| Subject: Re: 8Ncredible |
Author:
GaryDan
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Date Posted: 11:18:14 10/19/15 Mon
In reply to:
Wes
's message, "8Ncredible" on 11:50:03 10/16/15 Fri
>I will be the first person to admit that I enjoy
>finding odd stuff on the Internet. Let's face it --
>sometimes people's creativity goes off in directions
>that we don't expect.
>
>Last week I came across one of those items that caught
>my imagination: a former NASCAR driver by the name of
>Jack Donohue recently set a new land speed record for
>farm tractors.
>
>Now, many of us in this neck of the woods have some
>experience with farm tractors, and generally speaking,
>they aren't happy going much over about twenty miles
>an hour. Back in 1935 a Bonneville racer by the name
>of Ab Jenkins got an Allis-Chalmers up to 67 miles an
>hour, and he reported that it was like trying to ride
>a frightened bison.
>
>For some reason -- probably involving sanity -- no one
>has tried to beat that record in eighty years, until
>Donohue showed up at the airstrip at Wilmington, Ohio,
>where an outfit called the East Coast Timing
>Association holds meets to time record runs. Donohue
>brought with him a somewhat modified 1952 Ford 8N,
>which had been fitted out with a 1953 Ford flathead V8
>conversion -- not quite stock, but Ford tractor
>dealers used to sell the parts for the conversion back
>in the day. "We tried to use stock equipment wherever
>we could," Donahue reports.
>
>Donohue's 8N, which he calls the "8Ncredible" looks
>pretty stock from about the steering wheel forward --
>it looks like the familiar Ford 8N that it is. From
>the steering wheel back, well, not so much, because
>the shrouded wheels covering aircraft tires and the
>heavy-duty roll cage. Although Donohue wasn't saying,
>it was pretty obvious that there had been some serious
>transmission and rear end work done.
>
>Ford quit building the 8N back in the fifties, but
>they are still commonly seen around here. Though they
>were smaller than most tractors of the era, they had
>some advanced features that were well ahead of its
>time. They were handy little beasts and were very
>useful for their size.
>
>So how fast is it? Well, Donohue got it up to 96 miles
>an hour, and he was disappointed with that -- he'd
>hoped to crack a hundred on the Bonneville Salt Flats,
>but they were closed this year for the second year in
>a row due to deteriorating salt conditions. The mile
>and a half of runway at Wilmington was definitely a
>second choice, and apparently it was a pretty hairy
>ride -- the stock front axle doesn't seem to be real
>happy at that kind of speed, and Donohue plans to do
>some work on it before he goes to the flats next year,
>assuming they're open.
>
>With apologies to the Beach Boys:
>"Just a little Eight-N with a flathead mill,
>but she'll whomp a John Deere like it's standing
>still"
Thanks for the article Wes. I'm still living the memory :D. I still have and use a Ford 9N, built in 1941. An older model to the 8N. It looks very much like the 8N except it had a front distributor cap at the end of the crankshaft in front of the engine, just behind the radiator (some early 8Ns had front distributors, but went to side mounts in later versions). It has a back blade, and small fully hydraulic front end loader. I use it as my wheelbarrow, and for snow plowing. It scares me running my 9N in high gear, let alone taking thinking about that 8N doing 96. :O
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