NZ Hot Rod – September 2019

4 > NZ HOT ROD SEPTEMBER 201 9

Heart and Soul

I’VE been itching to write this editorial

for quite some time. It’s been on the

list of thought starters for a few months

and because it’s timeless in nature

there’s no urgency to publish it. It’s not

related to vehicle safety, governance or

other A-political topics so here goes.

In my opinion a hot rod is the sum

of its components, plus the fit, finish,

paint colour, interior design and texture,

plus body silhouette and engine. When

all these factors are singing from the

same song sheet, there’s a certain

cohesiveness which sets top caaaars

above all the others. For me, thhe

two largest factors influencingg

my personal choices are firstlyy

the engine and secondly

the body style. There is a

myriad of engines available

to hot rodders, most are

based on original equipment

architecture and are chosen

because of factors such as easee of

fitment, lightweight, availabilitty of

replacement parts, affordabilityy

and power output. The smallbllock

Fords and Chevrolets tick all

these boxes and are the most

popular by a country mile. Butt

because of their popularity, theey carry

a belly-button or me-too stigma. It never

used to be like that but nowadays the

proliferation of smallblock options and a

wide range of performance and dress-up

accessories, you’d be mad not to choose

one, that is unless you’re a little bit

eccentric and like eclectic things which

don’t always tick all the boxes and are

just plain cool for no special reason.

My mind has always been full of engine

performance ideas and the principals

of the Otto-cycle internal combustion

engine; its strengths and weaknesses are

well documented and understood. But

why do I have to play the co-habitation

game and stick with the same engine

options as everyone else? Over the years

I’ve come to admire the aesthetics of

a DOHC (double-overhead camshaft)

cylinder head layout, especially the Offy

4 -banger and even it’s look-a-like Jaguar

inline-six from the fifties and early

sixties. They look so cool I get excited,

and both are from the performance

end of the engine spectrum so they’d

make a perfect engine for a hot rod. I

recall seeing the Offy powered Model A

roadster pickup from California while

visiting us here in NZ, and also Shady

Williams Jaguar powered ’38 Chevy

coupe. Shady’s Jaguar engine looked

so exotic under the Chevy’s hood the

memory has stayed with me since the

early seventies. But can you spot the

same gap I see? There’s no DOHC V

with that traditional 90-degree camshaft

spacing anywhere in the lineup. I

discovered George Riley manufactured

his own SOHC V8 (single overhead

camshaft VV 8 )) in the 1 9393 0s and I evven

bought the George Riley book which

pictures the engine. It’s a work of art,

but sadly, only two or three were ever

produced, and it is a SOHC, not a DOHC,

but it did provide some inspiration.

Turning towards more options, there are

modern choices like Lexus, Nissan and

Cadillac and likely there are others too,

but they have relatively flat valve covers

and lack the panache or X-factor of a

traditional DOHC which I like. There’s a

few DOHC V8s in the Formula 1 realm

like Cosworth DFV and even Honda,

Mercedes. Ferrari and other exotica but

hey, they’re way out of my league. A

web search courtesy of Dr Google will

turn up the Novi DOHC V8 which ran

for a few years at Indy and looks pretty

amazing. The centrifugal supercharger

certainly boosted its performance but

to me detracts from its looks and I think

they only produced

a handful and they

were unreliable, so

that’s a non-starter for

me. If it sounds like

I’m fussy, prissy and

hard to please, you’re right, and I don’t

mind you thinking like that, it’s just the

way my tastes for hot rod engines have

developed over the years. I figured I

could build one myself and that’d solve

my dilemma and actually, it’s not as silly

as it might have once sounded. Modern

computer-aided design and machining

could hew a block out of solid billet

in short order....something that’s now

a regular part of performance racing

engine manufacturing. Cylinder heads

would be custom one-offs but easily would be

aca hhhhhhihhihhevedd while the rotating assembly

and valveetrain could easily use off-

the-shelff parts to help keep the costs

below ridiculous. That leaves camshafts

and the ccam drives as custom-made

commmponeents. To my way of thinking

the engine would look great when

fed by a brace of Stromberg

9 7 carburettors and when

I got a bit stuck trying

to picture this concept, I

decided to commission hot

rod artist Fred Otene to draw

the Grace DOHC V8 engine

offmy dreams for me. I sent him

a brieef, and we exchanged a few

emails before the sketch you see here

appearedd in my email InBox. He did an

excellent job, and I’ve cherished this

sketch as something I’d like to do in the

future. It’s on my bucket list. This kind

of progressive thinking and visualising

is what brings ideas into reality for lots

of people, so I’m not claiming any high

ground, it’s just something which has

appealed to me. Next question: What

would I put it in? It’s here that I fall to

my second big factor in hot rod appeal

is the body silhouette, and that’s an easy

choice, and I confess it’s the 1932 Ford

3 -window coupe or the 1933-34 Ford

3 -window coupe. There, I’ve bared my

heart and soul and revealed the dark

workings of my mind. So that means I

don’t feel the need to be constrained by

a herd mentality, there’s no smallblocks

for me sir! That was an easy confession,

and I hope you like it and can take

something positive from it. PG

PODIUM

Publisher’s

By Paul Grace