Captain Midnight
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I know most of you think I`m crazy to build a car that I can`t race because it doesn`t meet all of the safety requirements, but let me tell you why I did it.
For years I wanted to build a car that was different. Everyone had a Camaro, Mustang, or Chevelle and no matter how nice any of these cars were, they were just cars.
I have been restoring and building cars most of my life, I`m now 65, and wanted to build something of my own design and build the way it would have been built in the `50s.
I first had the idea to build this car about 1994. When I started the project, I knew I wouldn`t race it at Bonneville and at the time I didn`t know about the East Coast Timing Association .
After a failed beginning, I put the car on hold while I worked on other things.
About 2004, my brother spotted a P-38 on E-Bay and after a heated bidding war with some guy in California, I had a tank. The tank sat around until 2005, while I waited for motivation.
I wanted to build a car that not only looked good, but that I would be able to drive. The tank was only a little over ten feet long and to install a transmission so I could drive it meant that it would have to be lengthened so I cut it in half and added 18” to the middle.
OK, now that it`s long enough I have to build the frame. This is what I made.
At this point, I was going to add a roll bar but it wouldn`t fit inside of the body and I didn`t want to make one that would stick out of the body. If I had added a roll bar at this point I wouldn`t been able to mount the battery or overflow tank for the cooling system due to the very limited space I had to work with. I would have had a difficult, if not impossible time removing the motor. That`s why I didn`t install a roll bar.
If I`d known about the ECTA when I began this project seven years ago, I would have built the car differently.
I have learned quite a bit over the past few years while building this car and If I build another one, you can bet it will be built to race.
Here is the finished car.
Now it`s time to start something new. If you`d like to see more about this car, go to my website,
www.mccainautomotive.com Thanks for taking time to read this, and maybe I`ll see you at the track this year.
Jeff McCain
