Words & Photos: Paul Garson

We met up with Jimmy Sodano at the recent Culver City Car Show, while the Los Angeles area celebrated the city’s hundredth anniversary. Jimmy’s also got some history going for his ’31 Ford Coup, seen here. Not only did he build it a decade ago, it’s become almost his daily driver and he has it out prowling the streets at least three days a week. As for first impressions, you may be looking at the shot of the car’s powerplant and thinking, whoa, wait a minute, something’s way wacky here. Aren’t those pistons supposed to be on the inside of the cylinder heads? We’ll come up with the answer, but first, let’s take a tour of the car.

Jimmy was living on the East Coast, in New Jersey to be specific, and he had a hankering for a special car, something that screamed ‘60s Old School hotrod. Then he got wind of just what he was looking for… except it was in North Carolina. Not exactly next door! But he was on a mission, and some 600 miles’ separation wasn’t going to stop him.

“I got to the guy’s house,” Jimmy recounted. “He was an old timer banged up from a drag racing crash, but with the help of his sons kept working on hotrods, and now had some pieces for sale. I took one look at the car: the ’31 Ford 5-window Model A body shell strapped onto rolling chassis with the a ’53 Ford rear-end, just four wheels and a steering wheel and column and that was about it. No interior, no wiring, no motor. He had chopped the roof three inches in the front, two inches in the back, so the whole stance of car was real Old School and had the ‘60s look, and he had left in the stock firewall that I wanted… So I bought it on the spot, and took it home with me.”

A mere nine months later and Jimmy had his Old School ‘60s hotrod dream car up and rumbling. He tidied up the all steel body, welding in a panel from Welding Industries to make a solid roof, and bolted it to a Pete & Jakes frame with 4-bar suspension and front straight axle. The transmission is a 350 turbo with a Lokar shifter matched to a Vega steering box and an 8-inch rear end out of a ’53 Ford. It rolls on 15-inch wheels with the original Ford drum brakes, with Speedway disc brakes locking down up front, making the car capable of stopping on a dime.

Jim found an upholstery kit with a stitched-in V8 logo design and a pair of 4-way adjustable hotrod seats that matched up just right for what he had in mind. For the instruments, including speedo, tax, oil pressure, temp, voltage, vacuum gauge and fuel he dug into his parts bin and found a set from a previous project that fit the bill. In the trunk he installed a 14-gallon tank that gets him about 200 miles when cruising on the highway.

For the engine, Jimmy went for a 327 originally from a ’61 Chevy Impala now but beefed up .40 over, oversized valves, a roller cam and, very importantly, a triple threat set-up, the classic Tri-Power pumping from a trio of Rochester 2G carbs expertly matched to an Offenhauser intake manifold of Jimmy’s own design. Now to the exposed pistons. Turns out they are indeed actual pistons, but re-configured and re-purposed to function as air cleaners. Nifty looking? You bet. But it’s beauty that’s more that skin deep.

So how much fun is this car? “It’s very user friendly with the Tri-Carb and my linkage set-up,” Jimmy said, “since you’re only using the center 2-barrel when just cruising along, but there is definitely power on command when you jump on the throttle pedal, the two other carbs joining in. Bottom line, I didn’t just want to build another Model A. That’s why I put on the piston air cleaners, the Zoomie exhaust, my Tri-Power set-up… to make it my car.

Building the Better Tri-Power but Keeping it Old School Cool

This brings us back to the Tri-Power set-up of Jimmy’s making via his home grown biz, Old School Tri-Power.

“I was retired,” Jimmy explained, “and was looking for something to keep myself busy. Having hot-rodded Tri-Power cars even as a teenager, I knew something about them and had been helping people with setting up their cars. Then I did a bunch of research about them so I could build a Tri-Power set-up for the modern day hotrodder who wants to put it on their small block Chevy motor and how to tune it specifically for the cars. I began building and selling them one at a time at home, and people were happy with them. I’m a bit of a perfectionist when building these things, so I test run each one before they go to customers. This isn’t about racing, because the brand new, hi-tech carbs can perform better. This is about a classic look, that Old School Tri-Power coolness, and they’re going to get thirty more horsepower, more low end torque and the car is going to take off… plus the sound is super cool when you open up those three carbs. And people are putting them in all kinds of cars that run small block Chevy moters, you name it.”

It works like this. After Jimmy talks to you on the phone and gets all the nitty gritting about your motor specs, cam, etc., he goes to work, and about three weeks later a box arrives. Inside you find the complete bolt-on ready set-up… Offenhauser manifold; triple Rochester carbs with ethanol resistant internals and jetted to the specific motor; louvered air filters – plus, very importantly, the lapped-in aluminum end plates designed to be vacuum leak proof specifically for Tri-Power application. The only thing the car owner need do is connect up their throttle linkage, and the kick-down linkage if they’re using an automatic transmission, then tighten the fuel lines and you’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

So if you’re ready to triple your fun, give Jimmy Sodano a call at 973-476-1720 or via email at [email protected].