A Ford Flathead V8 Wins the Great Race (again)!

We love following along with the Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty. It is one of our sister companies, and it attracts 120 racing teams from all over the world. You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff that gets used and abused on 2,300 miles of intense rallying. We’re talking high dollar stuff, but there are also lots of good old fashioned Fords in the mix, including a bunch of Flathead V8 powered Fords. We always like to peek under the hood to see if these cars and trucks have stock equipment or if they’ve been hopped up, and it’s usually a pretty even split. Last year, a 1932 Ford Cabriolet won the event, using a mostly stock V8 to motivate them to a victory. This year, it was a 1933 Ford pickup, driven by Jeff Fredette and navigated by his son Eric Fredette. They’re from Beecher, Illinois and they have been doing the vintage car rally thing for many years. They’ve come close to winning the Great Race on a few occasions, but this year, they finally did it with a come-from-behind victory on the final day of competition. This year’s route took the racers from Buffalo, New York (a town known for its automotive influence in the early days) to Halifax, Nova Scotia. This epic journey was not for the ill-prepared, as the terrain, weather and traffic plays a big part in staying on time. The Fredette boys nailed it and took home more than $50,000 and the famous bird trophy. In fact, they won two trophies…one for their class win and one for the overall win. All in all, the ol’ Flathead V8 held up pretty well, and we’re glad to see these guys out there leaning on it every chance they get!