BOB STOLL'S TRACK-TOR

click to enlarge

In Issue #7, Zombie offered his concept drawings of a tractor based Drag-tor.  Bob Stoll built a similar car, a Massey-Harris based creation, in 1996 to look like a dirt track racer,  While Zombie’s idea was based on how a Drag-tor might look, Bob’s car started quite differently.  Bob told me that he had a Mullins straight axle that he wanted to build something with, but had let it sit for awhile.  One day his son called and told him that there was an old tractor just down the road that was going to be sent to the scrap yard.  The  son suggested that his dad might like to grab it for “yard art”, since Bob lives in a rural area and has lots of old iron around his property.  When he went to look at the tractor, Bob decided it would make a good looking foundation for some kind of a vehicle, so he brought it home and got started on what could have turned out as a Drag-tor.

Bob had an old Model T chassis laying around, along with a Model B four-banger and enough other parts to get a rolling chassis going.  He narrowed the chassis to fit the width dimensions of the Massey-Harris grill and hood.  The rear of the chassis was bobbed behind the spring mount.  The Mullins front axle was mounted “suicide style” to the front chassis rail, along with a pair of friction shocks.  A ’37 Ford banjo rear end was added in back. While Bob added juice brakes to the ’37 differential, he didn’t plan on driving the car much, so he built it with no front brakes.

Read the rest of this article in ISSUE 10: FAMOSO SPEED SHOP GASSER