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A Canadian friend just finished the total restoration on the is Fiat/Simca altered, that raced the Northwest and Canada in the '60s.
They had it out for the first time this weekedn at the local Calgary track, but the altered portion of the program was rained out. He made use of the time with some "photo ops". :-)
That thing looks awsome. Congrats on keeping it looking as close as it probably did in the 60's and still be a safe ride.
The car was painted several times...including a lace job... and a psychedelic job....but for the resto, they went back to the original paintwork.
Typical of the era...and an interesting detail...is that every bracket, and even the body is "swiss cheezed" to save weight!
As far as safety, my buddy Vern is a long-time Northwestern "alchy" dragster and funnycar racer. He currently has a competitve T-bucket Fuel Altered under construction, that I got to design the paint for. (That's my second one, which is a rare opportunity!) It will be unusual, and quite noticeable! I'll post pictures when it's completed.
That is really wicked! I can't imagine driving anything like that. Thanks for the pictures.
Bill
Nice pics, that FED looks familiar
Both of them do------
It's called "fame by association". :-)
I don't know how well traveled the altered was. It may have just been raced regionally. I do know it is well known there.
Hey I live in Calgary and never get to see anything like that!
Sean
He said it was at the local track last weekend. I assumed it's in Calgary, where he lives. The car was just finished, so this was a maiden voyage on the restoration.
That's a fine looking altered and I don't ever remember seeing it on the west coast, but the two FED's are a different story.
It sure is good to see racers and Hot Rodders around the country taking an interest in and resurrecting some of these fine old racers!!!! Some of us were fortunate enough to have been around when these were the state of the art race cars!!!!!! Sure do hope folks keep digging these cars out of their tombs and bringing them back to life!!!!! Maybe the younguns will quit thinking we all drove around and raced a bunch of rusty junk!!!!!
That is a fact! I never saw cars as bad as those being built intentionally today......and I got interested in '59!
Those two FED ----remind me of two of the worst crashes I have seen---both John and Herm had terrible crashes with there rear engine cars that replaced the FEDs. John at Tulsa and Herm at OCIR where Herm was burnt severely--the fuel tank was behind the rollcage in front of the engine and he broke an axle on the run, getting upside down and backwards---flip top fuel cap opened and caught on fire and sliding backwards/upside down, Herm was being burnt by the nitro fire---his helmut visor(then plexiglass) melted and he held his hands in front of his face for protection and also burnt them severely-
The crash truck was rolling thru the finish line gate as Herm slid to a stop right about the line and I remember thinking how lucky he was that it would be to him as he stopped----only thing was----OCIR had JUST changed hands and the fire ext. were padlocked onto the truck and NOBODY had any KEYS!!!!
Several things changed after that---New helmut specs with smaller front windows, driver suite requirements, fuel caps/tank locations, full floater axles, crash equipment----
Didn't take any committees or manufacturers groups like the present day -----
Ouch! Sometimes we pay a price for the passions we choose to pursue.
I just talked to Vern, who restored the car, and will also drive it for the owner. If you want an up close look at the car in action, they are planning to take it to the California Hot Rod Reunion.