Ryan submitted a new blog post: The 1963 Ford Galaxie LightWeight Thread Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Anytime these Galaxies come up in conversation, people go to the Youtube videos of them sliding around Goodwood. Figured I would save y'all some time:
Great stuff! Fantastic job by the Galaxie builders, tuners and drivers. (What a workout driving those things!) 427 Fords absolutely rock. Terry
Just look at this SOB. As subtle as Mamie Van Doren at a bridge club meeting. The '63 1/2 Galaxie is one of the most bad ass looking cars ever designed and is my favourite besides the Starliners.
Lightweight......The funny thing to me is, everyone thinks these were such tanks, but a 2023 Mustang GT weighs as much as 3800 lbs. A New Dodge Challenger tips the scales at well over 4000! Even a stock big-block Galaxie might not weigh as much. Granted, the new cars are carrying behemoth tires, big heavy seats, and lots of airbags, but still, that's a lot of weight.
Love those cars. Neighbor bought a new black 63 1/2 when I was 11 years old. Within days, the wheelcovers disappeared, and the exhaust mysteriously changed. I'd sit on our front porch, waiting for the dad to come home after work, and listening to it growl as it came up the street. Badass car. That car ruined me (there were others, too).
A 3500 pound race car is a really heavy damned car though... Especially when it has archaic suspension and drum brakes and it's competing against things like Lotus Cortinas and Jaguars of the era... Here's a few more fun ones:
That's when men were men sliding them things around like they were toys. One of the coolest cats ever built my older brother had a 63 and a half .
Always had a fondness for the fastback. My uncle had a new "Medium Riser" 427 street version. Dark jade, 4 spd bucket seat, mom used to love to borrow it for an errand. He got a lot of tickets and just threw em in the glove box thinking they were just a got caught notice. He eventually lost his license for a short time. I was like 6 years old, mom going to the grocery store. I asked her how to pronounce a word on a street sign..."No commercial vehicles" on a neighborhood street. I was scared. It had a 4spd shifter. Speed parts used to be in, wait for it...TV commercials! "Mom aren't we gonna get in trouble?" Hey, I was 6 but remember that moment vividly. As to being a million bucks, maybe the most famous one in the world, but this could been had on Labor Day weekend. A no sale but... Nice one...
And on crossply tyres! Although that does limit how much you can brake so drums are less of a disadvantage than you’d think but then 7 litres isn’t as much of an advantage either. Always a laugh racing Galaxies. Mustangs and Falcons just seem like a large saloon but Galaxies are like someone is driving a snooker table around in front of you.
You Tube I always enjoyed from the Crystal Palace with the big Fords mixing it up with the much lighter and smaller Cortina’s:
Thank you sir. The car that sold for over a million was the actual Willment car I guess... It didn't even meet reserve at that price in 2016. Watch the goodwood videos... its crazy how much earlier the galaxies have to brake... They make up so much ground so quickly on the main straight, but if they don't get the overtake done by turn 1, it takes them half a lap to catch back up again.
Wonderful, Jimmy at his best chucking BJH 417B around the only motor racing circuit within London. Crystal Palace was just a great circuit, shame they built an athletics stadium over most of it, although, it would have had to close sooner or later, from a safety point of view, as is evident looking at that film with modern eyes! Thirty years ago, I rode my mountain bike around the bits that were left of it.
390, 3x2, bench seat, factory 4-speed car I used to have. Another one of those, wish I never would have sold it cars. I had traded, straight across, a HD Sportster for it that I had bought my ex . Let me clarify that I had traded a sporty that I had bought my ex for the car. I don't want people thinking I traded the car for a sportster.
I’ve seen them, from behind! It’s annoying that they can get past in one straight but it’ll take me 3 or 4 corners to get the place back again. Unless it’s wet, which is a whole different ball game.
Ah yes, the decade-long heady days of Ford's 'Total Performance' programs. After Henry II realized that he'd been hoodwinked by the so-called 'Racing Ban' of the AMA, Ford returned to the racing wars in 1960 with a vengeance, with no quarter asked or given. Add in the bitterness of the Ferrari fiasco and suddenly Ford was everywhere. Probably the largest all-at-once investment in racing programs by a US manufacturer ever. Besides NASCAR and NHRA, add in Indy, Formula One, SCCA, and FIA; there were few if any major series Ford didn't enter or have success in sooner or later, a legacy GM and Chrysler can only wish for. People forget that the reason the GT350 didn't have a back seat was so it could be classed as a 'sports car' and directly compete against the Corvette. It gave a pretty good account of itself too, until Shelby showed up with the Cobra and settled the 'vette's hash once and for all. A really big chunk of money was spent on the 427-powered GT40 for its transaxle. None of the available units could take the big motor's power, Ford engineering scratch-built their own using top loader/9" gears with a custom housing. And these 'lightweight' road-racing '63 Galaxies weren't the same lightweight cars as what Ford fielded in NHRA. The drag cars had fiberglass/aluminum bits, grenading aluminum-case T10s and flimsy Custom 300 frames, all in efforts to get the heavier Fords weight down. They weren't particularly successful and were replaced with the iconic Thunderbolt Fairlanes. The road-race versions were basically NASCAR-spec, with some racing bits NASCAR didn't allow and some added 'stock' bits to meet rules. If you've ever had the opportunity to drive/ride in a 427 Galaxie, it's positively amazing at just how hard these behemoths can accelerate! Given the current renaissance in FE performance parts, it isn't all that hard to build a fire-breather or torque monster out of a plebian 360/390 block for less than trying to track down a 'real' 427 block. Long live the FE!
This is my absolute favorite non-Falcon Ford. I've owned two fastbacks and one four door; they may look big and imposing but they're not heavy for their size. The trunks are absolutely enormous and so are the interiors. And my first one came straight out of a salvage yard where I bought it for $150 with the owner's permission to scrounge anything I needed except an engine and trans to put it back together. THAT was a killer deal and I kick myself every day for having traded it off....
Pretty sure I've posted this little ditty before.......... I knew a guy in the early 70's that was a regular at another friends' place, building, bench racing, etc. he had a 3x2/406/4speed Galaxie fastback, a madman that was allowed to possess a drivers license, when he would leave, he would mat the pedal, side step the clutch and put the longest black strips down the street that I had ever seen. He was absent for some time so I asked about him and was told his antics finally caught up with him when the clutch/flywheel decided to "leave the building" taking the back of the 406's block with it. Man, I bet that left a stain!
Not a 1/2, but our corner of the Galaxie. So glad to see a thread about these great cars. This is my older mild custom with red strip, vintage A/C, lowered stance, duel exhaust with added resonators and a three speed AT. Just an x code 352, but it goes!
Indeed, add in the British/European/Australian Touring Car championships with the Cortina, Escort, Capri, Sierra, and Aussie Falcons all the way from the early 60's through to the early 90's, there was also World Rallying, and effectively having the legacy of the greatest rally car ever in the Ford Escort Mk.1/2. The Escort also dominate UK and European short track oval racing and rallycross in the same period. As a result of that corporate decision over 60 years ago, Ford can probably be considered the greatest motorsport dominating automobile manufacturer ever.
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