Carrillo customs speed and coachworks

This year at RPM NATIONALS in Santa margarita,ca, CARRILLO CUSTOMS had the honor of being one of the sponsors at the event. We were also asked to hand pick the best custom and best Hotrod at the event, we picked what was fitting, to the type of cars we put together here at the shop.

To top it all off, my good friend and early ford steering box expert , Neal Jennings (@nhrp2) on Instagram and myself, with the help of early ford transmission builder Paul Jennings (@svm99t), and mark Jennings lending a hand. We built a early 1950s flathead powered dragster, in about 6 weeks time. The engine to the dragster build, is a story in itself, but was saved by Neal and his dad and 2 brothers about 10 years prior from a old storage building. Neal had a hunch the old Hotrod motor could be saved, and we decided to call on Ricky Hall (@forrestof97s) in Northern California to help on tearing the old girl down and seeing if it was salvageable. Low and behold, the motor was freshly machined and never run!!! It just had decades of hardened assembly lube and dirt and grease sitting all over it. After lots of elbow grease and a few odds and ends, Ricky had the motor running and broken in for us exactly a week before the race. Topped with 4 rebuilt (uncle max) 97 carburetors, the ol girl is a force to be reckoned with.
Once we had the motor back, the race was on! Paul had a fresh built 39 trans ready to go for us, good friend jonathan Beller loaned us his brand new quick change rear axle, Neal reburbished a Franklin steering box from a old sprint car and started blazing through bracketry and plumbing and everything was coming together. I finished fabricating and tig welding the beefed up model T rails about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and Friday at 5:00 p.m. I drove the car out of of the shop and onto the trailer and off to tech inspection!!!!

Saturday with the help of jimmy white and john Barnes supplying us some old loaner hurst slicks, we raced! The competition was fierce this year! But the rail was holding its own, getting faster as the day went on. Fast enough to take home first place in our class!!!!!
Racing and winning was one thing, but to put a fun car together with your friends , even with the sometimes unexpected trails and tribulations that can happen in the midst of it all, to still go kick some a$$ at the track, that is were its all at.
Hopefully this story inspires some of you to make it out with a car next year to run!!!

If anyone is interested in putting a rail together with some of the parts and front end I used, I carry these parts in stock, call or email carrillocustomj@gmail.com