Aussie 'Edelbrock Special', flathead powered special

Posts relating to early (Pre 1985) Hotrodding History in Australia, including Hotrod and Custom Shows plus early Drag Racing, Speedway, Hillclimbs etc.
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hewey
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Aussie 'Edelbrock Special', flathead powered special

Post by hewey »

Now this thing is gorgeous. Full story and lots of pics over on the Fuel website http://fueltank.cc/blog/edelbrock-special
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Image

I believe this is the car Old Col mentions on page 142 of his thread
http://www.ozrodders.com/forum/viewtopi ... start=2115
Oldcol wrote: Image
that '36 is an original steel bodied car , originally from WA where it served time as a speedway racer . The present owner is Derek McLachlan and he's from just around the corner a bit. He's mostly into circuit racers and he uses this car for sprints..... ( sporty car speak for Drags :lol: ), Hillclimbs and it's even had a bit of a run at Phillip Island on the big track ,which he says was a hoot!..... I saw the car in November at the Rob Roy Hillclimbs.....

....which is a grouse day for anyone who's got the slightest interest in early motor sports. Lots of stuff there that gets right back into the early days of local motorsport when there were plenty of Flathed powered "specials"......and the separation between early rodding, racing and dirt track speedway was very blurred indeed. Surprising too how many hotrod guys turn up at these current events , along with some of the names from waay back when rodding was in it's infancy . Even met Peter Thomas who some might remember as having built one of the first rods here back in the very early '50s....a 'shortened '32 Roadster, now in the hands of the Katsanis boys.

Same guy with the '36,Derek, has another early V8 based car called the "Edelbrock Special" , originally put together by Hedley Thompson and run at Albert Park GP in '56......in an odd co-incidence , that same car was rescued from a trash pile by a very good pal of mine, the late Les Sargent of Mt Evelyn. When Les got it there was nothing much left but twisted remains of the chassis, a couple of pedals connected to an FJ master cylinder and a bit of aluminium sheet across the top of the cowl. He toiled away on it for years , got a few bits off me for it and had a heap of stuff cast up and machined from drawings, photo's and recollections of the car. His main interest was racing stuff as he'd grown up with Alan Hamilton ( which is how I met Alan) and also did his apprenticeship with Alan at Norm Hamilton's Porsche dealership in Richmond. Les eventually ran out of steam on the project so Derek bought it and has since completed it.....it looks magic ,should have got a pic when I was perving on the '36......it's running a stroked Flatmotor and 3 speed Ford box , first time out it ran a bearing.....so it's sitting waiting for the engine right now ...... :roll: :lol:
Pariahs C.C.
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