This 1940s Ford Coupe has a 6.4L Engine and a 4L Supercharger - My Car

When you think of cars that don’t have to pay road tax, don’t need an MOT, and cost just £180 a year in insurance, you probably think of something small. Quaint. A lovely old classic car living out its older years in a heated garage with little trips out to a local pub or cafe.

You certainly wouldn’t think of this - a 1940s Ford Coupe with a 6.4L engine and a 4L supercharger.

We’ll be honest - we wouldn’t have thought of it either. You’d almost have to be insane if you did. But owner Paul Brocklebank did.

Having bought the car as a “beaten-up, rusty old mess”, he told us he spent 19 years building it into what you see today.

“I built it as a pretty much regular car, and then was like ‘let’s go a little bit faster’, and then went a bit nuts about two years ago and put a 6.4L Dart block in it with a 4L supercharger,” Paul told us.

All that displacement has three main outcomes, and all of them are large. The first, and most noticeable, is noise. 

The car isn’t merely loud; it announces its arrival from a distance with a glorious cacophony of engine note and exhaust. The engine itself pokes through the bonnet Fast and Furious style, while the quad exhausts poke out from beneath the car’s ample posterior. The car has an almost Hot Wheels-type aesthetic, helped by a friend saying the car looked like a “Penelope” and inspiring the Wacky Races decals on either side.

The second outcome is power.

“It recently went on a rolling road at John Sleath Race Cars, so we know she’s kicking out 600bhp on the mildest tune possible. I can’t actually make it go any slower,” Paul said. He also mentioned that the back axle is capable of taking 2,000bhp, so there’s room to give the car far more power, but he estimated that a more powerful tune could get it up to 1,250bhp. 

And the third outcome? Fuel cost.

Paul told us that a 27-mile trip from Leeds to York cost him £27 in fuel - or a fittingly insane £1 per mile. For reference, a Volkswagen Golf can expect 5.6 - 8.6 miles per pound, while a Vauxhall Corsa can expect 6.7 - 9.0 miles per pound, according to Parkers.

Far from being the world’s most expensive commuter car though, Paul puts it to work on the drag strip.

Already owning the car, a chance encounter with “three little old guys” persuaded him to take it to Melbourne Raceway in York, UK. This one visit was enough for Paul to catch the drag bug - buying a race trailer, slicks, and putting a tow bar on the back of his camper van.

“We haven’t done a quarter mile yet, but the fastest I’ve done is 7.2s on the 1/8th at 103mph on an unprepped track.”

If you’ve not spent much time in drag racing, a prepped versus an unprepped track makes a big difference. Prepping creates more grip at the start of the run - allowing cars to get better launches, less wheelspin, and quicker times.

“Graham Smith, of Bad Apple Racing, was there, and he actually coached me for the day. So I got from 8.3s to 7.2s just by him [telling me what to do].”

And in 2026, Paul’s got bigger plans - hoping to not only take the car to Santa Pod, but Malta in pursuit of more racing. 

As a car ages, it tends to get used less. Parts wear and break, newer models come out, some unlucky ones are written off or sent to the scrap heap. But some lucky ones get restored. Get given a new lease of life. Get cared for.

This Ford could easily have met the same fate most cars that were produced 80+ years ago met, but Paul brought it back from the “beaten, rusty old mess” state it was in and made it something new and unique. Something that the men and women on the factory floor couldn’t have imagined for it when they crafted it all those years ago.

So while a car capable of making four-digit power figures not needing to pay road tax does seem a tad… dubious on the DVLA’s part, perhaps that’s the car’s reward for a life lived, and Paul’s for his 19-year commitment in rescuing it. And if so, good. They deserve it.