FIERCE 460 FORD: KARL SCORER'S CRAZY BIG BLOCK COUPE

Getting married and moving house can have a dramatic effect on a hot rod project, hence the build time on Karl Scorer’s coupe extending out to 17 years! Back in 1999 he laid out $23,000.00 for the basic ingredients of the ’34 coupe project, based around a Deuce Customs fibreglass reproduction body and a modified original chassis. Previous projects had included a ’74 HQ GTS mock-up, a ’73 Triumph fitted with a Lexus V8 engine and a ’37 Chev sedan – all good practise for taking on a more elaborate project like the ’34 Ford coupe.

- LARRY O’TOOLE

Karl used the ZZ Top Eliminator coupe as inspiration for his own coupe and in the process he took it to another level. Outstanding amongst the features of Karl’s coupe is the use of a big block Ford engine, fully rebuilt and upgraded by Wayne at Pearl Automotive. The 1978 460 cubic inch block was bored .030”, balanced and blueprinted and generally turned into a force to be reckoned with.

The crank was ground .010” and fitted with resized factory conrods using ARP rod bolts. Tickling the valve train is a Crane Powermax hydraulic cam and lifters spun by a double row timing chain and using ARP pushrods to activate Yella Terra roller rockers mounted on Dove heads secured by ARP head studs. A pair of Impco 425 LPG mixers mounted on a HPC coated Weiand tunnel ram intake manifold draw on a 72 litre APA LPG tank to feed the beast and electronic ignition with a Bosch coil sets the compressed mixture alight. A copper four core radiator assisted by twin thermo fans controls operating temperature and a custom made set of headers feed the exhaust gas into a twin 2-1/2 inch HPC coated exhaust system. The packaged torque is sent to a sturdy C6 automatic transmission with 3000rpm high stall converter and a Lokar shifter.