Ford Tudor 1940

In the 1950’s, hot rodder Doug De Bord had a dream about building an NHRA dragstrip in his hometown of Muncie, Indiana.  Being a founder of the Delaware County (IN) Timing Association as well as a founder of the prestigious Rod Benders hot rod club, Doug wanted more…to build an “official” place where locals and later on, “nationals,” could find a clean, fast race track to compete on.

In early 2005, Son Eric decided to start his search for a 100 % rust free, straight 1940 Ford Tudor as the basis for the Doug De Bord Tribute.  To make this project right, Eric was in the hunt for a PERFECT base to start the project.   Specifically, Eric did not want any cars that were hot rodded, customized or otherwise “hacked” away from being a perfect, stock, and unmolested car.  Simply, Eric knew that it would take significant dollars to create this period correct tribute and wanted to start with a strong basis to make it happen.

After almost a year of looking and numerous trips to see cars that were less than described, Eric found an obscure ad in a local North Carolina collector car listing that described a “no rust North Carolina car all of its life” with a 1948 Ford Flathead with around 34,000 miles.  The owner communicated that the car was purchased locally and had been driven all of its life in the Kannapolis/Concord, North Carolina area.  After further discussions with the car’s owner, Eric was informed that the owner bought the car from a gentleman whose family had owned the car from its initial purchase in North Carolina.  Interestingly, the original owner of the car had actually built race cars for legendary race car driver Ralph Earnhardt.

Eric and the owner swapped information and after receiving pictures and a detailed description of the car and its history, Eric decided that this car might be “it.”  Knowing that great cars sell fast, Eric asked one of his close friends, Kyle Tucker of Detroit Speed & Engineering of Mooresville, North Carolina, to personally drive and inspect the car.  In the interim, Eric was informed by the owner that the car had some “special period enhancements that you (Eric) would like.”  Despite that it was raining, Kyle called Eric that morning to report that the car was pristine and told Eric that “if you don’t buy it, I will!”

Needless to say, Eric bought the car “sight unseen” and immediately commenced the construction of the Doug De Bord tribute!

Steering wheel sent "Down under" for Regency Red pearl treatment