MY FEEDLY

Weekend Project: A Custom Ford Thunderbird Go-Kart – $500+ USD

This unusual vintage go-kart features a Ford Thunderbird inspired body fitted to a traditional tubular steel go-kart frame with a rear-mounted Briggs & Stratton engine.

Karts like this have been popular for decades as both fair ground and amusement park attractions as well as toys for adults and kits alike. A number of companies popped ups that offered go-karts in either turnkey condition or as kits that people could build themselves at home over the course of a weekend.

One of the most common engine manufacturers for go-karts has always been Briggs & Stratton, an American company that was founded back in 1908 by Stephen Foster Briggs and Harold M. Stratton. The two men achieved great success initially selling the small Briggs & Stratton Flyer, an incredibly simple early automobile with a wooden chassis and five wheels.

The engine that powers this go-kart is a 3.5 hp Briggs & Stratton four-stroke with a single cylinder, air-cooling, and a pull start. These engines are renowned for their toughness and will typically last decades with regular maintenance.

The controls are simple, with a yoke for steering and both a brake and accelerator pedal.

The Thunderbird fiberglass body on this kart can be unbolted and removed in once piece for easy access. It has a single padded seat and the driving controls are as you would expect, with a steering yoke for directional control and two pedals – one to go and one to stop.

For the past few years this go-kart has been part of the large Glen Hague Collection however it’s now coming up for sale with many dozens of other vehicles from the collection, with the auction taking place in Auburn, Indiana in early September.

The listing for this unusual kart doesn’t mention if it’s running or not, so any buyer should expect to need to do at least a little work on it before putting it into use. The good news is that spare parts for the engine will be nice and easy to come by.

The price guide on this kart is $500 – $1,000 USD and you can click here if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid.

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jacdurac:1955 Chrysler C300 Convertible Hemi
from Tumblr https://somar78.tumblr.com/post/661162592829603840

utwo:…surreal photographs by :© E. Johansson

utwo:

…surreal photographs by :

© E. Johansson

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qusarts:Four Meters of PerfectionMichelangelo’s David at the School of Belle Arti Museum in...
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Van Royalty: A 1969 Fiat 238 B Van In Ferrari Livery

This humble Fiat 238 B van is finished in period-correct “Ferrari Assistenza Corse” livery, these Fiat vans were frequently by racing teams and by Ferrari dealerships for roadside assistance and the transportation of parts.

Fiat took a 50% stake in Ferrari in 1969 as work began on a factory extension to build the Ferrari V6-engined Fiat Dino.

The two companies sold their own versions of the Dino with the same V6 under the hood, and Fiat’s injection of capital was instrumental in keeping Ferrari in business throughout the difficult years of the 1970s.

Fast Facts

The Fiat 238 series of vans was sold from 1967 until 1983 as a replacement for the Fiat 1100T.
In order to reduce costs and complexity, the Fiat 238 was based on the chassis of the Autobianchi Primula and it used a detuned version of the engine from the Fiat 124.
A number of different body styles and engine options were offered over the production run, including both petrol and diesel engines.
The front wheel drive layout results in a low, flat floor which helped to maximize cargo space and made the 238 popular with mobile home conversion companies.

The Fiat 238 Van

When it was released in 1967 the Fiat 238 offered a locally made van to Italians that would rival the similar vehicles coming out of Germany and Britain – vans like the VW Kombi and the Ford Transit.

During its restoration this 238 van was given full Ferrari Assistenza Corse livery, this means “Ferrari Racing Assistance” in English and it would have been used by Ferrari racing teams in the period.

In order to save money and reduce the development time the 238 is based on the front-wheel drive Autobianchi Primula platform and it’s powered by the Fiat 124 inline-four cylinder engine.

Suspension and brakes were relatively simple, as you would expect for a commercial vehicle from the 1960s, with drum brakes on all four corners, a transverse leaf spring up front, and a torsion bar arrangement in the rear.

A wide variety of body styles could be built onto the Fiat 238 platform including a variety of vans of course, as well as ambulances, trucks, passenger transport, and more. The use of front-wheel drive gave the 238 a low, flay rear floor area with was ideal for cargo, however it also made it well-suited to camper conversion.

A number of different companies offered camper builds on the 238 and the surviving examples are now considered highly collectible as the van life movement continues to gain steam.

Over the course of its production run Fiat offered a few engines in the 238, the first was the 1,197cc petrol engine, a simple inline-four cylinder producing 43 hp. In 1975 the larger and more powerful 1,438cc engine producing 45 hp and more torque, though a 51 hp version of this engine was available only in ambulances.

The spartan interior has seating for three and the engine is accessible inside the driver’s compartment.

The 238 was replaced with the Fiat Ducato in the early 1980s and the Ducato has been sold over three generations, remaining in production today.

