The Slowest Car in Drag-and-Drive History Was a Fan Favorite
The slowest car in drag-and-drive history was also one of the greatest. And not in any kind of ironic sense, either. You know how sometimes in competitive endeavors you get somebody who is so bad at a particular pursuit that they invariably make a name for themselves, like that kooky Australian breakdancer at the recent Olympics? Well, Jim Eby’s 1919 Franklin Series 9B Touring is a totally different story, and it’s a story that perfectly highlights the way drag-and-drive can challenge different people in different ways.
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Hot Rod Drag Week 2019 was where Tom Bailey in the ‘2.0 Camaro’ ran the first five-second pass in a drag-and-drive event. He ran 5.99/250mph on the final day and won the event. At the opposite end of the results list, more than 20 seconds slower than that, was Jim Eby in his Franklin. And yet I daresay that when it was all said and done, Jim’s sense of achievement would not have been much different to Tom’s. If you want to argue with that statement, first try driving 1000 miles in a week in a 100-year old car with a top cruising speed of 40mph, all-original suspension and skinny wire wheels, then we can talk.
“I don’t own anything fast so I thought I might as well bring whatever’s goofy, just bring some crazy shit,” Jim told me at the time. “It’s slow on the street, just 40 miles an hour. So I try to get my run in early each day and get down the road. And I’m still the last one in at the end of the day.”
Jim’s mission – to enjoy the car whilst torturing it at Drag Week – was a personal one. The old jalopy has been in his family since it was first driven off the lot in 1919!
“My grandpa bought it new,” he said. “It was his first car and then he gave it to my dad when my dad was nine. It was Dad’s first car and he drove it through high school and college; he even took my mum out for their first date in this car.”
It still has the original Franklin engine, a 199-cubic-inch six-cylinder that pumps out max 26hp. It gets around 30 miles to the gallon on the highway. The air-cooled, overhead-valve motor has no pressure oiling for the valvetrain, which means Jim had to stop every 100 miles or so during the trip to hand-oil the top end.
On the dragstrip, the car’s quickest and fastest run came on day four of Drag Week at Maryland International Raceway, a 28.36/47mph. Jim’s signature move was driving one-handed while waving to the crowd as he went down the track. He finished with an average of 29.58/47mph, which means that while the Franklin is officially the slowest car in drag-and-drive history, it’s also the world’s quickest Franklin over the quarter-mile! Sometimes you just need to look at things from a different perspective.
If anybody ever asks you what sets drag-and-drive apart from other forms of drag racing, just tell them the tale of the slowest car in drag-and-drive history.
Written by Matt Reekie.
