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Plenty of hot rods claim to be fast. Very few arrive with SCTA and LTA logbooks, a stack of time slips and a parachute to back it up. This fiberglass-bodied ’32 Ford roadster, owned since 2016 by Chasing Classic Cars host Wayne Carini, is live on Bring a Trailer with a supercharged 302ci Chevy small-block and a listing title that promises 210+ mph at Bonneville.
A Street-Driven Land Speed Racer With a Paper Trail
According to the listing, the roadster was built in the 1990s by land-speed specialist Steve Davies for Street Roadster-class competition. Its next owner, hot rodder Tony Thacker, campaigned it with driver Jimmy Shine, who later founded Shine Speedshop in Orange, California. In its first life it ran a 427ci stroker small-block and was driven from Southern California to Bonneville, where the listing says it topped 180 mph. Thacker’s own contemporary account of an August 2003 trip puts a run at 192 mph.
The car got serious in 2006, when it was fitted with a Bill Mitchell-built 302ci Chevy V8, a Littlefield supercharger and Enderle fuel injection. The listing says the combination averaged over 200 mph at Bonneville that year, and Thacker has written that Shine set a blown street roadster record of 206 mph during Speed Week in August 2006. The seller adds that later owner Steve Van Blarcom set a 216-mph record at Speed Week in 2009. Those are seller claims, so bidders will want to match them against the SCTA record books and the logbooks included in the sale.
Small-Block, Supercharger, Salt
The 302 was rebuilt in 2021 by Carlquist Competition Engines in Oakville, Connecticut, using a World Products block and heads, a Callies crankshaft, Eagle rods, JE pistons and a Crane roller camshaft. Boost comes from the Littlefield blower, fuel from an Enderle bug-catcher injection setup, spark from an MSD 7AL-2 Plus, and exhaust through four-into-one headers. A fuel cell and multiple batteries sit in the trunk.
Also new in 2021 is an air-shifted Liberty’s Gears five-speed manual, which sends power to a 9-inch rear end through a NASCAR-spec multi-disc clutch. A scatter shield surrounds the clutch, and a safety loop encircles the driveshaft. Nobody is going to mistake this for a street cruiser.
Built to Be Fast, Not Pretty
The fiberglass body rides on a boxed steel frame with tubular crossmembers. Up front there is a drilled drop axle on a transverse leaf spring with hairpin radius rods. In back, a live axle is located by ladder bars and a Panhard rod, with QA1 coilovers and cross-drilled rear disc brakes. The cockpit has a roll cage, a Kirkey racing seat, a fire-suppression system and a hinged tonneau with a wraparound windscreen. The gauge cluster features a 200-mph speedometer, a 10k-rpm tachometer and a boost gauge, and there is no odometer at all.
The look is pure lakes: black paint with white lettering, louvered hood panels held by Dzus fasteners, a Mooneyes tank ahead of the grille, and a parachute out back. It fits right in alongside the reasons ’32 Fords became the quintessential hot rod, and it takes that formula in a much faster direction than the ’32 that made hot rods famous.
What to Know Before You Bid
Documentation is the strong suit. The sale includes SCTA and LTA logbooks, time slips and other paperwork, plus two Bassett 15-inch wheels with Mickey Thompson ET Street tires. The car is offered in Connecticut on a California title listing it as a 1932 Ford. The seller notes corrosion and dings on the steel rear fenders, which are shown in the gallery.
As of this writing the bid sits at $21,000 with two bids, and the auction ends Wednesday, November 4 at 3:18 p.m. ET. A supercharged, record-setting salt-flats car with a famous owner and this much documentation is a rare find, and you can see the full listing and gallery on Bring a Trailer.
For more land-speed hardware, check out this Bonneville-ready Camaro IROC-Z and the 1968 Hemi Charger that aimed for 200 mph.
