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 Barry’s 1947 CJ2A might look a little posey at first glance with its chrome trim but you only have to hear the rumble when he hits the starter and watch it powering its way through any obstacle that lies in its path to realise that it has more than enough mouth to match its trousers. The car’s pet name is “Careless Torque” and you just know that there’s a little more than the 60-horse Go-Devil engine you’d perhaps expect to find under the bonnet. What is under there is quite another and just as legendary power plant, a tweaked version of the Chervrolet small-block “mouse motor” V8 in 327 cubic inch (5.4 litres) form which in its original Corvette roadster tune would have put out up to 350 horse – but Barry’s engine tops that with big-valve heads with roller rockers, Advance headers, Offenhauser manifold and an Edelbrock carburettor. Barry doesn’t quote a power output, and we’re not surprised – where would he find anyone brave enough to strap an old CJ2A with that much mechanical muscle to a dynamometer and take it to its peak output? The Jeep has been uprated elsewhere to handle the power, it runs a T90 transmission with Dana 44 axles front and rear (the front custom built) and of course there’s a Smittybuilt roll cage just in case all that power does get out of hand. . . As you can see Barry does use Careless Torque off road, its progress aided by Lockright diffs and recovery (of other vehicles, obviously) is never a problem with the Warn 8000 winch. The wheels are Compomotive alloys wearing Interco Super Swamper rubber. Barry has owned Careless Torque since 1992; before that it belonged to a US serviceman at Upper Hayford, which explains the engine transplant and the other period modifications. Careless Torque outings have included taking part in the European Jeepers Jamboree in 2000, where the car won the Jeep Challenge outright. Barry tells a tale about taking a Belgian journalist for a ride out on the open road. “It had been raining,” explained Barry, “so naturally the car was in four-wheel drive to handle all the torque. As I accelerated up the road it was fairly obvious that the engine was spinning faster than it ought to have for the car’s road speed, approaching 60mph. ‘Your clutch is slipping,’ the Belgian said. ‘No it isn’t,’ I said, putting him right, ‘all four wheels are spinning’.”
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