This car is made almost entirely of mechanical parts from the 1930s, but it can travel at speeds of up to 70 mph

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Dominic Palazzolo (Dominic Palazzolo) occasionally appears in auto shows and cruises, but he is far from a typical enthusiast. The 1930 Ford Type A jump car he drove was a "work", a hot rod before the word "hot rod" was coined: a car made almost entirely of mechanical parts from the 1930s, but it was able to beat many Hyundai cars are at traffic lights.

"Gow" used to be a term for opium and was used to improve horse racing performance in the early 20th century. So in 1930—long before the hot rod became mainstream after World War II—a beating car was a good job. About 20 years later, car enthusiasts coined the term "hot rod". However, the seeds of American high-performance hobbies were planted on dry lake beds in California in the late 1920s.

What made our grandfathers want to refuel their cars? History shows that we humans have always wanted to know whose machine is the fastest. We are born to be competitive. Chariot racing became part of the ancient Olympic Games in 680 BC. Since their carriage ruled the road for the first time, their neighbors have challenged each other. Less than 10 years after the roar of the first car in 1886, basic cars competed on two continents.

Some of the earliest informal racing events in the United States were held at Mulok Dry Lake in California in the 1920s. The vast lake bed provides ample space for acceleration. (The U.S. military has not forgotten this fact. The U.S. military established the current Edwards Air Force Base at Mullock in 1938.) But in the years before the military took over, many young daredevils took their Ford T Type A and Type A have been pushed to an unprecedented speed to achieve a hard sunbathing surface of the lake bed. Most cars have removed unnecessary parts, such as fenders and interior trim to reduce weight, and modified the engine to produce more horsepower than Henry Ford gave them.

Many of the early entries were the Ford Model T, but when the Detroit automaker introduced the Model A in 1928, those who pursued speed realized its potential. One of the earliest recorded dry lake events was held in 1931. The winner was Ike Trone, who drove a 1929 Type A convertible sports car equipped with Riley cylinder heads and various other performance parts purchased from a start-up garage entrepreneur. It will eventually become part of California's huge automotive performance industry.

When the 65-year-old Mr. Palazzolo bought a 1930 Model A from his friends Keith and Judy Allen in 1930, he bought exactly this machine-a retro A. Type lake car. All of them live in Macomb County, Michigan, about 35 miles northeast of Detroit.

This car was modified in an old-school way by the old-school couple Allens. Keith Allen is a 77-year-old self-taught mechanic who has a soft spot for the Ford Model A. The Allen and his wife are both purists and love traditional hot rod cars. They have owned and modified many early Ford cars, so they sold the car to Mr. Palazzolo. There are rules: it will never be equipped with a V-8, and Without the consent of the three parties, no changes may be made to its configuration. That is a contract to maintain the honor of the special machine.

When the Allen family made this car about six years ago, it was a masterpiece of the art of scavenging: find parts here, there and anywhere, reassemble them, and then assemble a car from scratch. Mr. Allen found some original Type A body parts in a garage in the Irish Hills area of ​​Michigan and took them to Ford sheet metal experts before the war, who used original Type A rivets to assemble them.

A separately purchased chassis was equipped with reconstructed but original equipment: brakes, steering and transmission system components, and a used but repairable Type A engine. Mrs. Allen, who worked side by side with her husband, found a set of slightly wider 1935-style tires at an exchange meeting, and she installed them on Ford wheels of the same year—just like enthusiasts before the war did. Like that. The Ellens drove for a while, but they burned out the worn out engine.

The couple saw this as an opportunity to install the kind of "bang-bang" engine that the Model A modified in the mid-1930s might have — this was one of the first cars to race on a dry lake.

The 3.3-liter engine delivered from the Ford plant has an output of approximately 40 horsepower. In order to give it greater impact, Mr. Allen applied ancient engine modifications, including increasing the engine's compression ratio and displacement. Both are achieved by machining engine parts. The single carburetor and intake manifold specified by Henry Ford for his engine were replaced by two carburetors on the intake manifold provided by the aftermarket, which are exact replicas of those available in the 1930s. To help the engine take in air and discharge exhaust more efficiently, a camshaft with more lift and duration is assigned the task of opening and closing engine valves. All parts are available for enthusiasts in the 1930s.

The gearbox and rear end were rebuilt with Type A parts. Therefore, the transmission does not have the smooth shifting synchronizer in modern manual transmissions, so operating it requires practice and skill.

After Mr. Palazzolo bought the car, he modified the interior with the seats of a Model A Tudor sedan. The Type A convertible sports car was originally equipped with bench seats, but Mr. Palazzolo preferred Tudor's independent seats. Today, most people would call them bucket seats, but in the 1930s, they were called jumping seats because of the various jumps required to move from one seat to another.

Mr. Palazzolo added a foldable canvas top, which would be considered an unnecessary luxury for Type A racers in the Jazz Age, but it can protect the driver and passengers when the weather becomes bad. Lakester racers who have the top will undoubtedly take it off during a speed race, because the extra weight and aerodynamic obstacles are a burden when the maximum speed is the goal.

Mr. Palazzolo has allowed the car to reach 70 miles per hour on rare occasions. He said it may be able to reach 80 miles or more, but the narrow bias tires are not reassuring at high speeds. Dry Lake Racer is a bold person, but Mr. Palazzolo does not think he played that role. However, he is a long-term car enthusiast with mechanical skills and likes to work on cars as needed, and he considers himself a grateful student of Allens.

"I think Keith is my stepbrother," he said. "My wife Dody and I are good friends of Keith and Judy Allen and we are often with them. Their respect for history and tradition makes me want to own, pull and drive this car. I like it. It's different . This is something that few others have."