The Ford four-speed from the glory days of the '60s and '70s was a cast-iron-cased monster called the Top Loader because of its tin top cover that allows access to its internals. Tom scrounged up a box and fitted it with a decent wide-ratio First gear package to help launch the little Ford. Since he'd lost the advantage of the converter's torque multiplication, Tom also swapped rear gears for a set of 4.57:1 cogs. Combined with a 2.78:1 First gear, this created a 12.7:1 overall First gear ratio.
The trail of parts now grew even longer because Tom had to scrounge a Ford Racing SFI steel flywheel, an approved Lakewood scattershield, and a driveshaft loop. All that was left to do was dial in the most important part: the clutch. Tom called Clutch Masters with an idea to all but weld the input shaft directly to the pinion gear. He'd had enough of torque-converter slippage and decided that a solid-hub clutch disc with a sintered-iron lining and no marcel between the clutch facings would do the trick. To hold it in place, Tom went with a Ford Racing Cobra R diaphragm pressure plate.
On his next few forays to the strip, Tom discovered that didn't work either. "It would either shock the tires too hard and spin them right away or bog the motor. There was no middle ground." After several fruitless attempts to make this first clutch work, the trans was soon on the ground again and it was time for another try.
"I learned that clutches need to slip to make them work." Mediating that first full gorilla-grip attempt, Clutch Masters suggested a carbon-metallic friction-lined disc with a fully sprung hub called an FX300 disc. The Comet responded immediately. "What a difference," Tom says. "Now it drives like a real street car. While I've just changed the clutch and haven't had a chance to test the car at the track yet, I've launched it on the street a couple of times by bringing it up to 3,500 and sidestepping the clutch and it hooks."
Tom also feels that now he can begin to adjust things like launch rpm and technique to dial the car in and finally be able to consistently put the little Comet back into the 1.6-second 60-foot zone with a stick. With the MSD Digital Ignition System, he dials in the launch rev limiter, then activates it with the same button that triggers the B&M Launch Control.
That brings us up to date. Now the engine has the power, running 120-plus mph to prove it, and it would seem that just a few more passes down the quarter would be needed to hit the 10-second goal. We rented the track at Los Angeles Country Raceway to give him that opportunity.
With the Comet facing LACR's concrete starting line, track owner Bernie Longjohn sprayed the first 60 feet with VHT traction compound and it was up to the Comet to lay down a number. It would all come down to how well the little 26x8.0-15 ET Drag slicks would hook.
The first two passes were check-out runs to help Tom get chummy with the four-speed. The density altitude hovered around 3,800 feet, which wasn't bad for a track that sits at 3,000 feet of elevation. To put that in perspective, at sea level the pressure is 29.92 inches of mercury while our test-day pressure hovered around 27.10. That's why we'll use the NHRA-accepted correction factor to compensate for the altitude. This correction factor does not account for the weather, which was at 58 percent humidity.
By the fourth pass of the day, Tom had the Comet hooking almost as "horrible" as it ever had with a 1.629 60-foot time followed by an observed 11.561 at solid 118.03 mph. That corrects to 11.189 at 122.00 mph. After four more attempts, the Comet mustered a slightly better 1.618 60-foot, but never improved on the 11.18. On the last pass, the serpentine belt decided to split and test day ended as the weather worsened.