Whippet good!

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/06/2011 (5412 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What’s in a name? In the automotive industry, they pour over hundreds or even thousands of suggestions before naming a new model. Usually it wraps up the car’s concept, performance and size with something catchy buyers will remember.

The Willys-Overland Company of Toledo, Illinois, named its new 1927 low-price offering the Whippet. Succeeding the Overland, the Whippet’s identity was bolstered by stylized Whippet script and the Whippet emblem of the namesake dog jumping through a hoop. While it may sound a bit odd to name a car after a dog, the Whippet name described the car to a T.

The Whippet was small, swift and reliable with a friendly price. Riding on a wheelbase just over 100 inches it was America’s smallest car, yet with four- or six-cylinder power it was fast.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway was chosen for a 24-hour endurance run where the Whippet Six ran an average speed of 56.52 m.p.h. (90.96 km/h) to establish a new American record for a stock car priced under $1,000. In fact, the Whippet was way under $1,000. Priced in the $615 to $745 range, buyers scooped up a healthy 110,000 units in the first year, placing Willys-Overland third in sales behind Chevrolet and Ford.

Today, the Whippet is a seldom-seen vehicle. With a production run of only three years producing 667,000 vehicles, it pales in comparison to the 3.5 million Fords produced in the same period. While there are some cherished originals still out there, occasionally one turns up modified as a street rod.

For Gerry Arcand of Selkirk, his 1929 Whippet two-door Coach kind of fell in his lap in the fall of 2003. “I was talking to a fellow at work and he said his neighbour had an old car in his garage and wanted to sell it,” says Arcand.

No stranger to old cars, Arcand agreed to take a look at the car. The Whippet was complete and the motor ran, but the wood and canvas roof was gone, there was no interior upholstery or seats and the fenders were filled with dents. Arcand recalls: “I really wasn’t looking for a project but it was an interesting car so I brought my wife Erika over to have a look at it and we decided to buy the car.”

Arcand started by removing the fenders and slowly taking the dents out with a ball-peen hammer and anvil.

“I didn’t really know what they were supposed to look like, so I got photos of good fenders for a comparison and spent the whole winter pounding them back into shape.”

Next Arcand removed the body from the frame. The “C” channel frame was boxed to stiffen it and Arcand added a couple of crossmembers, one for the transmission and one for the rear shock mounts. For the front suspension, Arcand chose a late 1970s Mustang II unit but it proved to be too narrow for the chassis. The Mustang II unit is a popular swap for street rods and allows you to obtain modern front suspension with its equal-length upper and lower control arms, coil-over shocks, rack-and-pinion steering and disc brakes.

By accessing an AutoCAD program, Arcand was able to design and fabricate a front crossmember that fit the Whippet frame rails and worked with the Mustang II components. The rear suspension was upgraded with an early Mustang eight-inch rear axle with 3.00:1 gear ratio and mounted on a pair of longitudinal leaf springs. It all rolls on a set of 15-inch-diameter Mopar rally wheels shod with Cooper Cobra radial tires.

Turning back to the body, Arcand was faced with rebuilding the wood roof. “I again used the AutoCAD program to design the side contours of the roof and roof bows, then hand-fashioned the pieces,” says Arcand. Not a small feat by any stretch of the imagination. Arcand completed the roof in all steel and followed up much of the body reinforcements with additional steel reinforcements.

“I tried to eliminate as much wood as possible except the floor — it’s finished with three-quarter-inch birch plywood,” says Arcand.

Further body modifications include eliminating the bulky front-door hinges and hinging them at the rear with hidden hinges for a cleaner look. The hood has been modified from an original four-piece affair to a dual side-opening hood that’s even fully removable.

An aluminum eight-gallon fuel tank was fashioned with dual custom filler necks. “One originally housed a factory fuel gauge while the other is a real filler neck,” says Arcand.

Tail lights are classic ’41 Ford teardrop items and headlamps are from Deist with frame-horn mounted turn signals.

Final body prep and application of the royal blue and cashmere beige paint scheme was entrusted to Wayne Laurie in Garson. Final assembly saw the install of new glass, a handmade mahogany door trim and dashboard with Classic Instruments, Idid-It tilt steering column with Grant polished aluminum three-spoke steering wheel, electric wiper and roof console with AM/FM stereo. Bucket seat upholstery is finished in a combination of ultra-leather and Ultrasuede with blue trim stitched by Otto Szalai at Otto’s Custom Upholstery in Beausejour.

For power, Arcand chose a 350-cubic-inch V8 motor and Turbo 350 three-speed automatic transmission from a 1976 GMC truck. The engine was rebuilt with a high-performance camshaft, ported and polished cylinder heads and Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake manifold with Holley four-barrel carburetor. A three-core radiator maintains the engine’s cool and for the exhaust, Blockhugger headers lead to a 2.5-inch-diameter custom dual exhaust system with Flowmaster mufflers.

The vehicle was painted and on the road in 2007. Arcand has thoroughly enjoyed the Whippet and put close to 10,000 trouble-free kilometres on it taking in local cruises and show-and-shine events. It’s a car that is not likely to be duplicated. Arcand enjoys the one of status at shows. Where we end here is with one’s sheer desire to take a project to a higher level and Arcand clearly demonstrated that with his resources and the fabrication skills to see this project through. Had it not been for Arcand, this is one Whippet that would have ended up in the doghouse.

This Sunday, the Vintage Cruisers Annual Show & Shine will be held at Island Park in Portage la Prairie from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All antique, classic and special interest vehicles and motorcycles are welcome.

Admission for participants is a non-perishable food item for the Salvation Army food bank and all proceeds go to local charities. So come on out and enjoy a day of fun on the island!