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In 1960, Elwin purchased a Daytona body from La Dawri. Elwin
used a '50 Kaiser-Fraser (Henry-J) Chassis, for brakes '51Ford
front, '55 Ford rear end, and a '55 Thunderbird engine, '56 Ford Hyd
clutch, into a '54 3 speed w/OD transmission and made a 14"
driveshaft to move engine backwards for better handling.
Completed in 1964, Elwin left a trail of devastated Mustangs and
Jaguars in the rear view mirror of his Daytona through the late
60's, until Detroit decided they needed to build some real muscle to
satisfy those who couldn't build their own.
William Cobb was a friend of Elwin's son Al, and had developed a
'bond' with his friend's father's car...so when it became available
to William in 1975, the car moved to Delton, MI, then in 1988 to
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Bill Cobb grew up with race cars, was a both a round track racer (
SuperModifieds ) and SCCA road racer ( 1963 Corvette 327.)
Bill said " When I was growing up, if it had wheels and a motor, I
loved it, and wanted to race it. I raced Soap Box Derbies, Go Carts,
Scooters, Motorcycles, Street Rods, Sportsman, Flying stockers,
Figure 8"s, Late Model stocks, Super Modifieds, Corvettes, and a
1961 Jaguar XKE. ".............." After I quit racing, I wanted a
race car that was streetable...and Elwin's Daytona was just perfect
"
He proceeded to squeeze more power from the 292 cu in Y-block,
mounting 3 Holley 94's on a Wiend intake. The '56 Ford High
Performance clutch was bolted to a 25 lb lightened & balanced
flywheel.
Bill also made some updates, '70 Ford Maverick radiator, and
upgraded the wiring to 1973 Ford 12v...adding a full soft top and
curtains from a '73 Fiat (the car had the original Hard Top
option)...
1980 1984
In 1990, the body was totally stripped and refinished in DuPont Red
Acryllic
1990
Bill sold the car in 1996 to Gary Rude, Muskeego, WI
Gary thought the clutch did not have enough bite in second gear, for
the amount of power being produced by the modified Y-block, so Gary
had the engine and transmission carefully removed. Removal is one
thing...Gary was unable to find someone to do the High Performance
clutch job right and re-install, before his interest and patience
ran out. Gary sold the car to me, and I moved the car to North
Alabama
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