62: BALLISTIC BRICK — 9-SECOND STREET POP

IT MAY BE AS AERODYNAMIC AS AN OPEN PARACHUTE, BUT THAT HASN’T STOPPED DARREN RICHES’ FORD POP FROM BECOMING THE COUNTRY’S QUICKEST NATURALLY ASPIRATED PUMP-GAS STREETER!

In 1999, the end of the millennium was coming and much of the world was stressing out over the Y2K bug and the chaos it would bring. You would have thought the end of the world was nigh, yet all turned out well in the end. Around this time Wellington’s Darren Riches was facing a few dilemmas of his own, one of which would also end up just fine, as you will see here. Darren had a 302 Windsor–powered 1948 Ford Pop and it was a great little street car; it just didn’t have the get up and go he wanted — something anyone who had moved from a quick T-bucket to a closed-in car with a lot fewer cubes would understand. To get the performance Darren was after, the Pop would need more than just a repower; the chassis, brakes, etc. would all need doing — hence the dilemma: strip down a perfectly good car that already drove OK or buy one already done?

The decision was made easier when this 1953 Pop came up for sale in New Plymouth. It looked all right and was 402 Chev–powered, already four-barred in the rear, and cost only a few grand more than Darren could get for the current one. Needless to say the big block Pop was soon Wellington bound!

Being bright orange, the Pop certainly stood out and was soon a regular sight around the Hutt Valley. While it drove well and the big block 402 was a lot of fun, Darren soon realized the car would need some work to get it the way he wanted. There were no side panels for the hood — left off to try and keep the cooling under control — and there was a piece of stainless on the firewall that really needed to go; nothing major, just a few things Darren wanted / needed to tidy up. The Pop’s chassis was pretty good, and with the four-bar rear end it launched pretty hard, but it just wasn’t quite right. The Panhard rod would

sometimes push the diff sideways, binding things up when launching and causing more than just the odd rush of blood for Darren as he tried to get it straight, obviously with his foot hard on the gas. It also became apparent that the body would need a bit of attention as the flexing from the hard launches was taking its toll, with cracks appearing around the A-pillars and in other places. After just a few months of driving Darren decided to take the Pop off the road and begin the full, bare-metal rebuild.

Being a panel beater by trade, Darren figured none of this would be too difficult. With this being his third Pop he already had a pretty good idea of what was in store. Revisiting other people’s work is always interesting, though, and while Darren could appreciate the work that previous owners had done with the roof chop, recessed firewall, and other mods, this was the chance to do things his way. He planned to install a new power plant up front so body flex was always going to be an issue. One way to keep the body rigid was to

install a new recessed firewall fabricated from 3mm plate, replacing the existing thin panel steel one and effectively creating a shear plate to prevent any twist at the front of the body.

Darren was working at DE McMillan at the time and had access to rollers, folders, swages, and pretty much every tool he needed for the fabrication of all the new pieces, which he then butt-welded to the body or wherever they should be attached. With the new firewall sorted, Darren revisited the chop, tidying it up and refilling the roof. He welded a new tilt front and trans tunnel as well as sills, door panels, a rear pan, and much more. He welded the rear guards to the body, and made numerous other tweaks and repairs along the way. Interestingly, Darren had his share of knockers during this process. They claimed that a lot of the mods, such as welding the rear guards to the body, were never going to last and were a recipe for cracks. Well, 16 years on those mods are all just fine, which proves how well the work was executed and how rigid this little car is!

The chassis was also reworked, with a custom independent front fabricated to replace the ageing Viva set-up and a new custom four link with A-arm at the rear, complete with anti-roll bars to get the little car handling better than you would believe possible with that big lump of iron up front. Adding to the strength and handling of the car was the five-point cage, which tied the rear of the car to the rigid area at the front of the body, completing the package perfectly.

With the construction work completed, the Pop was handed over to Darren’s brother, Dean, who applied the flawless paintwork that still looks stunning 16 years on.

Most people would be content with a big block Pop that looked good, ran low 11s with ease, and was 100 per cent streetable — so good it could be used as a daily driver — but Darren hadn’t finished yet. He had plenty of success on the strip at Masterton and eighth-mile racing at Port Road, but, like most of us, he quickly got used to the performance and soon lusted for more. They say aerodynamics are for people who can’t build horsepower; with the brick-like shape of the Pop, it was obvious the car needed more power to go faster.

