up with a Riley 2-Port high compression head with overhead intake valves (an F-head design). The Riley 2-port comes from a Revell ’30 Ford Sedan kit. The wheels and front tires are from an AMT ’34 Ford 5-window coupe, the rear tires from a Revell ’40 Ford Standard kit. The whitewalls have been blacked out. Otherwise the kit is the only other source for parts and, with the exception of modifications to accommodate the fenderless aspect of the car, it’s pretty much out-of-the-box.
As it turned out it trophied, one of the very, very rare times one of my models has done so.
Thanx for lookin’,
B.