The Fiat 238 Shown Here

The 238 you see here is a 1969 model that I thought to have been originally finished in white when it was delivered new to its first owner in Italy. It’s fitted with the 1,197cc four-cylinder engine and a manual transmission as you would expect, and its riding on period-correct steel wheels with chrome hub caps.

At some point in the van’s more recent history it was given a restoration, when the original white paint was replaced with the eye-catching Ferrari Assistenza Corse you see it wearing today.

Vans like this will appeal to a lot of people, it’s possible that it’ll sell to someone who races vintage Ferraris or to a specialist workshop that provides maintenance and restorations for Ferraris from the ’60s and ’70s.

If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on H and H Auctions. It’s due to roll across the auction block on the 8th of September and it’s being offered with no reserve.

Images courtesy of H and H Auctions

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The Highly Unusual Jensen CV8

The Jensen CV8 was one of the fastest four-seat cars in the world when it was introduced in 1962, capable of reaching speeds in excess of 136 mph (219 km/h) and accelerating from 0 – 62 mph in just 6.7 seconds.

This remarkable speed was largely down to two factors, there was a big block American V8 under the hood supplied by Chrysler, and the CV8 had a body made almost entirely from lightweight fiberglass.

Fast Facts – The Jensen CV8

Jensen Motors was a British automaker that was founded in 1922, they built a number of different car and truck designs before focussing more on sporting vehicles after WWII, many with fiberglass bodies.
The company became known for their innovation, embracing composites (fiberglass) far earlier than most automakers, later they would release the Jensen FF – the first non all-terrain production car equipped with four-wheel drive, many years before Audi and Subaru.
The most famous car ever built by Jensen is likely the Jensen Interceptor, a steel-bodied grand tourer that was released directly after the CV8 left production in 1966.

The Jensen CV8

The Jensen CV8 has always been one of those cars that people seem to either love or hate, the styling of the car is certainly eye-catching, but those double-stacked, offset headlights aren’t to everyone’s taste.

The styling of the Jensen CV8 has long been controversial, with some loving it and some finding it unsightly.

Much like earlier cars from the British marque, like the Jensen 541, the CV8 has a steel chassis with a lightweight fiberglass body, four seats, ample trunk space, and a front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels.

The controversial styling of the car has always overshadowed its remarkable engineering and excellent performance abilities, which seems a shame as it’s a car that deserves to be better known than it is.

When it was originally designed by Eric Neale the CV8 had its headlights under curved glass covers somewhat like the E-Type Jaguar, this resulted in a more elegant appearance but it was deleted on the production cars for reasons unknown.

Despite the remarkable performance abilities of the Jensen CV8 is wasn’t a big seller for the company, when production drew to a close just 500 or so had been sold. The model that came after it, the Jensen Interceptor would sell 6,408 units, albeit over a longer production run, and it remains the company’s most famous car.

Jensen CV8 – Specifications

Early versions of the CV8 were powered by the Chrysler 361 cubic inch (5.9 liter) V8 producing 295 hp. Later cars from 1964 onwards would receive the 383 cubic inch big block, also from Chrysler, producing 330 hp and a hefty 460 lb ft of torque.

The engineers at Jensen realized that due to the significant size and weight of the engine it would need to be positioned as far back in the chassis as possible to avoid nose-heavy handling and catastrophic understeer.

As a result of this they developed the chassis to accommodate the engine back just behind the front axle line, making the CV8 a front-mid engined car.

The large American V8 engines used in the CV8 were mounted back behind the front axle line, making the car front-mid-engined.

The body was made almost entirely of fiberglass, with the exception of the door skins which were shaped from aluminum alloy. Inside the car you’ll find comfortable seating for four adults in a 2+2 configuration with leather upholstery, plush carpeting, and a wood grain dashboard on later cars.

Power was sent from the front mounted engine to the rear wheels via a 3-speed Chrysler Torqueflite automatic transmission, though a small number of cars did receive a 4-speed manual gearbox.

The Jensen CV8 Shown Here

The car you see here is one of the desirable MKIII, or Mark 3, models. This was the third and final iteration of the car and it included a slew of improvements meant to help sales. These included equal sized headlamps, a wood veneer dashboard, improved ventilation, and perhaps most importantly, a dual-circuit braking system.

As a MKIII this car is powered by the larger 6.3 liter Chrysler V8 producing 330 hp, and it has the 3-speed automatic gearbox. It was first registered in 1966, then 16 years ago it was given a restoration bringing it back to the condition it’s in now.

The odometer currently shows 9,894 miles which is the distance covered since the restoration, and it’s been in the possession of its current owner for the past 12 years.

This CV8 is being auctioned live at the time of writing by Collecting Cars, if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Editor’s Note: I flubbed the timing of this post and the car has sold already, the final hammer price was £41,000 which works out to approximately $56,500 USD.