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Let's build a " Little Duece Coupe"


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But it IS possible. You don't want to spin a flathead past 5500 RPM, really, but with a 28" rear tire and a 3.23 gear, she'd theoretically be doing about 142...wound all the way out on the dry lakes, maybe...assuming she had enough umph to pull redline in top gear...which again makes me think she'd have to be supercharged.

In '48, Barney Navarro went 139.75 on the lakes with a GMC-blown flathead in a roadster, so it IS possible a blown, chopped '32 coupe could do it in 1963.

I agree too Bill, it'd have to blown for a flattie to get up to 140...... now the question is are they pertaining to all out top speed or quarter mile speed??? I'm guessing top all out speed!!!!!

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I agree too Bill, it'd have to blown for a flattie to get up to 140...... now the question is are they pertaining to all out top speed or quarter mile speed??? I'm guessing top all out speed!!!!!

I was thinking all out top end not 1/4 mile. Couldn't you gear it for a 140 top end without the supercharger ? A supercharger on a Flattie in the era just doesn't seem right to me

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Here's the Wiki entry on the guy who wrote the lyrics for many early-Sixties car songs, including "Little Deuce Coupe."  The line about "walking a Thunderbird" struck me as strange, even when I was a kid.  I think my Grandpa's Corvair could have probably done that, since the '61-63 T-Bird was a big old luxo-barge, as others have mentioned.  A '62 Sports Roadster with the tri-carb engine might have been a different story.  Even then the 2 cars had better be running on a very long, straight stretch.  A homemade Deuce coupe and boulevard-suspended Sports Roadster on a curvy road would probably be headed straight for "Dead Man's Curve" territory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Christian_(songwriter)

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I agree too Bill, it'd have to blown for a flattie to get up to 140...... now the question is are they pertaining to all out top speed or quarter mile speed??? I'm guessing top all out speed!!!!!

 

I was thinking all out top end not 1/4 mile. Couldn't you gear it for a 140 top end without the supercharger ? A supercharger on a Flattie in the era just doesn't seem right to me

I put some explanatory numbers up earlier. 

A "full race" flathead (non-blown, with a wild cam, high compression heads, and multiple carbs) will only make about 200HP. That's about a 12-second car in the quarter, with a 125 MPH trap speed, if it weighs 1500 pounds, with gearing optimized for acceleration in a quarter mile.

To explain further...to pull 140...no matter how long your straight is (and no way a 1500-pound, 200 HP car will pull it in the quarter) you have to have the power to overcome inertial mass for early acceleration AND aero drag (drag increases with the SQUARE of vehicle speed, so there's 4 TIMES as much aero drag at 140 as there is at 70 !!!) and to reach redline (at least to reach the power peak) in top gear. Again, a NON-blown flathead is only going to make about 200HP, max, and you can't twist one tighter than about 5500RPM and expect it to stay together. That's not enough to push an old Ford coupe with the aerodynamics of a barn door up to 140MPH...which is why, in 1948, Barney Navarro (as I mentioned earlier) put a salvaged GMC 3-71 or 4-71 blower from a landing-craft engine on his flathead and ran 139.75 on the dry lakes...'"on the top-end floored".

The blower allows you to run "taller" gears to get a higher top speed, because the blown engine makes significantly more torque at LOWER ENGINE RPM...but you still need a long run for the old wheezing flathead to get up to speed. The intake tracts on a flathead are really poor, and no amount of porting or polishing or even supercharging can possibly overcome the engine's inherent breathing limitations.

Bottom line is, to perform as the song says, the little Deuce coupe would HAVE to be supercharged...and that wasn't as uncommon as you might think.

This is similar to Navarro's 1948 rig, and could have easily been seen in 1963. This is how you get "140 on the top end floored" with a flathead.

Image result for blown flathead ford

 

 

 

 

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Agreed , I seemed to get these mixed up with "side pipes" (as did others). 

To me, the correct definition of "lakes pipes" is the original definition, which would have had straight-pipes coming out the side of the engine bay (like photo 3) with "lakes plugs" installed on the ends. The pipes would be uncapped for unmuffled lakes running, and capped to route the exhaust through mufflers on the street.

                                   One early style of "lakes plug".     Image result for headers with lakes plugs        

Here you see the "lakes pipes" are capped, and the exhaust is routed under the car to mufflers.  

Image result for 32 ford headers  

Over the years, the custom car guys started putting capped side-pipes on cars, as "lakes pipes", Image result for lakes pipes                                                                 and eventually, the whole idea of what the name was derived from was forgotten, and almost everything in the "side pipe" realm got referred to as "lakes pipes".

I've even seen the pipes themselves referred to as "lakes plugs", which makes no sense whatsoever.   :D

 

 

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I know this is all hypothetical, this mythical 1500 lb. '32 coupe with a Flat Head mill. That said it would be interesting to know just what such a car would do with the 200 H.P. and a lter model Ford 3-speed with overdrive. If the ring & pinion was a 4:11 or even a 3:70  it would be a very fast 1/4 miler, at least in it's day. Then go out on the open road and use the Over Drive, I don't know if it would do 140 M.P.H. since the '32 is basically a barn door in  the wind, but I think it would have to be very close. Now who wants to drive a modified '32 with a buggy spring suspension at 140 M.P.H. ??  

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Many years ago I picked up a t-shirt at a Beach Boys themed show. The car on the shirt was the blue coupe you see. I followed the song words as best I could to create this model, painted Boyd's Pacific Blue. The gold car is a copy of a 1:1 car that someone built and I got in a collection. Both are Deuce coupes :) The car that is shown on the album cover is closer to the words of the song 'Custom Machine' They used it on the album cover because it was available. 

Ford 1932 custom coupe 001.JPG

32 Deuce Coupe f.jpg

32 Deuce Coupe r.jpg

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  • 11 months later...

Just my 2 cents. But I think you guys are reading into it a little to literal and skipping one critical piece of info from the song. The first line "well I'm not bragging girl so don't put me down". I always took it as he's trying to pick up a girl and anything after that is just exaggerating what he's got to be more impressive to her. Figuring she's a girl and probably doesn't know much about cars. Just my take on it and I've been known to miss the point before so I could be way off. 

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1 hour ago, IHSS said:

Just my 2 cents. But I think you guys are reading into it a little to literal and skipping one critical piece of info from the song. The first line "well I'm not bragging girl so don't put me down". I always took it as he's trying to pick up a girl and anything after that is just exaggerating what he's got to be more impressive to her. Figuring she's a girl and probably doesn't know much about cars. Just my take on it and I've been known to miss the point before so I could be way off. 

You mean hot rodders have been known to brag and exaggerate ??!! I'm not sure I can believe that. LOL

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