2. Hobbies

1969 Bobsy Formula Ford

A new chapter begins for Team Terrific Racing. Another race car was purchased in January of 2018. It is a Formula Ford manufactured by the same fabricator (Elite in Ohio) who made all the Bobsy Sports Racers. Only two Bobsy FFs are known to still exist -- this one and another on the West Coast which has been actively raced. This one hasn't been on track since 1984 having been an unfinished project since then.

In addition to these restoration pictures, there is a page on the Bobsy Registry devoted to the entire ownership history of this car. CLICK HERE to view that details history. Almost exactly one year after buying the car, it made its on-track debut. Here is a 17-second video of that occasion. You can’t really see the car very well, but you sure can hear its wonderful exhaust note.

July 2021. The Bobsy FF was sold to Steve Kupferman of Bakersfield, CA. It was raced on several occasions at West Coast vintage events along with the other known Bobsy FF.
July 2022. Steve has sold the car to John Polhemus of Grand Junction, CO and will be racing it with RMVR in the 2023 season.

Enjoy all these detailed pictures of the restoration of this unique Formula Ford.
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A picture of the The Bobsy Formula Ford used when it was advertised for sale in January of 2018. The Little Caesars Pizza livery was very, very compelling!
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A picture of the The Bobsy Formula Ford used when it was advertised for sale in January of 2018. The Little Caesars Pizza livery was very, very compelling!

  • A picture of the The Bobsy Formula Ford used when it was advertised for sale in January of 2018. The Little Caesars Pizza livery was very, very compelling!
  • The car in our shop getting ready for restoration. Only the body work and Little Caesars livery will be kept. Everything else, every last nut and bolt, will refurbished or replaced.
  • Shown sans body work.
  • Now on saw horses, accumulating bits from boxes. Our blue Bobsy SR-3 Sports Racer in the background is getting new calipers over the winter.
  • Someone needed more knee room and bastardized the instrument panel bulkhead, raising it one inch with spacers. This will be put back to original, taking out the spacers and cleaning up the gawd awful welding.
  • See what I mean about gawd awful welding!
  • The car has a neat cast aluminum pedal box. Here it's been cleaned up and ready to reinstall in the chassis.
  • Foot box sans the pedal box.
  • New shift linkage was fabricated with better u-joints and also made it adjustable (for and aft as well as to index the shift lever).
  • New u-joint at rear.
  • All the bits laid out. Frame is now out being bead blasted to bare metal before going to a fabricator to fix a few things.
  • Frame back from being blasted to bare metal. I did dry fit of the tranny and engine to see if it all fit and worked. It did.
  • Also a preliminary fit of the #1 exhaust to see where the water swirl tank will mount.
  • The original fiberglass seat and pleated cushion cleaned up very nicely. Amazing given its age, almost 50 years old.
  • Better locating pins for the seat were made.
  • The original fuel tank was just that --- an aluminum tank. No foam or bladder inside the tank. Sort of like a Molotov Cocktail. Contemporary rules won't allow this insanity. But it was a well made tank, fitting around the contours of the tube frame.
  • The test fit of engine/tranny has been removed and the bare frame sent off to Mike Luper (Master fabricator) to fix several things. In the meantime, I've got lots to do on various components. For instance a new fuel cell (bladder with foam inside) was purchased and believe it or not an off-the-shelf ATL cell will fit perfectly into the old tank (with a little work).
  • Only took a couple of days (Always longer than you'd think!) to fit the new fuel cell into the tank. A new top plate was made, the bottom cut out of the old tank to insert the new cell. And a mechanically fastened new tank bottom was fabricated.
  • Started on the tranny. The tranny was completely apart and in boxes. But all the bits were there. (Yeah!!! Parts get expensive!) But the diff was still in the tranny and needed to be removed to inspect. Glad I did. It was a mess, needing new carrier bolts and safety wire. Plus, I discovered it is a weird 8:33 ring/pinion. A real stump puller. I'll have to compensate with taller final drive gears. Note the bearing on the diff. FYI, it's a ball bearing type, <b>with a non-removable outside bearing race.</b> Thus the side plates have to be heated to remove or install the diff. A really giant pain in the ass. Getting it apart was an adventure.
  • Here the ring gear bolts replaced, properly torqued and properly safety wired. (Note the ball-bearings on both ends. These were replaced with tapered roller bearings.)`
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