Dennis Halpin is a lifetime hot rodder so when he found this ’27 Model T his plan was simple-more power.
The hot-rodders battle cry.
Dennis made one big mistake-he drove the car and started having fun with the stock 82-year-old Ford.
But the Dennis Halpin “inner hot rod guy” was strong.
Dennis had owned a Model T or, more accurately, a Hemi-powered fiberglass bodied roadster and he saw this car as a good fit for a 50s “Time Capsule” tribute rod complete with a flathead motor.
This car had been done before as Dennis says “It was repainted and upholstered probably in the late 50s but other than that it was an 82-year-old “Used Car”, shiny on the outside and completely worn out underneath” but it ran, and more importantly, it was a blast to drive.
But a real hot-rodder can never leave anything stock so Dennis decided to replace the tired original power train with another Model T engine.
But not a stock T engine.
Dennis told us this much: “It’s “blue printed”, balanced, ported and polished, with aluminum pistons, stainless valves, high lift cam, high compression head, modified carb, aluminum intake manifold, VW style dist, Kevlar bands in the transmission and much more. You could easily build a 10 second Chevy small block for what I’ve got in this engine $$$. It’s got twice the original 22 HP and it will do an easy 50+ MPH though that’s not a smart idea. Model T’s only have rear wheel brakes and were well known for leaving 2 little skinny skid marks right up to whatever they smash into”.
Dennis is a smart guy-he’s managed to build a car that is stock enough to keep the Model T fraternity happy, yet…
his hot rod buddies can never throw rocks at a guy who doubled the stock horsepower on his “ride”.
Jerry Sutherland
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