If you know your drag racing history than you already know what we’re going to say about this recreated version of the original “Big Al” 1934 Ford. The car that was actually raced back in the 1960s by the likes of Lytle, Ray Alley, and others lives in the Don Garlits museum down in Ocala, Florida and because he couldn’t get it back, Jim Lytle built this exact replica of the insane machine on his own. Lytle sadly passed away last December before being able to get this project finished, but it isn’t that far off. The huge supercharged Allison 1710 V12 is in place, the chassis is all done and the wildly chopped, lift off fiberglass body is in awesome and show stopping condition. Someone needs to buy this thing just to show up and do burnouts at nostalgia races across the country. There’s money to be made with this monster!
The seller correctly notes that Allison airplane engines are becoming ever more rare as the limited supply continues to shrink with each restored war bird that uses one, each tractor puller that works one to death, and each time one is sent off the smelter after lying prone in the junkyard for years on end, undiscovered. They aren’t making these piston thumping monsters any more and they haven’t since the close of WWII.When these babies are gone, they’ll be gone for good.
Lytle’s car with the shocking (and awesome) appearance, can be considered one of, if not the first funny car due to the fiberglass lift off body and modified resemblance to a factory car. It was a popular machine during the 1960s and between Lytle and a couple of others owners, it made the rounds across the country bringing people to their feet with tire smoking runs at speeds that no other full bodied car of the era was running. With the head of the driver sticking up through the roof, there’s enough whimsy to match the crazy with “Big Al”. Lytle built other Allison powered machines, including a dragster called the “Quad Al” which had four of these engines but was never completed. Since he did all the work on these cars himself, we really admire Lytle’s creativity and fearlessness. Imagine what people saw the fist time they laid eyes on this baby!
Scroll down past the photos and hit the eBay link to see the ad!
I remember seeing the original Big Al at an indoor car show sometime around 1964. It may have been at the old Pan Pacific Auditorium, can’t remember for sure. It made an impression on a car crazy 9 year old.
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