Photos: Hagerty Media YouTube channel
'Snowball's' Ford coupe dirt racer hits the track, after 50 years
By Claudio D'Andrea
Led by love for the late Claud 'Snowball' Bishop, a family saw his beloved 1937 Ford dirt track racer restored to its former glory.
The Hagerty series Redline Rebuild and Barn Find Hunter worked together to reunite the car with the owner's family. Bishop, who died in 2021, drove the Chrysler 440 V-8-powered racer and was a mechanic known for racing on dirt tracks in his native Virginia.
The old Ford coupe was found sitting behind Bishop's barn and after a half century nursed back to life. The time-lapse video restoration of the vehicle was captured on YouTube in 2024 when Bishop's brother, son and granddaughter got to see its return to its hometown Virginia track.
"It may be a handful on the corners, but hearing it rip up the track again after a 50-year hiatus is the stuff dreams are made of," Hagerty Media noted on its video.
The video shows each step in the rebuilding of the classic Mopar V-8 engine and rebuilt Ford coupe modified elements. It starts with the discovery of the old, worn vehicle behind the barn to the engine teardown, machine shop work and engine paint and assembly, and finally to the engine startup and break-in till it returned to the track.
"All right. Well, it's broke in," one technician says after the engine restoration and testing. "It's got a couple of leaks. That's test 10. Let's get this thing in a race car."
The coupe is shown tearing up the dirt track before it comes to a dramatic, slow-motion stop.
To watch the video, click here.
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