[Fot] TR3 exhaust...revisited...

[Bill Dentinger]

Amici...


This is a Long Story for the FOT, but directed mostly at old farts who were actually around in the mid-20th century.  These are people who might actually understand how the 'Smitty Flow Through' glasspac attempted to provide proof to the local police that your car actually had a muffler back in the day.  "See, officer.  There it is.  That's my muffler."  Newbees, who can't relate, might want to hit their Delete Key now.


Back in 1957, when I was a senior in High School, my paternal Grandmother (God Rest Her Soul), who was also my God-mother, had given me $350 as a graduation present.  $350 was the most money that I knew existed back then.  I did not know that my Grandmother had $350, much less that she might consider giving it to me.  And it was a good five months before I was scheduled to graduate.  Talk about opportunity based on an Act of Faith.  Anyway, I took the money and I bought a very,very used, but very nice looking 1951 Ford convertible.  It was powder blue, and had an extended rear deck and continental tire kit.  I shaved the front deck, added eye lids to the headlights, and blue dot lenses (illegal) to the tail lights.  I added fender skirts and I replaced the rag top's rear window (several times).  I also lowered the rear end about two inches (to a point where that extended rear deck would drag on driveway ramps).  Out on the West Coast they were lowering the front ends.  Here in the Midwest...we were lowering the rear ends.  But that car looked GOOD!  It looked like a Classic Lead Sled.  It was fantastic, and in my pre-Triumph, Bebopper days, duck-tailed Hollywood haircut...the whole nine yards.  This is the car I used to court Shirley Jean.  Her long pony tail used to flop in the breeze as we tooled down the street with the top down.  


That's all the Good News about that car.  There is some  Bad News too.  This car had a Ford six cylinder engine and Fordamatic.  It was so slow, that Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile before it did.  And it only broke the four minute mile once, going down a steep hill.  But that wimpy drive train probably saved me millions in exposure to speeding tickets, etc.  Another issue was the fact that the car used more oil than gasoline.  Talk about 'blow-by', the engine was shot...and made pretty blue smoke.  How did I deal with that wimpy drive train on such a great looking car?  Well, I always was more into Presentation than Performance, and what I did was add 'fake headers' to mimic a duel exhaust system.  They looked great coming out of that extended rear deck.  I also installed a 'Smitty Glass Pack', and BINGO!  The car sounded like a screamer.  I'd hold the car in low gear, working the transmission against the engine cruising down even a slight incline...and that car sounded like it was capable of 200-210 mph.  I had lots of offers for a drag race, but always was careful to say, "No thank you...I need to save these rear tires...".


Sad to say, I do not even have a picture of that car.  I do not know what happened to it.  When I graduated from High School in 1957, young men still had an eight year military obligation, which I decided to address.  I joined the Navy two months after graduating.  I was gone for four years (Plankowner, USS SPRINGFIELD CLG-7).  Shirley Jean waited.  The car didn't.  I suspect my brother Ron ended up with it, and it probably died.


Pity, but make a note that the 'Smitty Glass Pack' is a hero in this story...it helped make me and that car appear to be more than we deserved...and I still got Shirley Jean.


Bill Dentinger   


 

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