Hot Rodding at Its Purest

A tiny Track T doesn’t need a big engine; for a car such as this one, a small-block Chevy is more than adequate. Wigington’s roadster gets all the power it needs from a 355 Chevy crate engine fitted with aluminum Fast Burn heads and 10.5:1-compression pistons. But without a doubt the coolest part of the engine is the eight-stack Weber downdraft carburetion atop a Weiand aluminum intake manifold. Sanderson headers vent the exhaust into polished side pipes. MSD ignition rounds out the engine components, and a 350 automatic transmission is all the light the T needs to get it down the road.

The T’s body is a fiberglass design from Zephyr. The three-piece hood is steel, with the sides punched full of louvers and accentuated with a blister near the front of each cylinder head. Attractive sheetmetal panels also cover the framerails, making the car look lower and sleeker. A typical round, track-style nose sits between the long, egg-like headlights. The scalloped paint is entirely appropriate and consists of PPG Cream flowing back over Guards Red, with a lime-green pinstripe to separate the two colors. The trunk is modest in size but big enough to have some utility, and this rear panel also provides a spot to mount the Pontiac taillights. The black convertible top makes the T a little easier to live with in the rain, and sure enough, it rained during our photo shoot—good thing Wigington didn’t leave the top at home.

With four-point race harnesses atop the custom bucket seats, the interior of this ’26 definitely has a racy style. But there’s no doubt this car is also more luxurious than any Model T racer ever was. Fountain’s Auto Upholstery and Trim in Ellijay, Georgia, upholstered the tiny Ford in red leather in a sort of square tile pattern. Virtually everything in the cockpit is red—the leather, the carpet and the paint on the dash. A carbon-fiber instrument cluster filled with white-faced Auto Meter gauges provides some contrast, as does the black leather-wrapped, sprint-car-style removable steering wheel. An Auto Meter tach is clamped atop the polished steering column. Aside from the Lokar shifter and spoon-style pedals, there’s really not much else to this interior—no radio, no air conditioning. Racecars don’t need such things.

The ’26 is one of just many hot rods in Bob Wigington’s garage. Modestly, he claims they’re just “15 old Fords,” but they’re all just as nice as this car. At Goodguys Atlanta, where we caught up with Wigington and shot the T, it earned a Pro’s Pick from Alan Johnson and the Terrific T award, too. We think that’s a pretty respectable feat for another old Ford.