The Internet has long grown into a huge, dimensionless monster, and searching for any information is becoming like trying to find a needle in a haystack. That’s why, despite all my efforts, interesting things sometimes go unnoticed – although sometimes I still discover them, albeit with some delay. In particular, the V-Doce passed me by at the moment when I was writing an article about Lincoln V12 engines in hot rods, and therefore I have to devote a separate article to this car. Which, in general, may not be so bad.
The four-carburetor engine looks extremely massive and impressive. The fact that there is not even the simplest pinstripe on the body of the car only focuses on the twelve-cylinder power plant.
The story of the construction of this car begins with the same old Charlie Ryan song. As a child, Patrick Risinger often stole records from his father, despite the fact that his father treasured his vinyls and could well slap his son in the face. Hot Rod Lincoln ended up under the needle much more often than the rest of the tracks – and soon the song grew into a dream: to build your own Ford with twelve cylinders. Well, then there was school, career, children, family – in general, everything is as usual. And even though we had our own garage, Reisinger Custom Rebuilding, we couldn’t make our dream come true until the mid-2010s. Nevertheless, when Patrick still had enough extra money in his wallet to buy the engine immortalized by Comrade Ryan, the decision to fulfill a long-standing desire was made instantly.
Without a doubt, the car looks extremely vintage. All the efforts to preserve the look of the hot rods of the 40s were not in vain.
The engine went to Mike Herman – I already mentioned it in the general article about the Lincoln-Zephyr V12. In short, Mike is a real wizard when it comes to flathead engines: his family has been working with such units for generations, and his father founded the H&H Flatheads garage. People like Ray Evernham and Chip Foos turned to Comrade Herman when they needed help with an engine for one reason or another. Mike knows all the nuances of very problematic engines and knows how to rebuild them in such a way that they work better and last longer. Specifically for the V-Doce, the focus was on performance: the factory 130 horsepower turned into all 300. Among the most notable changes: four two-chamber Stromberg 97 carburettors, Austin aluminum heads, and, of course, supercharging. This, by the way, is the 6V53: H&H Flatheads have long wanted to produce this model. As Mike himself said:
“There has been a demand for bigger superchargers for a long time. And the Detroit 6V53 is great for many projects, especially if it’s a Lincoln V12. It’s a very long engine, and it needs a super boost longer than the standard 4-71”.
Patrick completely entrusted the work on the body of the car to his own team. Of note: the body itself, the Model A of the 32nd year, was ordered from the Brookville Roadster company, which stands out because it has been producing completely steel bodies for decades, just like in the good old days. Having received such a building at their disposal, the guys at Reisinger Custom decided to stick to the classical school and change the appearance to a minimum. Of course, a separate test was to stuff a huge V12 into the Model A without extending the frame – this was achieved only by creating a new firewall. I also had to abandon the original gas tank in favor of a classic custom-made control system known as cowl steering – and I have no idea how to translate this into Russian, but I’ll try to explain myself using the photos below.
This kind of thing is called "cowl steering": in fact, almost the entire control mechanism of the car is attached to the firewall and taken outside. That is why it was not possible to keep the original gas tank: in the Model A it is located behind the dashboard. However, the fuel cap on the V-Doce is still positioned in front of the windshield, so I'm guessing the new gas tank just doesn't sag down that much... well, or it has some kind of tricky convex-curved shape.
A few more almost imperceptible visual features are a very slightly felled roof, just four centimeters, gorgeous brakes from Alan Johnson, carefully imitating the braking systems of the 40s and artillery wheels under Lincoln V12 hoods – in general, everything is done in such a way as to preserve the classic look of the car as much as possible, but at the same time make it clear that we have a very combative hot rod in front of us. And if you like this approach, then as an afterword, I suggest you watch the video – you can admire a couple more pleasant minor details like the dashboard from Lincoln-Zephyr and see all those technical details that did not appear in the photo.
