{"id":12841,"date":"2015-02-26T16:23:38","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T00:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=12841"},"modified":"2015-11-11T10:43:32","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T18:43:32","slug":"throwback-thursday-flannerys-flying-model-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/throwback-thursday-flannerys-flying-model-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Thursday: Flannery’s Flying Model A"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Flannerys<\/a>
A spare wire wheel and tire are carried on the right side of the Ford Model A racing car<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

For as long as he can remember, Kurt Flannery wanted a vintage race car, the Orangeville IL, tool salesman thought about recreating a 1920’s board track or Indy racer. That idea crystallized in 1999, when Flannery found a Model A chassis and engine block. Several thousand hours and nearly a decade later, this home built \u201929 Ford race car turns heads wherever it goes.<\/p>\n

\"Model<\/a>
Model A motor has a high-compression head, a Riley two-port intake and a pair of Stromberg 97 carburetors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Except for aluminum floor pans and gas tank, the body, including the firewall and dashboard is made of steel. Tiny doors provide access to the small cabin. Adjustable bucket seats have seat belts and the four-spoke steering wheel is set in the right position for a medium-height driver. The engine roars to life, reminding you that you\u2019re not in a passenger car.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The car is licensed with regular Illinois \u201cLand of Lincoln\u201d license plates and has headlights and other equipment for street use.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Use of a high-compression head, Riley two-port intake manifold, dual Stromberg 97 carburetors, and a V-8 water pump enabled Flannery to nearly triple the flathead four-banger\u2019s horsepower to 110. Flannery added insert bearings and stainless valves, welded counter weights on the crank and pressurized the oiling system. He installed a Winfield grind camshaft and 24-pound aluminum flywheel. On the outside, he dressed up the motor with aluminum side covers and a ceramic coated header. Upon accelerating, the engine packs a punch and the loud exhaust echoes in your ears. Flannery chose number 27 for this 1900-pound racer as a tribute to Gilles Villeneuve, whom he met while both raced snowmobiles in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n

\"It<\/a>
It took Kurt Flannery nearly 10 years to realize his automotive dream, but now he whistles all over the place in his black bombshell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stewart Warner gauges grace the dash. The floor lever shifts handily through the three-speed manual gearbox, while mechanical brakes provide sufficient stopping power. The race car sits 10-1\/2 inches lower than the Model A. Flannery Z\u2019d the frame, which lowered the frame and body without altering the suspension. Wheelbase was stretched to 114 inches and the speedster rides on 21-inch wheels. \u201cBuilding this race car was a long but fun journey,\u201d says Flannery. \u201cThe biggest challenge was constructing the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Flannerys<\/a><\/p>\n

Flannery made cardboard templates to get the body shape he was looking for and used steel tube to create the skeleton. He had no experience in this area and learned by trial and error. \u201cI borrowed a bench top English wheel, but really didn\u2019t know how to use it, I also had an Enco 3 in 1 machine. I started with the smaller parts, and many pieces of scrap metal later, managed to turn out the speedster body I had dreamed of,\u201d he says. \u201cAnytime someone stopped by my shop and asked what I was building, I pointed at the pictures on the wall and I told them I hoped mine would turn out half as good,\u201d says Flannery.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

Adjustable black vinyl bucket seats have red seat belts and the four-spoke steering wheel is set in the right position for a driver of Kurt\u2019s stature.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, most of the 8,000 miles on the speedster\u2019s odometer were accumulated while driving to vintage car races. Flannery also enjoys putting the car-which he values at $20,000-in the concours d\u2019elegance at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This home built \u201929 Ford race car turns heads wherever it goes.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3447,3713,543,2169],"tags":[1337,2057,13,687,43,2058,542,1659,663],"class_list":["post-12841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classic","category-road-racing","category-sports-car-racing","category-throwback-thursday","tag-tbt","tag-1929-model-a","tag-classic","tag-classic-cars","tag-ford","tag-kurt-flannery","tag-road-racing","tag-sports-car-2","tag-throwback-thursday"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/FEATT4.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-3l7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12841"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12854,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12841\/revisions\/12854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}