What are You Working on?

We have brought you a couple of updates over the last year or two on Lou and Erin Whitfield’s Dan Gurney Spoiler project. Actually this is Erin’s car and Lou has simply had the pleasure of working on it. Lou is one of those lucky ones that has a wife who is as passionate about the Ford Aero cars as he is. Their goal on this car since day one was to have it ready for the 50th Talladega Anniversary this fall. They plan on driving both his and her cars from Southern California to Talladega, this should be quite an adventure. Katrina and I are looking forward to seeing Erin’s Gurney in person and hearing their road trip stories.

If you have seen some of Lou’s previous cars you know he always does outstanding work with great craftsmanship but likes to build them his way with improvements and modifications to make the cars better for those long drives.

The newly built and modified engine is the original 351 Windsor backup with a FMX transmission, air conditioning, PS, PDB, AM/FM, rear defroster and a tach.

Mercury never built a safety loop for the drive shaft but Lou doesn’t want to take any chances if Erin makes a hard launch on their Talladega journey.

Not fancy but certainly clean, functional and beautiful under the hood.

This image gives you an idea of Lou’s workshop where this great Spoiler was reborn.

I remember many, many years ago, when Lou was telling me about knowing where a Dan Gurney Spoiler was that had been sitting for years. He had a plan even back then for this car’s future. He finally talked the owner out of it a few years ago and started getting parts ready for the build. Now it is done, it has approximately 500 shake down miles on it and thousands of miles more of pleasure.

The air conditioning is certainly a must for Southern California and I am sure Erin will enjoy it on the trip to Talladega this fall. There is even a plaque on the dash with Dan Gurney’s autograph!

If you want to see what Lou started with, Click Here (for Team Members only).