Playing with race cars can be a freeing experience, especially for someone who, like Davin, has the mind of an engineer. As he tackles mounting the engine and transmission in the 1937 Ford race car, he essentially faces a blank slate. Davin decides to embrace this mechanical tabula rasa and design motor mounts to place the engine where he—and not some rulebook or designer—wants it to sit.

The reason for this unusual degree of freedom is twofold. The first is that Chrysler 440 V-8 was never fully mounted into the Ford, so there isn’t much already in the chassis. Secondly, the coupe won’t be competing in any races and therefore is not bound to the confines of any particular rulebook. Davin can put the engine pretty much anywhere he wants, and, of course, he’s in search of the configuration that will yield the best performance possible.

With the chassis stripped, cleaned, and sandblasted, it’s the perfect time to be doing the heavy fabrication as well. Davin’s ready to massage the floorpan to give enough clearance and to fabricate the mounts.

With the engine and transmission bolted into the car, Davin’s made some real progress on the Ford. There is still much to do though, because that bare engine block won’t push the coupe down the road without some serious reassembly. That’s a problem for another episode, though.