Feature - Tony Portelli's '32 Tudor

Click the ad to visit...

Simple text can be an effective link too

Your own web site could be featured here, and changed weekly.

Tony Portelli has been showing his "Orange deuce" for 12 years, so it may be familiar to many readers. The sedan took Top Tudor at the '95 Street Rod Nationals at Parklands, and was in the Top Ten at the '06 SummerNats, an impressive time span during which it has continued to win trophies - many more than the couple of awards mentioned here.
The Tudor started life as a Pete Osborne fiberglass body and guards, that were mounted on a Speed Sports chassis, from Graham Millett. The Osborn body has a few advantages that some other manufacturers do not include - a smooth floor and

The large diameter wheels accentuate the proximity of this '32 to the ground.

Intro Billet wheels are 20" x 10" on the rear...

and 17" x 7" on the front.

Davies Craig fans are popular, with good reason. This 16" model cools the 460 down very well; the Billet Specialties overflow tank also play a part.

A 4" dropped axle is located by stainless steel 4 bars. Falcon discs and Holden calipers help pull it up.

The Orange Deuce - Orange Juice play on words had to be explained to me, but now that I am over that hurdle I think it is quite clever.

The diff is a Ford 9", with shortened Sydney Competition Warehouse 31 spline axles, and Falcon GT drums.

The 'Orange Deuce' colour is a real standout, so it is surprising that others haven't copied it.

King Bee headlamps suit the car very nicely.

The interior was trimmed in a very comfortable sculptured NZ wool tweed, by Pepper's Auto Trim.

The tail lamps were hand made - the mirrors are from California Custom.

The colour is custom Dupont Clear Over Base that Tony Cavich laid down. The owner applied the pinstriping.

the capacity for the rear windows to go all the way down, as they do in a steel body.

The motor in this '32 is a real whopper - a 460 Ford big block, with a mild cam, roller rockers, and a Weiand (say why-and) tunnel ram intake manifold that has two 650 cfm Holley carbs on top, fed through braided stainless steel lines, and capped by a Billet Specialties air cleaner. The headers are hand made stainless steel items.

Ford placed their distributors conveniently at the front of their motors - Tony replaced the Autolite version with a Mallory.

Under the floor, a Datsun 200B master cylinder & booster occupy some space, as does a C6 auto trans, which has a 2500 rpm stall converter, and a B & M in-line ratchet shifter.

Inside, a Billet Specialities polished aluminium steering column connects to one of their own steering wheels at one end, and an HQ Holden steering box at the other end. Billet Specialities also made the arm rests, and Autometer supplied the gauges.

The front seats came from a Honda Integra, while the rear was custom made. A custom fuel tank sits in behind the rear seat.

The rear suspension is also a stainless steel 4 bar arrangement, similar to the front, except the rear uses adjustable coil over shock absorbers.◄

Accreditation: The Editor.

© Hot Rod Features is owned and operated by
Peter Crain. The contents of these pages are protected by copyright, save for material contributed by & attributed to others.

E-mail: The Editor

Phone: +(61) 7 3809 2100
Fax: +(61) 7 3402 3667