This is the kind of car story that I absolutely love. It’s a story about Neil O’Kane, a man who in his boyhood fell in love with the race cars from the 50s that loomed larger than life in his boyhood at Oakland Speedway and Freemont Dragstrip.
Now retired, he is still celebrating the magic of ‘50s racers.
He found a car that was special to him from that era and using the restorer’s creed of ‘find or fabricate’- he has lovingly restored it. It’s a 1929 Ford V-6 open racer.
Check out the photo of Mr. O’Kane and in the restored racer. I love the orange and black paint scheme that marked out a team that was once the terror of the track.
According to Karen Holzmeister’s superb article in the Contra Costa Times, the restored classic car was capable of 130 MPH and originally ran on a nitro/methanol mixture. The classic racecar was retired when the NHRA banned nitro in 1957.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_6678016
This is my favorite quotation about the golden age this racer is from:
“This car is a perfect example of when racecars, capable of winning top elimination (races), could be built by two people on a limited budget,” O’Kane said. “Teams in 1950 had a $2,000 budget. Now, teams have budgets of $2 million to $3 million a year.”
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