Speed33 Convertible
American Speed Equipment
If Ford ever re-released the '33/34 roadster, it's likely it would look like American Speed Company's Speed33. Externally, it resembles its Dearborn counterpart, but it's an appearance that runs only skin deep. For below that nostalgic-looking tin lurks a true contemporary car.
More than merely a roadster, for example, it's a true convertible with roll-up windows-much like a cabriolet but without the chunky windshield posts and boxy top. Rather than a lattice of timbers, it has a steel, OE-derived inner structure. Gone are the exposed hinges and dovetail latching mechanisms; in their place hidden modern hinges and bear-claw latches sourced from the same companies that make them for the OEM. When the top's up, it's a true-to-life closed car with seals and weatherstripping to thwart drafts and leaks; when the top drops, it's a bona fide open car with a view obstructed only by two thin A-pillars. And when that top drops, it tucks neatly under a flip-top tulip panel.
"Somebody could say it's like the Dearborn Deuce," Mark Trostle commented. "Well, that's because our group designed that for Hot Rods & Horsepower." You see, formerly the head of American Specialty Cars when it created the Dearborn Deuce (and the Buick GNX and the Chevrolet SSR), Mark created American Speed Company specifically as a means to move on in more ways than one.
Both products are similar because the philosophy behind them is identical. "I love the looks of those cars, but I always wanted to change 'em," he began. "Your memory gets a little fuzzy when it comes to this stuff. You look back and you think they were just wonderful, but the reality was there were some shortcomings to them. As we get older-speaking for myself here-some of us like to be comfortable." And, as he muses, the Speed33 is that place where old-car aesthetics and new-car performance meet.
To give the body its old-car aesthetic, Mark and his crew scanned a cherry '33 roadster. But as you'd likely assume, they didn't copy the body, gaps, bumps, and all. Second to the top mechanism, the 4 1/2-inch-longer doors are the most obvious clues to a little design slap and tickle. Study the body even closer, and you'll see tight and consistent fit and finish of which Henry's body never bragged. "Because we're based out of Detroit," Mark pointed out, "it was completely engineered in CAD by OE engineering and designers who work in the industry on a daily basis."
As part of that design process, "We actually milled a fullsize foam model that we reviewed that all the character lines and the surfacing was the way we wanted it to be," he noted. The decklid, for example, "was flat in the middle and wasn't what it should be aesthetically," Mark revealed. So his crew tuned it up before tooling up. For that reason, no Speed33 body panels will fit a true Ford.
"But the rear wheel opening," Mark explained, "we wanted that to be an exact duplicate so you could bolt on a stock fender." And that's something unique about the car: While it's tuned to modern standards, the body accepts a stock hood, tank cover, fenders, running boards, and so on. In fact, "This was designed with all the body mounts common with the standard chassis," he said. "Take a stock '33/34 car, and you can bolt this body right on it with the fenders. In fact, we're in the process of putting one of those cars together.
"One thing that sets us apart is a no-cost option," he continued. "If you tell me you're going to build a contemporary looking car with no fenders, we offer it channeled 1 3/4 inches. If you just pull the fenders off an original car, the cowl is actually above the framerails. Well, with this (option), the body drops over the chassis."
While the design and tooling phase consumed more than a year, American Speed Company has produced 18 bodies from September to December 2007-that's six cars a month. "We were getting two bodies a day out at one point," Mark proclaimed. "We don't want to work that way on a regular basis, but I will tell you that our projection is in the 15-bodies-a-month range."
As faithful as its appearances may suggest, Mark said he knows the Speed33 isn't the answer to the purists' prayers. "It's not meant to go to somebody who wants to build an exact reproduction," he cautioned. "We didn't want to lose the essence of what the original car was; we just did all the things that we thought somebody would like to see in a hot rod."