Nitro-Blown Real Steel '31 Ford Roadster Races '32 Altered, It's Not Even Close

Case in point, the good folks over at the Race Your Ride channel on YouTube have directed our attention towards an incredibly special ‘31 Ford Roadster Altered that’s an original real steel wonder with a twist of madness. The event at the Byron, Illinois-based drag strip featured a wide array of pre-1964 cars that are as period-correct as possible.

This ride certainly fits the criteria with its original frame rails, but it’s also one Altered that stands out in the crowd – or, as the announcer said, “One Last Pass” might be one of the fastest cars on the track. It supports the praise with a beautiful build that includes a 417ci Donovan Hemi V8 that’s 20% nitro-fed and also features a Littlefield 8-71 polished aluminum competition blower on top of that.

Inside there is a Reed P6 Air Shifter and underneath a yellow Ford 9’’ rear end with 3.08 gears proudly announces: “Old Fords Never Die, They Just Go Faster.” With all that in mind, we had some lofty expectations going into the first race at the 2:21 mark against a 1932 Austin Bantam Roadster.

And it didn’t disappoint, as the driver of the ‘31 Ford managed a clean run with an 8.23s victory at 143 mph (230 kph). It was so far ahead that we didn’t even catch the time of its competitor before moving on to the next, much harder challenge. From the 3:17 mark, the Altered met a cool brown-orange dragster, but it turned out that keeping the monster at bay was a tad more difficult than before.

As such, the dragster took the victory with an 8.49s ET against the Blue Oval’s slower 8.62s result – which probably was due to pedaling the Altered Roadster to the finish line. Things got even worse during the solo run from the 4:08 mark, as proved by the slower 9.83 ET. Still, this was a mighty impressive ride if you ask us.