Unbelievable! Thats what it was, the Al Street Pirate Club made a mega-discovery. There was this elderly couple in my neighborhood, back in the 1960's. Like a lot of old-time home-places, their yard was real interesting. Junked cars, an old shed full of wood-working tools and lumber, a chicken pen/coop, and a vegatable garden that had lost the weed battle, big time. One Saturday, while secretly exploring this menagerie, the Pirates discovered a '41 Ford coupe. Since us Pirates were also racing NUTS, the coupe's discovery was our vision of a gold rushSweet-gum trees were growing through its missing door windows, the single surviving tire had been flat for ages, the hood was removed, but it was nereby. The once-mighty flathead, had one cylinder head removed, fusing the (former) moving pistons to the block. However, as luck would have it, in the nereby shed was a single finned aluminum flathead HEAD..........just how much better can this deal get??? ! Half of the grill was missing, and the "interior" was drooping tatters. But, to us, the sad old black coupe was absolutely perfect.................We were going to drag it home (somehow) and fix it up, and make it into a modified, and (most importantly) paint it orange and make it number "16" (white numbers).But isn't life bittersweet, at times? Us kids, begged, and pleaded the with the old couple's family, and they "gave" us the coupe. Truth be told, this gift was academic. When you are 10 years old, and the car of your dreams has sweet gum limbs through its windows, and only has one tire.............just how in the world could this dream be realized? My dad, that's how. After coaxing dad out the "site" he made a 5-second observation and decalared............"any attempt at moving THIS car will cause it to fall into THREE pieces..........." it was THAT rusty, according to dad, and that was the last and final nail in the '41 Ford coupe's coffin. No orange paint, no white "16", no nothing............. The old girl was crushed in the 1970's.For the most part, Detroit did not manufacture automobiles through the war years. With minor cosmetic changes, Ford cars from 1941-48 were the same basic design. Once cut-down in racing trim, it's really difficult to determine one of these year models from another. Recently, a time capsule 40-something Ford coupe race car became "available". The old coupe had been built and raced in the 1960's around Rockingham, NC, and was largely intact and very accurate of the period. It was simply too much of a find to miss. Me and partner Jim Wilmore purchased the grand old lady, made a few changes and plan to send her back into the dirt wars. It's not orange, and it not number 16, but it is close.......bright yellow.Scripture and the God of heaven repeatedly describes the granting of the "desires of the heart.............."Nothing is promised, and decades can pass, the entire subject can be shelved, if not forgotten. But if one knows how to listen, discern, and remember............fantastic/unbelievable childhood fantasies sometimes come true. The 1940-something Ford coupe DID come home, and it was already a race car! There's a little boy, on Al Street, grinning from ear to ear!***The old Ford coupe will participate in the Rockingham Speedway ARCA pre-race vintage parade........driven by Slim_Shady..........Ain't God Good!