Phil Bonner 1965 Mustang & 1965 Falcon

Attached are two pics of Mr. Bonners "Daddy Warbucks" cars. One of the 1965 Mustang and the other of 1965 Falcon.

Why did Phil switch from the already built and running 1965 Mustang to 1965 Falcon during the already in progress 1965 Racing Season?

Thank You.

 

. that's a 66 stang. he ran that car well into the late eighties. then went with the falcon.

 

I seem to remember another A/FX Falcon that was green called the "Leap Frog" and I can't find info on it or who ran it,anyone remember it? Supposedly it was named that because it hopped every shift,it had ladder bars from the axle to just behind the front quarter panel.

 

http://www.cartechbooks.com/vstore/showdetl.cfm?DID=6&Product_ID=2553&CATID=21

The Warbucks Mustang was a 1965 K code not 1966. Phil even ran his 65 Falcon during the 1966 Race season.

 

Great call Chris. Dyno Don somehow campaigned a 1964 4 door Mercury Wagon and his 1964 Comet Caliente during the 1964 Race Season. You know I believe Eddie Schartman also ran a 1964 4 door Mercury Wagon and a 1964 Comet Caliente during the 1964 Race Season!

I have an article at home on how the Holman Moody built 1965 Falcon of Mr. Bonner cost $20,000 US in 1965! The article stated he replaced his 1965 A/FX Daddy Warbucks Mustang with the famous 1965 A/FX Daddy Warbucks Falcon but never said why. It took so much time, effort, and cost to build a single A/FX car only to switch to building another car during the same season.

 

The Schwartman car was Dyno Dons car. I had some of the info wrong, and went to edit, but deleted my post...

 

The Falcon was built because it could be made lighter than the Mustang. Bonner was more into "match racing" where the money was than cl*** racing which the Mustang was built for. The Falcon was one of the winningest cars around at the time. Several of the Mustangs got the rear wheels moved forward later. The '66 Mustang that Bonner ran was a "long nose" or streched nose car as were all the Ford factory FX cars in '66. The Mercurys got the flip top cars. Bonner had also had great success match racing a '64 Falcon the year before.

The '64 car: (one of two authorized by Ford for '64, Brannon had the other)

The '66 car:

 

This is funny!! Where and the heck did you ever come up with this?

Falconred hit the nail on the head. The Mustang was to heavy and was known to break axles on a regular basis. Phil had Holman Moody build him a lightweight 1965 Falcon so he could go after the AWB Mopars. The blue 1964 Falcon and the poppy red 1965 Falcon are two seperate cars. Some people think the blue car was just updated and repainted but it wasn't. Phil sold the blue car to Jim Cagle in 1965 when the red car was ready. Jim now has an exact replica of the original car as they can't find the original. The red car was first ran on gas with carbs with the drivetrain right out of the Mustang. It also had the "twisted leaf" front suspension like the AFX Mustangs got. Phil eventually switched over to Hilborns then fuel. Eventually he turned it in to Ford in exchange for his longnose 1966 Mustang. Ford then crushed the car.

The current poppy red "Daddy Warbucks" Falcon the ****ie Estevez races was built by Phil in the late '80s. He was going to race with Dyno, Arnie Beswick, Malcolm Duram, and Ronnie Sox on a nostalgia circuit. Things didn't work out so Phil sold the car to ****ie. The modern car is not the same Falcon as the original car.

Phil has told me the poppy red '65 Falcon was his favorite car of all time. He said it was almost unbeatable when on gas. He said it was on the edge on fuel!! Phil was never much of a NHRA cl*** racer. He said match racing is where the money was and he had to make money!!

Phil is my favorite racer of all time and I've been lucky to become friends with him. He is a great guy!!

 

I saw ****ie with that Falcon at the Man***as reunion in Sept. Hell'uva car right there.

 

I saw Bonner at Dover back in late '64/early '65 with the Georgia Peach. What a monster! All four wheels off the ground at launch, three of the ground in second, etc; still ran in teh ten's, which was flyin' back then.

 

This shot is of Phil working on the '65 poppy red car at Holman Moody. Both the blue '64 and poppy red '65 were complete running small block cars prior to being converted to 427 race cars.

 

Theres a great article in an old Super Stock I have all about the Falcon/Mustang , I'll scan/post it tomorrow if I dont forget.

 

Hey, the HAMB "that's not traditional-pre 64" bashers haven't found this thread yet.

 

Actually, 1966 is the cut off date as I understand it from when I first committed the cardinal sin of putting something on here from 1969 when I first joined.

 

Theres concessions made when it comes to the golden age of Drag Racing. Great info guys.

 

You guys must not have seen my A/FX 427 Mustang thread the other night. It turned into a total bash fest and got deleted. I was advised by several members that 65 427 Mustangs are not traditional hot rods??