By John Gunnell

Bill and Carol Steicher of Sarasota, Fla. are the owners of a 1929 Model A speedster that was racing at Road America during the Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival in mid-September.  They call their car the “Riley Special” because it’s a recreation of an early racing roadster with a Riley Racing 4-Port cylinder head.

The Riley head dates from about 1933 and is not an easy piece of hardware to come up with today.  The 1932 Model B four-cylinder engine block in the car is also fitted with dual Stromberg “81” carburetors.  These improvements bump the engine to somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 hp.  This compares to only 40 hp that the original 200.5-cid Model A flathead four produced.  The speedster can do 100 mph, while the stock Model A could do 65 mph at best.

A new, all-steel speedster body was fabricated for this car in 1999, replacing the car’s old Rootlieb reproduction body.  Special Blockley racing tires were added, along with a 5-point seat belt system, “juice” brakes and a roll bar.  The racing number “29” was lettered on the new silver-and-black body.

Bill Steicher drives the No. 29 Ford on Group 1 vintage racing competitions.  Group 1 includes prewar cars.  Steicher runs in Vintage Sports Car Driver’s Assoc. (VSCDA) events, Vintage Sports Car Club of America (VSCCA) events, Sportscar Vintage Racing Assoc. (SVRA) venues and Vintage Driver’s Club of America (VDCAA) races.  The car has been seen at Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, the Darlington Historic Racing Festival, Blackhawk Farms, Roebling Road in Savannah, Ga., and Mid-Ohio Raceway.

No. 29 also raced wit hthe Daytona Antique Auto Racing Assoc. on Florida oval tracks in Orlando, New Symrna, Volusio, and Zephyrhills, as well as at Charlotte, N.C. It also competes in F.A.S.T. hillclimbs and has run on the sand beach as part of the Ormond Beach Festival of Speed.