As Bill explains, it’s a simple car with simple underpinnings, one that was never really meant for circuit racing.
“The car itself, 430 Lincoln, big block, four-speed manual transmission, all pretty normal. Live rear axle, wishbone front suspension. This one’s not really down to the lowest weight, but it’s not heavy.”
What kind of power and torque does he think it’s producing, we ask? “400, 450, something like that”, he says, with a smile on his face.
“The first competitive event it did was qualifying yesterday! Up till then it’s been a horrible beast because we’ve been trying to work out how it steers and handles, and we just made a step forward, but we can’t make it stop yet. It’s on drum brakes all round, which is fine, apart from it’s not a lightweight car and it goes quick in a straight line. Stopping is an issue…
“In the day, drum brakes were the thing. It’s just we’re probably not as familiar with drum brake technology as they were in their own time. We’re used to running drum brakes on the rear of cars more as a stabiliser than a braking system, but when you’ve got drums on the front it’s very difficult to work.”