If you look closely, you'll note that all of those engines are 427 SHOC "Cammer" engines. Holman loved to come down in the middle of the night and rearrange those enginesx with a fork lift according to long time H&M crew chief Freddie McCall.
hi kurtis - here's the deal on the "illegal" fords . truth be told , they were illegal...when bill france said they were . but they were also legal...when bill france said they were . the first pic shows fred lorenzen's atlanta winner . no , that's not a '60 or '61 starLINER , ; it's a '62 ford starLIFT . the very rare starlift was a '62 ford convertible with a starliner type roof bolted on . here's the story : in '60 and '61 ford had the starliner , which , as big as they were , got thru the air very well . when the '62 fords were introduced , the starliner was missing from the lineup , as they hadn't sold very well . the only roof available on the '62 fords was the squareback design , which was popularly known as the thunderbird roof at the time [ see the other 2 pix , which show lorenzen [ #0 ] and winner nelson stacy at the '62 world 600 , which show the stock t-bird roof ] . these squareback roofs were not very fast or stable on the superspeedways , so the ford nascar guys - read that uncle ralph and big john - complained to ford , who had recently gotten back into racing , tho still unofficially . ford couldn't do much with the production line cars , as that would take too much time , so they came up with a quick fix . they offered the starliner type roof as an option / kit to be bolted onto their new convertibles . it's not known how many of these "kits" were made - there couldn't have been many - but at least a couple were strategically displayed at the ford dealer closest to the superspeedways where the next races were to be held . somehow ford convinced big bill that they really were a stock option [ and , as impractical as they were , i suppose they were a limited production option ] , and they were allowed to enter and qualify for the atlanta 500 . but the race had to be postponed due to rain . before the race could be run , however , ford's competitors [ read that pontiac ] complained to big bill about these upstart fords . the nerve of those dearborn blues , trying to pass off their cars as legal and stock ! never mind that the big native americans were much more illegal than the henrys , they had been dominating in nascar for quite a while , and they didn't like hearing footsteps catching up behind them . well , ol' bill , in all of his wisdom , put his big feet up on his desk and said "let's compromise" . all of the cars have qualified for the atlanta 500 , so we'll let them run , as is , in georgia . but from there on they'll be considered non-production and banned from the tracks . there was a thunder clap , and it was done ! but a big problem presented itself . they couldn't reschedule the atlanta 500 before running the world 600 , and the ford teams didn't get the news that they couldn't run their now illegal fastbacks at charlotte until the last minute , so they had to scramble to prepare "legal" squarebacks for that race . the cars that holman moody entered were , i believe , "house cars" - cars that were driven in big races by sometimes stock/nascar drivers . the #0 that lorenzen drove in the 600 was probably the car that dan gurney drove at daytona in february . i seem to remember that winner stacy's red car [ his regular nascar rides were yellow ] may have been an HM usac ford . i'm sure that my friend dr. john craft [ C5HM ] can correct me if i'm wrong . as we all know , nelson stacy went on to victory at charlotte , waving our blue banner high , sending those other guys back to their tee pees to regroup ; no doubt complaining about whatever those dearborn guys may or may not have been doing . two weeks after the 600 , the very next race was run at ....atlanta ; and there were those pesky starlifts . to make an already long story a bit shorter , lorenzen's starlift , after a thrilling battle with banjo mathews' pontiac , was in the lead when the rains came down....hard .. ending the race . i like to think of it as God and ralph moody raining on pontiac's parade 2 races in a row !! [ happy face here ] . the starlifts were once again illegal as fred took the checkered , so ford and HM took fred's car to bonneville , installed a much enlarged FE engine [ 483 C.I. , if i remember correctly ] , and set a bunch of records . the pic below actually shows fred's car at bonneville . fords only won 3 more races on the nascar tracks [ for a total of 6 for the season ] , but among them was the southern 500 , with larry frank in the saddle . but it had been a learning year , and ford had learned a lot . by the time nascar ran the first riverside 500 in january, '63 , the ford teams brought their big guns to a knife fight . they now had a full production , perfectly legal , and oh-so righteous fastback roof atop their beautiful new for '63 bodies . and under the hood they were now packing the almighty 427 . and all of henry's faithful lived happily ever after !!! P.S. - sorry for the long story . i guess i just like the sound of my own typing .
a few more pix . the first 2 show lorenzen's and stacy's starlifts , sans roofs . actually , they are the same cars , run as convertibles , at the 1962 rebel 300 , which was won by nelson stacy . the third pic shows the 2 HM cars at the '62 world 600 . nelson won that one , also. tho ford only won 6 races in '62 , 4 of them were on superspeedways . and there were only 8 superspeedway races run in 1962 . things would improve - a lot - in '63 ! jack
Can someone send me a PM and explain why if I do a Quick reply like I'm doing now, clicking the "Go Advanced" does not open the additional area to post photos. If I do a quote reply, I don't even get the "Go Advanced" option, only Post or Preview. Have I been "obstreperous" and been censured somehow?
thanx , dog . but about that avitar . if you just need a '55 or '56 ford pic , i'll send you one . c'mon , you're making this thread look tacky .
