| (12-1-08) From Charles Greenlaw:
"I ran across your website this morning,
searching for FUBAR Special items. Dave Dunbar was my brother-in-law.
He bought the car from Cannon Engineering
in North Hollywood. It had been started by one of the McAfee brothers
and finished by Ford Robinson (or vice versa). I remember the day
he picked it up. It had languished outside the shop for some time
under a tarp. We towed it home and worked at trying to start it.
The original engine was a flathead, as you note. I don't recall the
exact specs but it was a stroker with a Mercury crank. Dave got it running
and cleaned up enough to start racing it in local SCCA races -- Paramount
Ranch, Goleta, and Riverside are some that I got to go to with him.
He blew the flathead engine eventually
and replaced it with a Buick nailhead he bought from Max Balchowsky. I
think he replaced the transmission with a LaSalle as well, keeping the
torque tube driveshaft. I was in the Navy by this time and didn't
get to see him race this combo.
When this engine came apart, he parked
the car and never touched it again; I have no idea why. When he died
(in a small plane accident) his wife and son decided to resurrect the car
and put it back on the race course. The drivetrain is all new --
351 Windsor engine, 5-speed, 9" Ford rearend -- but the body remains the
same.
It is titled as a 1938 Ford Roadster.
The frame and (original) runnng gear was 1938 Ford. The front fenders
were MG-TC (as you observed on your website), the rear fenders were Model-A.
The grill shell was from a Franklin -- the grill insert from a refrigerator.
The rest of the car was fabricated.
Thanks for preserving these memories.
Racing with Dave was one of the high points of my teenage years."
(12-1-08) From Ron
Cummings:
"The McAfees were not related.
I am pretty sure that Jack McAfee had nothing to do with the Faber but
it is quite possible that Ernie McAfee's shop may have worked on it.
Ford Robinson was a friend of Big Jack McAfee and that may be causing some
of the association with Jack."
(12-1-08) From Pete Van Law:
"Gotta jump in here. Neither Jack
nor Ernie were into Specials, but Ted Cannon and Jim Sealy were. Whether
or not Ford Robinson was involved, I don't know, but he used to hang around
Jack's place, especially in '54, prior to the fifth running of the Carrera
PanAmericana, when I worked there.
I thought he'd been involved with midgets
and possibly sprints, but big bore Specials I kind of question, although
he and Jack were good friends with Ted and Jim.
I used to make periodic trips to Cannon
Engineering, hauling parts back and forth, but other than the Cannon Specials
languishing in the yard - 1st the CR1 and then the Offy coupe - I don't
remember enough space to build anything else, especially inside.
Of course, the Fubar could have been outside, under cover, while the Cannon
cars never were. Regardless, that was a long time ago, and my memory
can't always be trusted." |
