Yeah, I did some research after I wrote this and figured out that it was probably a Tobias set up. My familiarity with modifieds took place from the early 60's into near mid 70's primarily in Maine. In the time that I was quite interested and around it myself, all the modifieds I saw were unique builds. No two were alike other than in a very general way. I did make a few trips to Beech Ridge but even those cars were not advanced much more than the cars I saw locally in my part of Maine.
Everybody that I knew in racing around here, by the early 60's had started racing "jalopies" on the old fairgrounds dirt tracks. They did have two classes at most tracks, 6 cyl and 8 cyl. All the 8 cylinder cars were of course Fords. And the best 6 cyl cars were Chevrolets, though a Hudson or two would show sometimes. They started building "sportsman modified coupes" and racing at Unity around 1960, maybe before a bit. These cars were lower as they were channeled down over the frames, some were narrowed pick up cabs. Creativity abounded. This was a very interesting time as the skill of both the builder, and driver, were equally important. Nobody built a custom chassis that you could just buy, you had to use your own imagination. Ford car and pickup frames were used often, with the transverse springs. Those old guys who raced Jalopies in the beginning knew that old Ford stuff real well. That hung around here for a long time, eventually though, more and more of the winning cars would have professionally built chassis. And creativity was sort of left behind.
I am old and probably somewhat old fashioned too, but it seems to me that the racing back in those days was far more interesting than it is today. No two cars looked the same which was a great thing. You look at NASCAR cars now, and they all look the same. Something was lost, in my book, when human creativity took a back seat to whomever had the most money to spend.
MB
