May 2021 • Photos courtesy Lorenzini family, David Dewhurst, Tony Thacker
Presented by RatTrapRacing.com & USAutomotive.co.uk

The history of hot rodding can be charted more or less in decades from the earliest Model Ts through the ‘gow’ jobs, to post WWII hot rods, to resto rods, street rods, fat fenders, Boyd’s smoothsters, traditional hot rods, rat rods and what we have today. Like most things, some trends have not aged well whereas others stand the test of time.

Then and now nostalgia drag racing is tire smokin’ exciting. Photos Tony Thacker

One era that stands out as something special is the mid-80’s trend for fat fendered rods particularly the spectacularly fast variety. The movement came along with the birth of nostalgia drag racing that took off around 1980.  Yes, nostalgia drag racing when drag racing was but 30 years old.

Folks were dragging out old racecars and burning up that quarter mile just for fun and perhaps a trophy T-shirt. However, racers can't help but get serious and a battle brewed as to who had the world’s fastest street rod. In the left corner was ‘Fat’ Jack Robinson with his giant orange ’46 Ford and in the right corner was Jerry Moreland with his wicked black ’40 Ford slope-back Sedan. These were two big fat Fords but they were blistering the strip in under 10 seconds—unheard of speeds for street cars in the 80’s.

Everybody had their favorite. Sadly, Fatty’s orange whip made an unscheduled right turn at Baylands/Fremont strip in 1987 and was demolished. Moreland’s Project ’40, on the other hand is a survivor and is owned by Gary and Scott Lorenzini who watched the fat attack when he was just 10 years old.

Project 40 began as a dream of builder Bob Bauder. It became a possibility when customer Jerry Moreland came calling and it became a reality when they found a 46,000-mile, rust free, original paint, Arizona two-door at Pomona for $10K. From there it went to Tom Vogele’s Stanton, CA two-car garage where, Tom and Al Rocha boxed the original 1940 frame but narrowed the rear 20 inches to accommodate a Halibrand Champ quick-change located by Alston 4-bar links with Koni coil-overs. Up front, Vogele built a MacPherson strut IFS that was tied into the roll cage.

For power the team turned to Sonny Bryant and Dave Butner of BryantRacing.com who supplied a monster (for the day) 466.87 ci big-block Chevy based on a 490 ci P&S Pro Stock aluminum block otherwise known as a Yenko block. Atop the block Bryant stacked an impressive array of equipment including a BDS intake, an 8-71 Mert Littlefield blower and Enderle injection. C14 race gas was pumped by an electric Holley fuel pump (nobody had to stand there and squirt fuel into the intake).  

First outing for the black attack was May 4, 1985 at Baylands Raceway where Moreland recorded an out-of-the-box 9.35 and the next day a speed of 148.27 mph. Pretty amazing for shakedown runs.

Smokey snakin’ burnouts and twisted, wheels up take offs had the crowd sloppin’ their Slurpys and they loved it all the more when it turned what were for the day blazingly consistent sub-10 times at 150 mph. Project 40 was a huge hit championing the ‘Pro-Street’ look with its 10-inch kick up and 14.5x32-inch Goodyears tucked under the stock fenders.

Bob Bauder’s son Danny, who was there with Scott Lorenzini recalls, “When that thing rolled out of the staging lanes it got your attention. It was wicked, loud and nasty and Jerry could drive. In the second 1/8-mile he just hauled ass.” 

Part II to follow

Vehicle: Jerry Moreland’s Project 40
Builder: Tom Vogele
Weight: 3000 lbs without driver
Owners: Gary and Scott Lorenzini
Best performance:  9.35/165 mph

• Engine: ’84 aluminum P&S big-block Chevy known as a Yenko
• Size: 466.87 ci
• Bore/stroke: 4.31/4.00
• Horsepower: 840 @ 6500 rpm
• Heads: ’84 Chevrolet ported and polished by Bryant Racing
• Intake: BDS 
• Supercharger: Littlefield 8-71 12-percent overdriven, 12 lbs boost
• Injection: Enderle
• Fuel pump: Holley electric
• Fuel: C14 race gas
• Pistons:  Venolia 8:1
• Crank: BryantRacing
• Valvetrain:  Milodon gear drive
• Cam: BryantRacing
• Valvetrain: Crane
• Valves: Manley 2.25 intake, 1.94 exhaust
• Ignition: MSD
• Torqeconverter: 9-inch, 3500 rpm stall speed
• Trans: TH400 by Champ Converters

• Instruments: Stewart Warner
• Steering wheel: LeCarra
• Steering box: ’72 Pinto rack and pinion
• Front suspension: Strange MacPherson SS3403 struts
• Front breaks: Stranger rotors, JFZ calipers
• Rear end: 9-inch Ford (replaced the Halibrand QC)
• Final ratio: 5.14:1
• Axles: Summers Brothers
• Rear suspension: Adjustable 4-link
• Rear shocks: Koni coil-overs, 140 psi coils
• Rear brakes: Strange rotors, JFZ calipers
• Master cylinder: Tilton dual
• Wheelie bars: Alston spring loaded
• Wheelbase: 112 inches

• Wheels: Halibrand 15x8 (front), 15x12 (rear)
• Tires: Pirelli 225-50P7 (front), Goodyear 14.5x32 (rear)