The year is 1960. Don Wagers lures his girlfriend, Shirley Maxwell, to ride in a 1929 V16 roadster. As I wrote once before, in those days it was much easier to build a hot rod with an unusual and original engine. Yes, maybe I exaggerated at that time, and maybe such engines were worth something after all – the memories of eyewitnesses of that time sometimes directly contradict each other – nevertheless, one way or another, buying an engine from a previous generation car is not the same as looking for a museum exhibit produced 75 years ago. And although the hero of our article was lost in the depths of the all-consuming river of time, after consulting, we nevertheless decided to write about him. It is painfully rare to find such old cars that did not shine at exhibitions and magazines, but at the same time they have a decent amount of information, and even photos from all angles. Plus, it will be another small digression into the history that everyone who reads my articles is sure to love.
So, the end of the 50s in South Texas. A generation has already grown up that does not remember World War II, and the Vietnam War has not yet begun for the United States. Danny & the Juniors have just recorded Rock’n’roll Is Here To Stay, muscle cars have not yet won their place in the hearts of young people from lead sleds, and economic realities allow you to earn a little more than you need to live. That’s why most Southerners have nothing better to do than shake their fists at communists and blacks. This is a very controversial activity, so one guy decided to use his hands for more interesting purposes and built himself a delightful Ford hot rod with a 16-cylinder engine from a wrecked Cadillac 35 sedan, called the Sweet 16.
This cat’s name was Fred Warner Wagers Jr., but to his friends, he was just Don. After building an unusual car, Don decided to call Michael Lamm and find out if his Ford deserved a mention in a magazine. At that time, Comrade Lamm was working as a freelancer and, among other things, wrote articles for Speed Mechanics magazine. After listening to Wagers, Michael realized that the hot rod with the V16 was located in a nearby town a few steps away, and therefore almost immediately went to meet with the car and its owner. And so, in August 1960, Lamm met Don, an 18-year-old Edinburgh High school student, his classmate Shirley, and his Ford. Michael was interested in cars, not least because he himself owned a Cadillac V16 as a teenager, and therefore Michael was curious how such a giant engine could fit into such a small car. And the Wagers hot rod was even smaller than the standard Model A, because Don shortened the frame by 20 centimeters and the body by fifteen. Lamm’s interest was also fueled by the fact that he had heard about hot rods with such a motor before, but had never seen them – oh, how can I understand him!
Cadillac’s V16 is an overhead valve engine with an aluminum block and cast-iron cylinder heads, which is essentially two linear eights in one crankcase, and each of them has its own upstream carburetor and two ignition coils with a capacitor – for one common healthy trambler. Nevertheless, the V16 had its own innovations: This is one of the contenders for the title of the first American engine with hydraulic valve compensators. The very fact of creating such an engine was perhaps crucial for General Motors at that time, as in 1915, Packard marketed the Twin Six model with a V12, the first mass-produced 12-cylinder car in the world. And even though production stopped in the 23rd year, no other model in the history of Packard has done as much to establish the company’s name as the Twin Six did. It is likely that, looking back on these facts, Cadillac developed its 16-cylinder model.
And they really managed to create something legendary both in terms of the engine and in terms of the car model as a whole. Cadillac produced one of the most luxurious cars of the pre-war period with a damn rare V16 engine for the automotive industry. Therefore, it is not surprising that some would like to at least look at a hot rod with a similar engine. However, Don approached the matter according to the maximum program: he squandered the engine from 7.4 to 7.7 liters, ported the cylinder heads, ground the camshaft into a “fully racing” one, replaced the hydraulic compensators with one-piece adjustable pushrods and made new intake manifolds for four or six Stromberg 97 carburetors. Wagers used four carburetors on the streets and six on the track. To fit the monstrous engine in a small car, Don positioned the clutch housing behind the firewall, as a result of which the gearbox lever was right in the center of the cabin. Exhaust manifolds remained standard, and separate pipes led to mufflers from the Ford F-8 truck. Wagers estimated that its engine would produce about 250 hp compared to the factory value of 185.
All the power went to the wheels through a 1937 LaSalle 3-speed transmission and a 1940 Ford rear axle with a 4.11 gear ratio – and hydraulic brakes were taken from the model of the same year. The suspension was factory-dependent on a transverse spring – blue ovals produced suspensions of this type until the end of the forties. The front axle used to be in the Ford 32nd; in the hot rod, it was lowered by 7.5 centimeters and no shock absorbers were installed on it. There were shock absorbers on the rear axle, and they stood at a 45-degree angle inwards with the upper edge “for stability”. The steering system was, again, from the fortieth Ford, but Don installed an extended steering bipod so that the car reacted more sharply to steering movements. The car’s body was painted white, while the frame and 15-inch wheels were painted red. The faux leather interior was decorated in the same colors.
Don Wagers loved racing and often participated in quarter-mile races. His best speed, in his own words, was 183 km/h, but unfortunately Lamm forgot to ask for the time. Michael, the author of the original text, could no longer find Don Wagers, nor could he find out what happened to the sixteen-cylinder hot rod. Lamm also doesn’t mention whether an article about this car was ever published in a magazine, so all we have are these notes and eight photographs that Michael took almost sixty years ago.
P.S. In the comments, people pointed out that there is at least one note about the car in the July ’61 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. Shirley Maxwell was also found, but unfortunately, there has been no news since February 2018. And then there was a commentator claiming that the car was built before Don was even born-before the war. And, they say, this is the same Ford with a V16 in which Clint Seccombe accelerated as much as 202 km/h on June 30, 1940, which was the main reason for the appearance of the Unlimited class in SCTA…
Most of this information is likely to remain at the level of rumors. Every day there are fewer chances to refute or confirm any of the above, and every day there are fewer chances for this story to continue. And, apparently, the fate of another extraordinary hot rod will forever remain a mystery.
Source: https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/11/10/sweet-16 / (November 10th, 2017)