Great history, Jack. I love it. I knew this thread was gonna be great! I could listen to it, uuhhh, I mean read it, all night. Kevin
excuse my ignorance, but was it mandatory to use the current model year body ? If they used 61' Starliner bodies there couldn't have been any question then. an inquiring young mind Tom
Ford wasn't selling anymore '61s so they wanted '62 cars on the track and the '61 cars were limited to the 390 CI engine and the '62s had he new 406. Back then stock pretty much meant soock so they weren't allowed to put the new 406 in the older cars. There was a three year limit on which cars could run back then if I remember right so they could have run the '60, '61 and '62 cars in the race. Marvin Panch won the '61 Daytona 500 in Smokey's '60 Pontiac much to the displeasure of the Pontiac reps, the '61 car with Fireball at the wheel blew up after leading 170 laps. Letting Panch drive the '60 car was a last minute thing as Panch needed the money and Smokey let him pull it out of the garage where it was stored and prep it.
speaking of avitars , johnny , does yours show "the legal cheater " ? can you tell me more about it ? i've been trying to find more info on that car for a long time . for those who aren't familiar with "the legal cheater" , we could stretch a point and include it here , as it could be said that it had a connection to HM as it ran a nascar stock supercharged 312 . after walking all over the chevys in nascar , these blown Y-Blocks showed up on the drag strips , dominating in their junior stock classes . the "legal cheater" was originally owned and driven by larry walker , from mountain view , calif. it was one of , if not THE , best known of the blower fords , holding it's class record in the late '60's . jack
I know nothing about the car, just an awesome pic in my opinion! Stole the pic here, http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4090193&postcount=3198 I recon you have it right!
thanx , johnny . no , i didn't have that pic . in fact , i only had one very poor color pic of the car . if you come across any more , i'll appreciate it if you'll let me know . great photo . thanx again . jack
#257; " after walking all over the chevys in nascar , these blown Y-Blocks showed up on the drag strips , dominating in their junior stock classes " I remember those ! Most people don't realize it, but untaxed liquor haulers had parallel racing wars going on drag strips like round trackers at cow pasture and fairground circle tracks. Out in the unsanctioned outlaw wilderness, not many people could read a rule book, let alone if one were even present, but I've heard stories prior to F/X where a 671 should be allowed to superceed a Paxton if a Hilborn were be allowed to replace a Rochester fi. And rearranging a wheelbase a foot or so with the engine behind the firewall didn't mean squat. Laugh if you will, but track owners back in the day always carried the intrinsic fear of a gun fight breaking out. Nothing today even remotely resembles competitiveness that was once found in automobile racing,....... thank God. Tom S. in Tn.
On my recent visit to H-M I asked Jimmy Tucker about the Turbine Truck. He said part of the truck's duty was to haul the newly introduced Mustangs on tour around America. When FOMOCO was finished with it they took the turbine engine out and gave the truck to John Holman. He said drivers had a hard time driving the truck because of it's height and heavy weight when fully loaded. The cab was 13 feet tall and the driver sat at about 12 feet, much higher than a normal tractor. It also had a reverse thrust like a jet to help assist the air brakes but to activate it you flipped a switch and pushed the gas pedal again. The drivers could not get accustomed to pushing the brake pedal and the gas pedal at the same time to stop it. He said he thought Holman sold it to someone in North Carolina and it still survives.
He said he thought Holman sold it to someone in North Carolina and it still survives.[/QUOTE] Could that someone be Alex Beam?
just thought i'd finish my story on the starlifts with some publicity photos ford issued to "prove" the cars were "stock" . it's too bad ford didn't offer that roof on a stock '62 , again calling it a starliner . it made for a good looking car .
Holman-Moody Race-Prepped 64 Ford Fairlane Invades Nürburgring http://jalopnik.com/#!5639704/race+prepped-64-ford-fairlane-invades-nurburgring
Frank, Most folks don't recall that H&M originally occupied a set of old army air corps buildings at the air port until 1966. All of the original H&M Galaxies were built in that rather primative structure until then. Fireball Roberts actually drove the original Fairlane in the sporty car race at Daytona. The new cars that Lee H. has been trying to sell have nothing in common with the original cars except for four round black tires. The new cars are basically modern day "cup" cars shoe horned under a 1964 Fairlane body. But boy are they fast. Here's a shot inside the building circa 1960.
i hope i'm not stepping on john's [ craft ] toes here , as it is his post , but that fairlane was driven by fireball roberts in the 1964 daytona continental . finished 2nd to , IIRC , a.j.foyt in , again IIRC , a ferrari . i was going to post some pix of this car , anyway . hopefully , i can , along with some more info i've come across over time . oops - posted this at the same time john posted his info [ above ] .
The car pictured outside the shop and the #96 sure look like two different cars to me ... or the one outside the shop is a later modification of the #96. I recall seeing a picture in an old SCR magazine of a '64 Fairlane like the shop pictures one on a track and if memory serves it wasa NASCAR oval track ... I may most certainly be wrong but the #1 sticks in my mind. Maybe it was a USAC car? Joel
Not sure how many (if more than one) Fairlanes were built at H&M in 1964. They were NOT legal for NASCAR Grand National stock car competition. And I never heard of their use in USAC. I could be way wrong, but I think the only race the Fairlane ran was the Continental. I have read some speculation on the FE thread that the car may have later become a drag car. Specifically a non-post "Thunderbolt". I'd love to know more. Frank, you used to own a T-Bolt. Can you add to the story?
This is a picture of a car Lee Holman brought to California Speedway for a SAAC (Shelby American Automobile Club) meet back in '03? Tough to get a good shop due to pillers, tires, and stuff in the way.
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