Photo: Mecum
It may look like it’s made to be soft, both physically and mechanically, but it’s not. This special race car, built on a Maserati chassis born before the second world war, reached back in 1957 quarter mile top speeds of 117 mph (188 kph).
What we have in front of our eyes is called the 1953 Wright Special Race Car, named so after Johnny Wright, the man responsible for coming up with the body of the car. A body that looks as if it’s made of Play-Doh, but is actually a hand-crafted aluminum piece that has a strange familiarity to it.
You see, this here car, which is still listed as for sale on the Mecum website well past the Kissimmee auction where the current owners tried to sell it, has some great names of the auto industry attached to it, including Carroll Shelby.
America’s iconic designer is the man responsible for the frame tubing that went into making this car, and possibly some other ideas too, as he was a consultant for the build. His exact influence on the end result is not known, but there are some speculation Shelby was himself influenced by it, and possibly even inspired to eventually unleash his version of the AC Ace with the Cobra.
The Wright Special as we see it in the gallery above comes equipped with a Corvette C1 engine, but two others were used before it, a modified Lincoln flathead V8 and then a Corvette C1 265ci. As it sits before us, the current engine's capacity was increased from 283ci to 331ci by means of custom crank, rods and camshaft. With these modifications and a bunch of others, the powerplant was rated at 350 hp.
In this configuration, the car’s top speed was recorded to be 143.6 mph (231.1 kph), or 117 mph in a quarter mile run.
As for the body of the Wright, it has been restored to be exactly as it was when appeared in the Hot Rod magazine in 1960s.
You can learn more about the history of this car at this link.
You see, this here car, which is still listed as for sale on the Mecum website well past the Kissimmee auction where the current owners tried to sell it, has some great names of the auto industry attached to it, including Carroll Shelby.
America’s iconic designer is the man responsible for the frame tubing that went into making this car, and possibly some other ideas too, as he was a consultant for the build. His exact influence on the end result is not known, but there are some speculation Shelby was himself influenced by it, and possibly even inspired to eventually unleash his version of the AC Ace with the Cobra.
The Wright Special as we see it in the gallery above comes equipped with a Corvette C1 engine, but two others were used before it, a modified Lincoln flathead V8 and then a Corvette C1 265ci. As it sits before us, the current engine's capacity was increased from 283ci to 331ci by means of custom crank, rods and camshaft. With these modifications and a bunch of others, the powerplant was rated at 350 hp.
In this configuration, the car’s top speed was recorded to be 143.6 mph (231.1 kph), or 117 mph in a quarter mile run.
As for the body of the Wright, it has been restored to be exactly as it was when appeared in the Hot Rod magazine in 1960s.
You can learn more about the history of this car at this link.
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