If you have more than one child, how do you separate your feelings between them? Each has their own personality, good and bad things about them, things that you might like to change, and things that occasionally surprise you. And if that makes sense to you, then you might understand how Richard Munz feels.
Though he's a grandfather in real life, the parent/child relationship can also extend to one's car collection and, in that case, you might say Munz has dozens of children! In fact, a few years ago he bought an old three-story taxi service building in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, to house his car, motorcycle, and parts collection.
So why would someone need more than one Deuce roadster? Besides the "I would if I could" answer, Munz explains that each one of his vehicles has its own personality, so each one is different than the next. The extent of his hot-rod collection, though, borders on being one the best in private hands. At last count, Munz owns about 40 vehicles, which includes three three-window '32s, one five-window Deuce, and eight '32 Ford roadsters (including two historic vehicles: the Tommy Foster's 1950 Detroit Autorama winner and the Neal East roadster, a quintessential hot rod and '60s-era Rod & Custom cover car). Overkill? Definitely not. Each car has a reason to be, and Munz recognizes that and drives each one of them as often as possible.
Hooking up with rod builder Roy Brizio was the key to realizing the most recent addition to the collection, as the pair had worked together on several projects before as well as had done some horse trading (only with hot rods!). Brizio had sold his well-known purple roadster to Munz back in 1996 and Roy wanted to have his old car again, so when Munz approached him to build him a new Deuce roadster, part of the deal was for Roy to get his old car back.
Munz likes to drive his cars, and Brizio knows only how to build cars that will see tens of thousands of miles racked up on the odometer. After 25 years in business, Brizio also knows the formula for bolting together a '32 roadster, more often than not with a Ford powerplant in them. The crew at Roy Brizio's Street Rods (South San Francisco, CA) started from the ground up on Munz's car with a custom set of Curbside rails (stretched 2 inches forward of the firewall, pinched, and C'd both in the front and rear) and built the chassis up from there. A Currie 9-inch rear (3.70:1) was added, along with a Brizio Panhard bar, Deuce Factory antiroll bar, Pete & Jake's ladder bars, and Aldan coilover shocks. Up front, Pete & Jake's hairpin radius rods, Panhard bar, and shocks were all used, along with a Durant mono-leaf spring and a Super Bell I-beam axle.
Munz's original idea for this roadster was to install one of the Ardun motors he owns, but changed his mind in favor of putting that motor in a more vintage-correct vehicle. This car would have a certain vintage look to it, but not be a period-perfect car. So while discussing engines, Munz and Brizio decided on a small-block Ford. The two have been installing Ford engines for so long they've become experts on what needs to be done to make it work (such as the short Ford water pump and the 90-degree oil filter mount). The engine for Munz's roadster is a 360-horse, 351-inch Ford Racing motor, topped with aluminum Ford heads. About the only non-Ford factory items used on the engine (which is backed to a five-speed transmission) are an Edelbrock 600-cfm carb, the MSD coil and Taylor wires, and the Patriot headers.