50 Olds 88 and 50 Ford Coupe Go Fast's

[regular guy]

These two cars were the successors to Ford coupes/roadsters with flathead V8's of the 30's and 40's.

A racer in Portland in '52 replaced his Ford roadster with an Olds coupe and trounced the Fords.

It was probably the same story all over the US on race tracks and on the street.

The Ford needed an engine swap to make a complete package.

When the small block Chevy came along that would do it.

Then the '55-57 Chevy's and '56-57 Fords came out with decent engines already in the car and they became popular Go Fast's.

Then you can trace the popular candidates for turning into a Go Fast up through the 60's until smog and insurance rules put a crimp in things.

Then the Fuel Embargo finished things off.No more experimental Pontiac Hemi engines.All gone!

 

Edited April 22, 2019 by regular guy

[Force]

And this has to do with "Car Kit News & Reviews" in what way???? 

But it's not a huge mystery why the 50 Olds beat the old 30's and 40's Ford's who had flatheads in them.
Oldsmobile and Cadillac got Over Head Valve V8 engines in 1949 (Olds Rocket 303 cui and Cadillac 331 cui), both became very popular and were put in various cars to replace the old original less powerful engines if you wanted your car to go, Chrysler did their first OHV V8 1951 (331 cui), DeSoto 1952 (276 cui) and Dodge 1953 (241 cui) these were the first generation Hemis, Ford got their first OHV V8 engine (239 cui Y-Block) 1954 and the Chevrolet and Pontiac OHV V8 came 1955 (Chevy 265 cui small block and Pontiac 287 cui).
So in short, the OHV V8's was better, more efficient and more powerful than the old flathead V8's.
I don't know why you mention the 50 Ford Coupe tho', it still had a flathead as FoMoCo didn't do the OHV engine until 1954 as i mentioned...even the Mercury wich also had the same basic flathead V8 as the Ford's at the time had more horse power output...but the 49-51 Ford's and Mercury's was often re-powered with Cadillac or Oldsmobile OHV engines.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Force