For most people who visit the Speedway Motors website, it’s all about the part and getting your own project back on the road. After all, Speedway has been in business since 1952 selling speed and performance parts to enthusiasts from all over the world.

We visited Speedway Motors last fall to see the sky-high shelves full of parts and its “nearly a million square feet of cars and parts” to see first hand how the business operates. Looking up at the height of the shelving, and the depth of the aisles of parts bins full of performance parts, you could literally get lost in there and not see it all in a day. Much better than a day at Legoland.

But with any business that caters to us gearheads, it’s kind of important to know that people at that business share in our passion and pains about building our projects, and the decisions we make to keep the spirit alive. So when we stumbled upon the technical section on Speedway’s website and saw all of the videos and tech tips, we had to share that with our readers, too.

More than just a technical tips section, this is a place where we can find other helpful information, such as Tuesdays With Tim, a look into Speedway Motors’ own employee who is embarking on a restoration/build of a 1929 Model A Ford. Tim has decided to chronicle his build with tech articles to help others with installs or upgrades, and this week’s install is based on a Pertronix distributor upgrade for his Red Ram Hemi.

Quite often, enthusiasts will upgrade their old mill with something modern, like in the case of the 241 Hemi, a small block Mopar Performance distributor. But Tim wants to keep his old Model A looking like it was built more than 60 years ago. He wants it to appear as though he yanked the Hemi out of a 1950s Coronet and stabbed it into the old Ford.

As we all know, old distributors not only have archaic design and the dreaded points-type ignition system, but parts are hard to come by. So what does one do to keep this old distributor looking old? Tim installed a Pertronix Ignitor Kit, which replaces breaker point ignition systems with an electronic ignition. The Ignitor is self-contained, and fits under the factory distributor cap, providing a maintenance-free and stealthy installation.

You can follow along with Tim as he converts the old Hemi distributor, and see just how easy this inexpensive and reliable upgrade can be. There’s the crow who loves to upgrade to modern parts, and then there’s the crowd that like to keep things looking original, and for that you can check out the Pertronix website for specific applications for your distributor.

In the mean time, Tim is waiting for some additional machine work to be done to his Red Ram Hemi, so for now we’ll just check out the distributor upgrade, with a new cap and rotor to replace the original units, which have seen much better days. It must be nice to know that just about anything you need is right there in the warehouse for you – which is why you should check out the Speedway Motors website for your performance parts needs. If you get your order in early enough, they can ship most parts the same day.