1923 Ford T Authentic Vintage Drag Car Barn Find Original Father of the Rat Rod

Now Playing

Your 1923 Ford Model T Drag Racer

Ever since the invention of the motor car drivers have been obsessed with speed. But how did this lust for the ultimate fast ride evolve into one of the most popular sports in America?Drag racing was born in the dry lake beds in the California deserts.In the 1930s as engines got better and drivers got braver, speeds began topping 100mph.

But it wasn’t until after World War II that a bunch of kids with cars, hanging out with nowhere in particular to go, turned into something more serious.Popularity grew steadily but drag racing still remained largely an underground pastime. Races frequently took place on disused military runways with the first organized event dating back to 1949 at the Goleta Air Base in California.

Things were simple and low-tech in those days. Cars were driven to the track or towed in makeshift trailers. Drivers raced over a quarter of a mile, the length of a city block, but without the aid of safety barriers or regulated track conditions. The spectators in particular got a raw deal with no proper grandstands or seating.As the decade turned drag racing began to get organized. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) was founded in 1951 by Wally Parks, and within the decade two classes of competition had developed ‘Unmodified Stock’ and ‘Top Eliminator’ And so it all began.

You are viewing an authentic example of early drag racing history, when young men full of “vim and vigor” expressed their mechanical prowess by modifying early cars to fill the need for speed! This 1923 Ford Model T was built sometime in the late mid to late 1950s, It was fitted with the famous Red Ram Hemi and like so many others of the day driven to the drag strip, wherever it might be in those early days.

This car was retired and put in a barn out in Oak Harbor, Washington (yes, another barn find) around 1960. It stayed there until an old time hot rodder found it in 1970. From the barn the car was moved to his garage near Seattle. He started the car, but didn’t drive it, as the brakes needed work. As he told me, it ran real good, and I decided to freshen it up and drive it someday”Well as things go, someday turned into 47 years, and the car was still on stands when we acquired it.

Finding a real drag car from the 1950s isn’t an everyday happening and we couldn’t help it.We tried to find out some history on the car, but unfortunately it seems that everyone that might have been able to shed some light on it, has passed on to the bid drag strip in the sky.The car has a Red Ram 241 Hemi engine, what appears to be a Lincoln gear box, 40 Ford rear axle and hydraulic brakes, 40 Ford front brakes, gas tank in the back and nitro tank in the front. Original Offenhauser Tri-Power with Stromberg carburetors. Cool old wide-whitewall tires, and drag slicks. Look at the pictures at all the other ancient hot rod cool stuff.

Nope there ain’t nuthin been done to it yet. That is where you come in. When was the last time you set down and started reading a Hot Rod Magazine there on the cover or in the pages, out pops an article on how someone just found an old time drag car? Did you say “dang I sure wish I could find one”?

Well now you have, so don’t linger, exercise your bidding finger! Don’t let that other guy get it! Then you can do the Wendy’s (or is it Burger King) thing and have it your way.

Now Playing

Your 1923 Ford Model T Drag Racer

Ever since the invention of the motor car drivers have been obsessed with speed. But how did this lust for the ultimate fast ride evolve into one of the most popular sports in America?Drag racing was born in the dry lake beds in the California deserts.In the 1930s as engines got better and drivers got braver, speeds began topping 100mph.

But it wasn’t until after World War II that a bunch of kids with cars, hanging out with nowhere in particular to go, turned into something more serious.Popularity grew steadily but drag racing still remained largely an underground pastime. Races frequently took place on disused military runways with the first organized event dating back to 1949 at the Goleta Air Base in California.

Things were simple and low-tech in those days. Cars were driven to the track or towed in makeshift trailers. Drivers raced over a quarter of a mile, the length of a city block, but without the aid of safety barriers or regulated track conditions. The spectators in particular got a raw deal with no proper grandstands or seating.As the decade turned drag racing began to get organized. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) was founded in 1951 by Wally Parks, and within the decade two classes of competition had developed ‘Unmodified Stock’ and ‘Top Eliminator’ And so it all began.

You are viewing an authentic example of early drag racing history, when young men full of “vim and vigor” expressed their mechanical prowess by modifying early cars to fill the need for speed! This 1923 Ford Model T was built sometime in the late mid to late 1950s, It was fitted with the famous Red Ram Hemi and like so many others of the day driven to the drag strip, wherever it might be in those early days.

This car was retired and put in a barn out in Oak Harbor, Washington (yes, another barn find) around 1960. It stayed there until an old time hot rodder found it in 1970. From the barn the car was moved to his garage near Seattle. He started the car, but didn’t drive it, as the brakes needed work. As he told me, it ran real good, and I decided to freshen it up and drive it someday”Well as things go, someday turned into 47 years, and the car was still on stands when we acquired it.

Finding a real drag car from the 1950s isn’t an everyday happening and we couldn’t help it.

We tried to find out some history on the car, but unfortunately it seems that everyone that might have been able to shed some light on it, has passed on to the bid drag strip in the sky.The car has a Red Ram 241 Hemi engine, what appears to be a Lincoln gear box, 40 Ford rear axle and hydraulic brakes, 40 Ford front brakes, gas tank in the back and nitro tank in the front. Cool old wide-whitewall tires, and drag slicks. Look at the pictures at all the other ancient hot rod cool stuff.

Nope there ain’t nuthin been done to it yet. That is where you come in. When was the last time you set down and started reading a Hot Rod Magazine there on the cover or in the pages, out pops an article on how someone just found an old time drag car? Did you say “dang I sure wish I could find one”?

Well now you have, so don’t linger, exercise your bidding finger! Don’t let that other guy get it! Then you can do the Wendy’s (or is it Burger King) thing and have it your way.