Penn finds excitement in a slimming diet for an old Dodge

Fun comes in various guises and this is especially true of old cars, when sometimes you have to work hard at choosing between the urge to pose as a staid bourgeoisie from the early eras or simulate a champion racing driver from the glory years.

Clearly I’m of the school that likes old cars because of the images they can create for me. But I must say that this boat-tailed vintage Dodge Special owned by Mike Woods has the potential to be a whole lot more fun than other old-timers where doors and windows and roofs are still there to protect you from the elements. None of that here in Mike’s car, this car is for sporting people who like to be exposed not only to the gaze of the peasantry, but also to the effects of the sun, wind and rain.

As soon as we took to the Birkenhead roads of a Sunday morning, the two of us shoehorned into the front — and only — seat, we were rocketing along at an indicated 40mph (64kph). I knew that this was a sensation way ahead of the big four-door saloon guise this old car started out as in 1925. Makes me think of the potential in some of those other slab-sided old cars — bearing in mind that there is nothing sacred about originality simply for its own sake. Indeed, if a 1925 everyday car was owned and used by the same family continuously there would always be changes taking place as a better idea popped up.

I don’t know why we should replace our first car — why not just modify it as better bits come along? Hush! Is that a lynch mob I hear coming down the road?

Rebodying the Dodge

Some years ago — in the late ’90s — Mark Dunn in Gisborne decided to re-body this ’20s Dodge, finally finishing the project and registering the result in 2002.
You have to remember that all those older Yanks were built to propel a large and heavy body (not to mention massive chassis) at a brisk clip across the vastness of the Wild West, or chase other gangsters in the cities. When a 3.4-litre, flathead four-cylinder has all that weight lifted off it, it gets to flex its torque, breath effortlessly and suddenly it’s all go. Agreed, the addition of an electric fuel pump and a Stromberg carburettor help in this transmogrification.

With the extra power released, along with stiffened leaf spring suspension on the four corners, stabilised by excellent shocks, Mark now had a parallel universe ‘SUV’ Mark got five years of fun out of the car before selling it to Mike a little over a year ago. Mike said he’d just sold their last toy car, a Buckler, and then saw the Dodge being advertised for sale.

On the Road

Climbing into the Dodge was a bit of a mission for this aging enthusiast. You have to step up and onto a small handily placed foot bracket, then lithely swing the other leg over and slide neatly into position. Well a lot of that litheness has been lost in the intervening years and mounting was a bit of a mission. Although, once ensconced, I felt very secure and snug.

Mike fired up the starter generator and the large lump of cast iron burst instantly into life, no grinding ring gear. There’s a Morse chain on the front of the engine, and when it spins the motor it’s very quiet. The starter then converts into a generator. However, too many revs come from a three to one ratio, so high engine revolutions translate to very high revolutions here — with consequential difficulties.

This is a negative to earth 12-volt system, and the next model went back to conventional starter and generator and a six-volt system.

On the open road Mike sticks to 2000 to 5000rpm and the Dodge’s recently overhauled motor is surprisingly smooth. I say ‘surprisingly’ because, I guess, I expected the sounds and physical sensations of a real old-timer. Instead, there was a powerfully evocative muted rumbling of a motor in very good heart and ready to go to work!

Mike is of the old school, double clutching is a norm and he slipped effortlessly from gear to gear — all three of them — pumping the clutch pedal in neutral between cogs as we quickly built up speed. Once top gear is reached, huge torque means that everything is done in that gear. However, the speed that you hit the Harbour Bridge at, is the speed that you effortlessly go over the top of the bridge.

Motoring Pleasure

As the first corner came up, Mike never slackened off, but the car corners exactly as it looks as if it would — you slip around as if on rails on those narrow tyres, flatly with not a vestige of roll. Subconsciously, I’m awaiting a slide halfway around as adhesion lets go.

However, it never even looks like sliding, and a hasty glance at the speedo tells you why — we’re only doing about 56kph not the 160 it feels like! This is the race car for windy old poseurs like this scribe, and brings a whole new dimension to vintage motoring.

Any time Mike pressed the loud pedal, in any gear, the engine’s torque pressed you back in your seat most pleasurably — here was a good reason for the loss of running boards and big doors, not to mention the usual ballroom-sized space in the cabins of the original saloons.

The two of us were neatly compacted together, feeling as one within the speeding cocoon, and experienced motoring pleasure that is hard to find in modern mechanical marvels which insulate you so effectively from the road.

Japanese perfection has much to answer for

This Dodge opened up some new concepts for me — a number of ’20s US cars, and/ or parts, sanctified by age are coming on a quietly subsiding market. As we all know restoration is very expensive, especially when it comes to wood-framed bodies, so there’s a possibility that these cars (if unrestored or where there’s not a complete vehicle) are prime prospects for re-birthing as ‘specials’ — after all we’ve been doing it with Austin 7s and their ilk for years, Personally, I’d rather have an Austin 7 Special than a completely original car — except, maybe, an Austin 7 roadster?

Period Look

This Dodge Special is based on one car, and all the mechanical and chassis bits are from that 1925 saloon. The original chassis has been stripped and refinished and tidied. The original disc wheels, with their skinny tyres, still look perfectly at home. Indeed, they add to the period look, as does the pair of spares mounted on the rear of the boat-tail.

The leaf springs have been reversed and maybe stiffened or added to and, of course, the big rear brakes have been painstakingly gone over and work well.

Mike’s contemplating looking for a front axle with brakes installed. But since he’s also contemplating selling the car, that might not come about in this ownership cycle. Personally, only having rear brakes does make me nervous even though I’ve been in plenty of old-timers with rear brakes that bit hugely.

The car’s front aspect features the original radiator, complete with Dodge badge and mascot wings fronting the Dodge’s bonnet and the original but mildly reworked scuttle. That’s topped by the original folding windscreen complete with manually operated windscreen wiper, brought out at warrant time and duly demonstrated.

From the scuttle back there are no doors as such, just a swooping arm-line on each side allowing driver and ‘racing’ mechanic to casually drape their outer arms. To the rear of these vestigial doors is the boat-tail rear and cycle guards for the rear wheels.

The whole effect is one of simplicity. The lines are clean and uncluttered and the styling looks suitable to the period. There is a soft-top that gives protection, is easily folded away and looks appropriate, but it’s not for protecting madam’s hair.

The whole effect grows on you, and all that I’d change would be the passenger’s step, which I’d move forward in deference to pennsioners riding shotgun.

Words: Penn McKay Photos: Michael Woods