As we were walking the pit area at the Auto Club Dragway during the 4th Lucas Oil West Coast Shootout put on by NMCA we came across a very unique nostalgia drag car. Ron and Bob Danly are a duo of brothers that are serious about the performance aspect of classic cars. They regularly participate in Goodguys autocross as well as NMCA drag events. We got the lowdown on their 1951 Thames Panel truck, a Ford make that was created for the UK market. Check out some of the specs as well as the backstory of how the Danly brothers came to own it.

“The Thames panel trucks looked exactly like this from 1948 through 1954. This vehicle is the panel truck version of the Anglia sedan. It’s the same front end only the doors got shorter and obviously it has a truck back end. These models are a little harder to find because most of them got turned into little delivery trucks and junked. The ones that were at the drag strip usually got crashed and on top of that there were never as many of these as there were sedans,” Ron told us. He continued, “This thing will usually run 10.30s with the throttle-stop off and I run 10.60 index in other associations.”

The ’51 features an all-steel body and the original frame which has been reinforced and boxed. The motor is a 347 ci Ford by Dart. Ron dyno’d the car about six years ago and it was measured to be putting out 553 horsepower to the wheel. Like Bob and Tom Pendergast’s ’33 Willys that we featured earlier, the ’51 Thames also has a Powerglide transmission mated to the motor. According to Ron, “The Powerglide is just a little more consistent.” An 8-inch Ford rearend completes the drivetrain.

Ron has been racing in the Hot Rod Heritage series and at Goodguys since 2003 so he’s no stranger to the blacktop. As the interview went on, a calm breeze turned into a pretty noticeable tailwind that put a little spark in Ron’s eye. We asked him to elaborate on why the wind is such a factor especially for a vehicle with a body profile such as his ’51. “On a car like this, it’s hard to deal with. This car has got a lot of flat area in the back and it’s tall unlike a lot of newer cars that are more streamlined. The wind affects this car a lot and it’ll pick up 2 mph easily if the breeze is blowing.”

The original front suspension, which featured a straight-axle setup, was swapped out for the front clip off of a Chevrolet Chevette. “It’s very similar to Mustang IIs only they’re sized down from that. Aerospace Components disc brakes and spindles give the setup an aftermarket update.”

Ron picked up the car in 2002. Prior to his ownership the ’51 had never been raced, but had a couple of aesthetic elements that made it look like that’s what it was intended for. It had a different small-block Ford in it and a wheelie bar setup, but according to Ron, it was just a street rod that never saw any action on the track. Interestingly, Ron was running 12s when he’d first started putting it on the track. Over the years he and his brother Bob have wrenched away dropping more than 2-seconds off their quarter-mile time.

It was great getting to chat with these two. They were two brothers in high sprits enjoying a weekend at the drag strip. It was an ideal portrayal of spending time with family on the weekend while doing something that you love. It doesn’t get any better than that.