Southern California constructors also created the two entertaining cars below.
 

Dave Dunbar, Jr., has restored the car.

See it as it looks today!

From racing historian Ron Cummings:

"Boy, did we root for that thing!"
 

"I ran across your website this morning, searching for FUBAR Special items.  Dave Dunbar was my brother-in-law. 

He bought the car from Cannon Engineering in North Hollywood.  It had been started by one of the McAfee brothers and finished by Ford Robinson (or vice versa).  I remember the day he picked it up.  It had languished outside the shop for some time under a tarp.  We towed it home and worked at trying to start it.  The original engine was a flathead, as you note.  I don't recall the exact specs but it was a stroker with a Mercury crank. Dave got it running and cleaned up enough to start racing it in local SCCA races -- Paramount Ranch, Goleta, and Riverside are some that I got to go to with him.

He blew the flathead engine eventually and replaced it with a Buick nailhead he bought from Max Balchowsky. I think he replaced the transmission with a LaSalle as well, keeping the torque tube driveshaft.  I was in the Navy by this time and didn't get to see him race this combo.

When this engine came apart, he parked the car and never touched it again; I have no idea why.  When he died (in a small plane accident) his wife and son decided to resurrect the car and put it back on the race course.  The drivetrain is all new -- 351 Windsor engine, 5-speed, 9" Ford rearend -- but the body remains the same.

It is titled as a 1938 Ford Roadster.  The frame and (original) runnng gear was 1938 Ford.  The front fenders were MG-TC (as you observed on your website), the rear fenders were Model-A.  The grill shell was from a Franklin -- the grill insert from a refrigerator. The rest of the car was fabricated.

Thanks for preserving these memories. Racing with Dave was one of the high points of my teenage years."

(12-1-08)  From racing historian Ron Cummings:

"The McAfees were not related.  I am pretty sure that Jack McAfee had nothing to do with the Faber but it is quite possible that Ernie McAfee's shop may have worked on it.  Ford Robinson was a friend of Big Jack McAfee and that may be causing some of the association with Jack."

(12-1-08)  From Pete Van Law

"Gotta jump in here.  Neither Jack nor Ernie were into Specials, but Ted Cannon and Jim Sealy were. Whether or not Ford Robinson was involved, I don't know, but he used to hang around Jack's place, especially in '54, prior to the fifth running of the Carrera PanAmericana, when I worked there. 

I thought he'd been involved with midgets and possibly sprints, but big bore Specials I kind of question, although he and Jack were good friends with Ted and Jim. 

I used to make periodic trips to Cannon Engineering, hauling parts back and forth, but other than the Cannon Specials languishing in the yard - 1st the CR1 and then the Offy coupe - I don't remember enough space to build anything else, especially inside.  Of course, the Faber could have been outside, under cover, while the Cannon cars never were.  Regardless, that was a long time ago, and my memory can't always be trusted."

New!  Mike Larkin sent me another photo of the Sorrell-Larkin car.

Also New!  Mike Larkin & Ron Cummings recount the Story of the "Sorrell-Larkin Special"!

The driver, Bob Johnson, was unhurt.

(12-1-08)   New!   Mike Larkin recreates the Sorrell/Larkin Special!

(3-14-09)   New!  The Sorrell-Larkin "Tribute Car" on track at Willow Springs!

All photographs and text are the property of Tam McPartland and are protected under United States and international copyright laws.  All rights are reserved and the images and/or text may not be digitized, reproduced, stored, manipulated, and/or incorporated into other works without the written permission of the photographer, Tam McPartland.