1956 Almquist Sabre

[pogopapers]

 
My 1956 Almquist Sabre. Ed Almquist is considered by many to be the father of American hot rodding. In 1947 he wrote the first book on how to hop up an engine and turned what was a southern California thing into a national craze. He started Almquist Engineering as the first mail order hotrod parts business. It was very successful. All the big time drag racers in the 60s and early 70s got their parts from Almquist. He loved the sports cars of Europe he saw during the war. As there were no sports cars in America and fiberglass was the new wonder material. He partnered with Clearfield Plastics in 1952 to make and market the Sabre. He sold the bodies in his catalog as a "Build your own sports car" idea. This is the car that started the Kit car industry in America. Ultimately, the sabres were too small, sales slowed and production ended in the late 50s. A fire at clearfield plastics destroyed most of records. Best estimate, there were 300-500 bodies sold. As far as we know this is the only road going car. There are 2 vintage racers and I am building a 55 Sabre to go to Bonneville next year and shatter the Class J land speed record (class J is 750cc or small engine sports car, I have a Suzuki GSX 750 with big Garrett turbo making 410 HP).  This little Sabre bombs around the country roads of central NY. We were at Amelia island in 2023. We will be at the Chattanooga Auto Week Concours De'Elegance next Sunday. 

[1957Birdman]

Very interesting car. Bears more than a passing resemblance to the 289 Shelby Cobra. 

What frame was used for the car and what is the wheelbase? Would be interesting to know.

Lew Bachman

1957 Thunderbird

[pogopapers]

The car does resemble a Cobra however it is much smaller and the design is 10 years earlier.  The frame frim the original build was badly rusted and unusable. In an effort to maintain "period correct" we got plans for Kutis K500 chassis, scaled it down a bit and built it.   It has a 94" wheelbase.  While it is quite small, I am 6' and fit very comfortably.

[LARRYCAROL]

What engine is in there now? 221; 239? Or smaller 60hp v8. 

[pogopapers]

That is a 1939 V8-60.  It has Edlbrock heads a Meyers intake and a hot cam. 

[Tom C]

That is a really cool piece of a nostalgic automotive era.

Good luck at Bonneville !

[Jim Bollman]

10 hours ago, pogopapers said:

The car does resemble a Cobra however it is much smaller and the design is 10 years earlier.  The frame frim the original build was badly rusted and unusable. In an effort to maintain "period correct" we got plans for Kutis K500 chassis, scaled it down a bit and built it.   It has a 94" wheelbase.  While it is quite small, I am 6' and fit very comfortably.

They had an even smaller version that looked basically the same, with an 80-85.  Ofter powered by a Crosley engine.

Must be very peppy with a V8 60.  Looks very nice/

[r1lark]

On 10/7/2024 at 7:14 AM, pogopapers said:

The frame frim the original build was badly rusted and unusable. 

The 'original' frame is very interesting, do you know what kind of car it originally came under?

[pogopapers]

15 minutes ago, r1lark said:

The 'original' frame is very interesting, do you know what kind of car it originally came under?

 

IT was originally built on what looks like a Crosley frame. It had been modified by the original builder. It was badly rusted and truly a dangerous design.  So we decided to go the Kurtis route.