Part 2 Speeding around Kansas: Flynn dissects his roadster

Apr. 11—Sixty-six years ago by a garage in the back of Garden Place Nursery east of Abilene, Paul Flynn's and Wade Phillips' A-modified roadster became the center of attention of a photo. The vehicle was red and had painted in silver lettering several messages. "Abilene — Kansas," read on the curvature between the top and side of the car's long body. "A/R" read toward the bottom, signifying the vehicle's A-modified class. To the right of the classification was "101." Across the middle of the body slanting upwards was the largest text: "Paul's Speed Shop."

Behind the two men was a baby blue convertible with white stripes running from the side mirror to the back. The car belonged to Phillips. The juxtaposition of the two vehicles was evident. The pleasant-looking car probably was built on an assembly line and meant for the everyday American to travel, to cruise, to be comfortable in. The roadster, on the other hand, was a bold red, one-man vehicle. It was custom built, constructed part-by-part by the two Abilene natives with assistance from friends and local mechanics. This vehicle evidently had two purposes: be as fast as possible in a quarter of a mile and look just as good.

Shifting gears

The roadster Flynn and Phillips posed with in 1957 is not the same vehicle the two trophied with at the National Hot Rod Association's first national championship at Great Bend in 1955. Flynn and Phillips did not enter into the race with classes in mind. They just didn't know they existed. So after officials placed their car in the B-modified roadster class, Flynn and Phillips realized they did not like racing in that class.

"We didn't like that class very well because it was a class you could burn fuel in," Flynn said, "and we didn't know anything about mixing fuel with our gas."

So in the winter of 1955, the two built a new, A-modified roadster that they raced for the rest of their four-year racing careers.

The roadster

With help from Phillips, other friends and professionals, each year Flynn made modifications to increase the maximum potential of the vehicle. Because of the constant improvements, Flynn can identify what year a photo with his roadster was taken based on what it has on it.

The roadster's engine was a 1951 Chrysler motor. Flynn said he rebuilt the motor after a man gave him the pieces after he replaced the engine with a newer Chrysler one. While he installed normal pistons, he later replaced them with newer pistons and won with them at the NHRA competition in 1956.

The two had to put shim stock on the adapter connecting a Ford transmission to the back of the Chrysler engine because they had trouble lining the two parts up to bolt them together.

Another future improvement Flynn made was with the camshaft. Flynn wrote to International Drag Racing Hall of Famer Chet Herbert, who lived in California. According to a story by the Associated Press, Herbert developed, among many other innovations, the first roller tappet camshafts for race cars. Flynn wrote to inquire if Herbert had a roller tappet camshaft that would work in his Chrysler engine. Herbert sent him one.

"It's hard (to install) because roller tappets, you got to keep them from rotating," Flynn said. "They run on the camshaft. By doing that with the roller tappets, you can have more lift and timing on them so you can have more horsepower. We put those roller tappets in. Oh, it was a job for me to make them fit. I really wasn't a mechanic. I worked at the Garden Place and Nursery. I worked all the time for my father."

Flynn and Phillips installed three carburetors to start. Eventually, they went to four carburetors. They tried eight, but Flynn and Phillips couldn't get all them to work, so they stayed at four. They never install fuel injectors because of lack of availability.

"Can you imagine hunting all the junk yards trying to find these Stromberg carburetors?" he said. "They made a Stromberg '81 for the V8 '60, and they made a '48 and a '97. I had all of those so I could interchange them there in the car."

The roadster had a Briggs & Stratton gas tank that held a quart of gas. Flynn said the car never ran out of gas despite the large carburetors and high-powered parts. It sat toward the front of the roadster and could be seen from one of the car's exposed sides. Flynn and Phillips also made exhaust headers, which also could be side from both the car's exposed sides. They installed a stabilizer bar across the front axle. Flynn and Phillips made torsion bars out of steel.

"I cut (the torsion bars) into two, and I had to square the end of it and fit it into a hole," he said. "Well, when we did that, there was an old blacksmith downtown, and I said, 'maybe I could get him to temper those for me.' I did, and he did that, but they were too soft, and they bent the first time. So I took them back and said, 'please try one more time,' because he was a blacksmith and I knew he knew about this. I took them back, and he fixed them the second time and no problem."

They did not install a radiator.

"On those cars and nowadays, they did that," he said. "They just plug up the block and put water in. Not sure if we had a water pump in there or not."

Flynn also got his hands on two magnetos meant for V8 Ford. Magnetos are a type of electrical generator that uses magnets meant to replace a car's battery. Once again, Flynn called on the expertise of California racers to fit a V8 Ford magneto in his Chrysler engine.

Flynn and Phillips couldn't afford white wheel walls, so they painted the white on themselves. In 1958, he covered three-fourths of the rear wheels with the body of the car.

"A number of places accused (us) of streamlining it," he said. "We just left a hole there where the axle came through. Nobody ever won by protesting it, but they just complained about it."

Bill Rector, Abilene native, completed the red paint job on the roadster, Flynn said.

"It just looked like a million dollars," Flynn said.

Each winter, Flynn would drive to a shop in Denver, Colorado, to balance new parts. He drove overnight to Denver and back so that he could return to work at his family's business, Garden Place Nursery, the next day.

"We kept working on it every year, trying to make it go faster," he said.

Speed

Each year, Flynn and Phillips increased the speed of the roadster with their constant improvements. In 1955, their top speed was 78 miles per hour. In 1956, they reached 108 mph. In 1957, they reached another high of 118. Their top speeds were always behind the high speeds of racers in the West Coast, but Flynn said they got increasingly close to the West Coast's speeds as his career progressed.

Forced to move on

In 1958, the NHRA altered their rules so drivers could no longer sit in the trunk of their race vehicles. Unfortunately, Flynn's A-modified roadster's seat was in the trunk. Ironically, Flynn said they put the seat in the trunk for safety. Flynn said him and friends couldn't think of a practical way to rebuild the roadster to move the seat. The rule change majorly influenced Flynn's decision to end his racing career.

Nowadays, Flynn lives with family at his home west of Abilene. His hobbies include watching Kansas State University basketball and birds outside his front window that come to a bird feeder and bird bath.

This story is the final addition of a two part series about Paul Flynn's memories of drag racing in Kansas.