Not long after acquiring my Nickri Special, I was tipped off about this other unusual sixties Ford based creation. To cut a long story short, it turns out the original, much distressed, bodywork has been thrown away by a previous owners and a start made on repanelling it. I think it is fair to say that this car has been well and truly thrashed by the ugly stick, but beneath that dubious facade lies a nicely made spaceframe chassis, with complete and running 100E engine (Aquaplane modded), remote 3 speed shift and tweaked 100E rear axle, with Herald IRS up front.
Conveniently the wheelbase of this curious creation is an exact match for the Nickri shell, which is currently sat on a very rusty Herald based chassis.
My long term plan was to adapt this spaceframe chassis, complete with 100E engine, to fit under the Nickri shell, thus making a very
pleasant Ford Special with nicely period underpinnings. Quite how this car began life is unclear, I suspect it may have been built
for some form of club racing in the 1960s, as it certainly looks like the cars amateur racers used back then in 750MC club events.
In a fit of rationalisation (what was I thinking of??!), and with a desire to focus on my favourite little vehicles (E83W trucks), I
decided to part with both Specials and create a little room on the driveway. Which was a good move, given that 2 E83Ws joined the fleet shortly after, beginning with this wooden back Ford pickup. Imagine my surprise when, while flicking through the pages of eBay (classic cars section) in 2005, I stumbled across a Ford special that looked suspiciously like the one above, now for sale and looking very shiny. A little investigation confirmed that it was the same vehicle, restored, and made roadworthy - perhaps for the first time ever. Thanks to Jonathan, who ok'd me reproducing the photos showing the car fully rebuilt.
|