After a bit of searching, Darren found a suitable engine, fresh out of a South Island marathon boat. Built around a Merlin III block, it was stuffed full of all the good gear to sit at 5500–6000rpm hour after hour. The problem was that Darren wanted to push the envelope a bit harder than that. The Merlin is a great building block for performance so a few changes were made to get it revving a bit harder, starting with a solid roller cam with more lift and duration, a tunnel ram intake with twin 750 Demon carbs, and a new ignition. As a result, the new 540-cube engine seemed happy to rev to the moon and back — well, past 7500rpm anyway, which is pretty staunch for a big-cube street engine. The new engine transformed the Pop but also created a few issues on the way. The brakes that were OK with the ‘little’ 454 cube engine suddenly weren’t good enough any more. Neither was the roll cage as Darren snuck below the point where the five-point was legal — to be fair, once you get into the nines at 130+, you need to be safe. Taking a couple of years off racing, Darren undertook more mods, starting with the brakes and a move from 13-inch four-stud rims to five-stud 15-inch rims to clear the bigger vented discs and Wilwood callipers. Darren and friend Aaron Thomas then set about building an eight-point cage that wasn’t intrusive, with removable bars so the Pop could still be used on the street, as it was, and always will be, a street car first and a play car on the drag strip second.

With Darren being such a perfectionist, the front bars follow the A-pillar closely, allowing plenty of

THE PROBLEM WAS THAT DARREN WANTED TO PUSH THE ENVELOPE

foot room for such a small car. The bars through the firewall are painted the same colour as the body so that they disappear from view. The door bars and hockey sticks from the rear of the cage to the top of the dash are removable; this makes access easier for street driving but allows easy installation for the track — clever stuff! During this period, the engine was freshened by Parry Hunt. Despite Parry’s eagerness to bump the compression to 11.5:1 or higher to start making proper power, Darren has kept the 540 at a mild, pump gas friendly, 10.3:1 — reinforcing his assertion that the Pop will always be a street car, not a race car. The car is driven to the track, header caps removed, tyres swapped to E/T streets, and that is it — no fuel changes, timing changes, or any other tweaks for the track. It is raced with the same tune as for the street. With the fresh engine, the track times tumbled from just breaking into the 9s to running consistently in the 9.7 to 9.8 range, quick but not quick enough. Parry was keen to see what the engine was doing on the dyno. It showed there was more to be found, with the car pulling hard through to 5500 but very little being gained from there on, despite it being revved it through to 7800. There just wasn’t enough air getting to the engine, so a pair of QFX1250cfm carbs replaced the old 750cfm Demons and the demeanour of the car changed with them. The engine suddenly came alive and revved cleanly through to 7800rpm, growing power all the way — things were about to get serious!

Street driving became very interesting as the car now had the power to break traction with ease; even in top gear cruising down the motorway at 3500rpm, a stab of the gas now has the rear tyres lighting up for as long as the loud pedal is pushed. Scary stuff. At the track the times have tumbled even further, with Darren running a series of low 9.60s and a few in the 9.5s with a best ET of 9.55 and best mph of 142, just not on the same pass but both without the trans brake!

While most would be happy with a street-friendly car that runs these times, Darren wants more and has just swapped the 3.9:1 gears for a more aggressive 4.3:1 set, hoping to get the Pop quicker and to improve the mph, too, as there was still plenty of rpm left in the engine using the old gears. The plan is that the 4.3s should see the Pop running through the traps in the mid 140s at 7600rpm, but we will have to wait and see. Regardless of the ET and mph that result, Darren has built one quick brick that is currently the quickest NA pump-gas car in the country. In the past 16 years he’s been a regular participant at the Port Road Drags, winning the top class five times despite tough opposition. He has also raced at the Masterton aerodrome and the new Masterton Motorplex, and last year took the Pop back to New Plymouth to race at the street drags there, getting the fastest time of the day.

Over the years the Pop has also won numerous show trophies: Best Engine, Best Paint, and Best Hot Rod, to name a few. This is a proper street car, show car, and drag car that most would be scared to drive but that Darren and wife Catherine are happy to get in and use most fine weekends. Job well done!