Re: "Alley Oop" Danbury Modifiers Lyndwood B/D =Dover House Car

The Westport Downshifters had a Lyndwood chassis too, back about 60-62. The club project kind of floundered around for several years as the older members moved on and new guys came in. Money was always an issue for a bunch of kids like us. Most couldn’t even get a licence yet, let alone build a “race car”. But hell, we all read Hot Rod, what more did we need to know? The car finally made it to the track in 68, after a lot of adventures, err, tuning, running around on the streets surrounding the several garages we were thrown out of. With a basically stock flathead, spray bomb paint and some retread tires that looked a lot like snowtires, we were ready for the big time…Dover. We learned alot that summer. Mostly we found out that we were way out above our skills, in a car that was considered obsolete just about the time it was new. The golden age of FED’s passed us by much like everybody we ran against. So a core group of diehard fools decided that rather than start over with something different (more current), we would “develop” the car we had. The car went on a diet, got some wire’s up front, mags in back with “real” slicks, replaced the 1930’s ford trans that blew up with a late model 3 speed, added a parachute and a fancy paint job. The flattie got a bigtime make over too. Professional port/relieve job by a guy who did Danbury motors, 239 to 296″, Isky 404 cam,light valves, better heads, Vertex mag, “Blueprinted and balanced”, aluminum flywheel/HD clutch. And the best score…a Hilborn fuel injection setup.
We went from low 15’s to a best of 11.3. There was another second left in it we felt, but first Uncle Sam called, then it “Jest blowed up”.
The Lyndwood chassis went on to new owners on Long Island. I kept the flattie to put in a T Bucket when I got back. End of my drag racing. Looking back, I’d like to think we were at the forefront of nostalgia racing.