Mart's Real Hot Rods
The Clockwork Orange Story  

 

Words by Mart. Pics by Mart and Ian Sabell. Page down for the piccies. 

In the late 70's I teamed up with good mates Ian Sabell and John Kowalewsky and built a car we called Clockwork Orange.
The project grew out of the remnants of an 1935 Austin 12. I bought the Austin at age 16 and basically my enthusiasm overtook my ability and I ended up scrapping the car, but saved the chassis, which was in good shape. When the Jago '32 Ford glass bodies became available, I shelled out the ackers and bought one. I started to gather the parts to build a car and dropped onto a '32 Ford front axle, wishbone, rear radius rods and rear spring. I got hold of a truck 21stud flatmotor and an Austin Westminster axle. A Ford Transit yielded up the front spindles, hubs and brakes. A pop spring held up the front.
At this point the project languished, until over a drink, we decided to team together and rebuild the car for the drags, using an Alfa Romeo engine John already had. Thus was born the Clockwork Orange.
Its a bit hazy now, but I think at the first meet, we blew out a big end. The engine was stripped and repaired, then at the second meeting the flywheel exploded, due to an over-zealous lightening job (whoops!). Somewhat disheartened by these catsarsetrophys, we decided to out the Alfa lump and drop in a 390 Ford FE. I had bought this previously at the bargain price of £100 including tranny and 9-inch rear. The engine went in ok and was hastily rebuilt which meant basically re-ringed, reground and re-assembled.  That was more like it! The engine was basically stock, but in such a light car gave quite a thrilling ride for a bunch of raw beginners. Instrumentation consisted of a single small revcounter. A B&M Ratchet shifter took care of the tranny. The car was raced like this for a while, then it was decided to put it on the road, for fun, and to take advantage of the new street class which was run off a dial-in instead of heads up like the modified class we were in before. Minimal fenders were fitted, a speedo, number plates (luckily I still had the registration documents that went with the chassis). Wanting more power, we bought a nitrous kit and plumbed that in. It came with 2 levels of boost, the first one was tried on the road on the way to a race meeting. Wondering what all the fuss was about, the second set of jets were fitted in a lay by and found to be just the job. Start line technique was to hold in a microswitch attached to the gear stick which held the nitrous off, mash the throttle on the amber, then let go the microswitch half way through first gear. This would make the circuit, and switch on the nitrous. The car turned in some respectable times, somewhere about 12.50. Over the winter, we rebuilt the engine with a 60 thou overbore, new pistons, a cam, and other bits.  We replaced the Axle with a Jag live axle stuffed with a powr-lok diff from an IRS, with the westminster brakes retained (don't ask). The rear suspension was reworked to a sort of triangulated 4-link with radical geometry based on the Alston theories popular at the time.
All this work netted a best time of 11.35.
The car then suffered a couple of setbacks, The rebuilt engine threw a rod, completely trashing all the new parts. Another engine was cobbled together using parts from all over the place, including the pre- rebuild pistons.  The car ran a few more meets, then it was involved in a crash, (while being driven on the road), spinning, and bouncing both ends off the armco barrier. The front radius rod, and right hand rail was bent. The rad was trashed, as was the bonnet and grille.
At this point we sort of lost heart and sold the car, thus ending an entertaining and memorable chapter in our lives.
 
  
First time out, Ian driving, John doing the start line crew bit. Note two small exhausts used on the Alfa engine. Borrowed centerlines on MGB discs on the front. the Transit hubs weren't done yet. Note early Transit and Thames in background, both a rare sight now.
  
Rear view from the first meet. Westminster Axle had nicely tapering tubes.
  
If it don't go, just park it up and let people look at it. Big end had just gone. Steve Boden's Prefect keeping it company. The MGB hubs and centerlines made for  very wide front ent.
  
V8 just fitted. Class changed from L Mod to A Mod due to bigger motor. Extra bar on roll cage too. Transit brakes redrilled to 5" pcd to fit our new cragar SS mags. (Thanks for hand carrying them back from the states, John) grille looks solid, was in fact mesh.
  
We hired a pipe bender to make some headers, but it just crushed the tubing. Had to settle on straight stub pipes instead. Rear tyres donated by Clive off the back of his Gremlin. 
  
Note minimal instrumentation, and those god-awful straight pipes.
  
Classic Hot Rod rear view, nice and simple. Little orange man (near left light) cut out from orange juice carton!
  
£100 390 FE Ford dropped into place no problem. helped by the fact it had already been in there before the ill-fated Alfa. Note valve springs added to shox in vain attempt to counter the sudden increase in front end weight. Shox mounted this close together are useless but keep the front end clean looking.
Moody B&W shot by John L. Noteable are the Pop headlamps, and Jag S-Type Rad, This denotes street use. Those beautifully proportioned slicks were Drag-Star. Inboard shox were reworked later to a more conventional position (read one that actually worked) 
In full street trim. exhaust system, headers, front cycle guards, wind deflector was simple ally sheet taped to scuttle. All this crapola spoiled the clean lines of the original track only car, but was a necessity. Car was a blast on the street. 
12.87 dial in. Camaro has 13.7, I see.
What's this doing here? This was my daily driver Thames 300E van. This was pressed into service when the roadster was out of action, to try to keep up in the points ratings. 2-litre Alfa power, tube chassis, was good fun on the road. Can't remember why we took the bonnet off...Used to put a 5.125 diff in for the drags, had the T-Bird heads bolted to the rear floor for ballast. Got a feeling we won one meet using the van. 
 
All contents property of Martin Holden, Solihull, England.
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