1932 FORD ROADSTER
It might look as if it has spent its days in the Mojave Desert, but Nick Blanche’s Ford hails from closer to home and the dawn of British hot-rodding. “As far as I know, it was built in 1977 strictly for drag racing,” says Blanche, whose Roadster was bodied in glassfibre by kit-car specialist Jago. “They were some of the first hot rodders producing ’32 bodyshells.
“It originally ran a 4.5-litre Daimler Hemi before being sold on to various owners and ending up at Screaming Alley Raceway, where it was used as a promotional car for the strip. At some point the engine was damaged when the block froze, and it was fitted with a Ford Cleveland V8 before being sold.”
The car was bought by a friend of Blanche’s, who in turn sold it to him. “It was falling apart when I got it,” he says. “The crank was beyond repair, and during the search for a new one I discovered that the engine had Australian heads. I bought another engine and put the Aussie heads on the American block, which gives it a bit more get-up-and-go.
“I’ve had the car for 20 years and have used it at every Hot Rod Hayride. It was finished in satin black and no-one paid a bit of attention to it, so I thought I’d return it to its original livery. I had photographs from back in the day to use as reference. The bodyshell has been through the mill a bit over the years – it never had doors so I cut them out, and put in a ’32 firewall where there was just a sheet of aluminium.”
In addition to cosmetic changes, Blanche has replaced the troublesome ‘hairpin’ suspension and tweaked the diff ratios in search of greater performance: “I’ve run a 12.8 sec quarter-mile at Santa Pod, but I also use the car regularly – I drive it all over the place on Norfolk’s roads!”