Hi Frank,
Thanks for the kind words.
Your friends Speedster sounds like a very "full on" example.
The taller Whippet radiator is/was often used to elevate the hood in order to clear the OHV/OHC conversions......as well as giving the thing a much more streamlined look.
It most likely had either a Rajo or Frontenac OHV conversion head. There are others but given the rarity of just these two and the astronomical prices fetched by all of them I'd guess its one or the other. The gearbox you mentioned would again, more than likely be a Warford. There are/were relatively, lots of them around.
With the extra gearbox there probably wasn't a need for him to have a Ruckstell 2 speed diff as well, but he may have. That makes a lot of gears to chose from. 12 if my Arithmetic is still OK.
Accessory brakes are mandatory on any Model T made to go faster....,better make that ANY Model T FULL STOP.
Although nowhere near as developed as your friends, mine has quite a bit done to it, starting with a counter-weighted chrome-moly Scat Crankshaft. A Chaffins 280 thou high lift cam, .020" OS Egge aluminium pistons, high volume intake manifold, Stromberg OF Carb, Chev small block V8 valves, Turbo Hydro clutch plate set, Kevlar band linings, big end dippers, and a Waukesha Ricardo side valve head. -062". Because I decided on using a Bosch 009 distributor, I dumped all the flywheel magneto stuff. The field coil plate came in at 8 Kgs and the magnets spools brackets etc weighed in at 7 Kgs. So that's an all up saving of 15 kilograms out of the engine. Oil slingers are installed on the flywheel now. I wanted to fit a Model A exhaust manifold to it but because the block is a late casting (1925) and has rounded ends where the earlier ones have squared ends, I couldn't make it fit. Presently I have a stock manifold on it but am actively thinking of options.
Instead of using a dropped axle I tracked down and installed a set of "Laurel" underslung brackets that effectively moved the front axle forwards 2 inches and lowered the front of the vehicle behind it 5+ inches. The back has had the cross member cut from the chassis and raised 5inches also using Laurel brackets. I've installed a set of friction shock absorbers. All the friction producing, performance sucking Hyatt bearings (5) in the drive-train have been replaced with modern roller bearings. The diff thrust washers have also been swapped for a set of roller bearing washers.
This was my poor mans best effort of juggling performance against my wallet.
Thank you again Frank, for the good wishes. Thank you also for recognizing just how difficult it can be, chasing period correct performance parts and putting them altogether to make one of these things.
Cheers,
Rob
Considering a crankshaft is the heart of any engine I've attached a photo showing why I went down the route of replacing a stock T crank with a Scat.