We love seeing unusual classic cars enter our shop, and this ’49 Fordillac surely qualifies! Treasured Motorcars sorted out some chassis and electrical issues, and performed an engine swap on the car.
Bill Frick opened up Bill Frick Motors, located in Rockville Centre, NY in 1949, and he began to build and market brand new Cadillac OHV-engined Fords under the name Fordillac. The Fordillacs were powered by the 160-horsepower, 331-cubic-inch four barrel Cadillac V-8’s, and they were available with manual or automatic transmissions. Nearly next door to Frick Motors was Signal Motors, a Ford dealer. Frick would buy the new Ford, drive it 100 yards and yank out the new flathead for the Cadillac engine, so there was a pile of new flatheads in the back of Frick’s shop during that era.
Noted sports car builder and racer Briggs Cunningham purchased one of Frick’s early 1950 Fordillacs. He drove it on the street for daily transportation, but he also raced it at a number of tracks. On February 2, 1950, Briggs clocked his Fordillac at Daytona at almost 107 mph.
