I did these valve covers the other day as kinda a throw back to Holman Moody type skunk works or what have you. I thought they looked cool and thought i would share them.<img src="http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr25/428kidd/428cjvalvecoversandcjmanifoldsBlackoppsvc012.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>.<img src="http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr25/428kidd/428cjvalvecoversandcjmanifoldsBlackoppsvc020.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
I got a few of those beep-beep stickers from Charlie Gray. He told me they originated around the '68 Daytona 500 time in reply to Petty's car. Would any one be interested in seeing what happened to the Holman Moody sign that's pictured in the HM book, on page 130, hanging over GT40s? If so, I'll snap a few photos of it and post them.
There are many people who made significant contributions to Ford Racing over the "Glory" years from 1956 through 1972, and who without their participation; Ford would have been far less successful in all forms of racing. Of course Holman & Moody are right at the top of that list, but there is another person whose contribution was without equal or measure. That person is Charlie Gray, a quite gentlemanly sort of a guy who worked behind the scenes, was unknown to many, and was happy to have his immeasurable contribution unknown and unseen by the public. (After all, these were "Stock Cars"............right?) Charlie was the Ford Drag Race Program Manager before he became the Ford Stock Car Program Manager. He was responsible for the lightweight Galaxies, the organization of the Ford Drag Council, and set the Course for the Thunderbold Program. When assigned to the Stock Car Racing Program, he took the Ford Support, the technology of the race cars, and the Ford cooperation and participation of Stock Car Racing, Road Racing and Drag Racing, the drivers and teams to new levels, and with commensurate levels of success. Charlie was also my neighbor for a number of years, and you could see him every evening just walking his dog around the neighborhood. If I walked out and stopped him, he would reminisce about the good old days and the many friends we had in common. None of my other neighbors knew what a great man he was. He is another of those who without his help, my career would have been much less successful. Charlie, you are one hell of a man.<O
Dave, I got a couple of those stickers from Bill a few years ago at one of Dick Brannon's FordSouth shows here in GA. I sure enjoyed talking to him and hearing storys of the great days of Ford Performance.
The sticker and signed picture of Bill Holbrook and myself leaning on my 65 Comet at the 2004 Carlisle Ford show is one of my favorite mementos from racing!! He is a GREAT GUY!!! ROY.
I had never heard the names Bill Holbrook and Charlie Gray until I started organizing the Super Stock Reunions. It was the same with the GM and Chrysler racing bosses. They stayed on the sidelines and got their racers what they needed. But when some of the 'bosses' started attending the S/S Reunions they were welcomed by racers as warmly as other racers. There was no difference. It was clear to me that the bond between racer and racing director was the same as racer to racer or racer and mechanic. It was one big family.
It was clear to me that the bond between racer and racing director was the same as racer to racer or racer and mechanic. They stayed on the sidelines and got their racers what they needed. Maybe it changed in later years once Ford racing started being sold as aftermarket through a pseudo Ford catalog, but if you had a Ford going into the 70's, you needed more than a racing director. 1 source, and even regional parts men would not waste a minute trying to obtain a lug nut out of the dwindling closed pool of specialized Ford racing parts. Even Glidden jumped ship for a while, and any individual like us could have spent 9 lives trying to stay brand loyal and competitive, and even in the sportsman classes where we competed. Ford was a competitive leader and I respect anyone who carried the FMC name, but sorry, as an individual living within real world constraints who liked to build racing cars, once racing became marketed it still pisses me to this day to have lost my individuality to race. Sorry to have to be so negative; Tom S. in Tn.
In Racing, just as in any sport, winners always share a certain set of characteristics; Dedication, determination, resourcefulness, blaming only themselves for failure or defeat, self-reliance and total commitment to their game.
The man on the right looks like another famous HM alum , Joe Rumpf. Engine builders @ HM include Yates, Wilson, Russell, LO Stanley,Lee Terry, Noah Brown, Jim Brown, Tommy Turner (Wood Brothers powerplants all through the '70s , '80s & '90s), & Jimmy Tucker, still there & still building engines ! Larry Wallace, a legendary short track driver in his own right is still @ HM grinding camshafts for customers.
Although I only live 30 miles from Charlotte it has been almost a year since I visited Holman & Moody. Larry Wallace and Jimmy Tucker were both there but it was the first time I have been there when Junior Martin was not. As you know he passed away within the last year. Something I didn't know was Junior was one of the first Charlotte patients to have heart by-pass surgery many, many years ago. Jimmy has his full head of hair back now that his chemo treatments are over. He will be 72 in a few weeks and told me he is thinking of retiring soon. Larry is 75 and still grinding cams. It makes me wonder how much longer they will be working. Both have been H-M employees for over 40 years.
Frank, seems like every nostalgia site,super/stock thread or just about any drag race site has some mention of you. Looks like you have owned and raced other brands as well. Sheesh, where can we get a run down of all the cool cars you have owned? Neat stuff for sure!
Thanks Tommy, I have been into the high performance car scene since I got my drivers license in 1960, a year that most of the manufacturers were offering special engine options. My first car was a warmed over '51 Chevy I won my first and only trophy in a car with. The rest of my 21 years of drag racing was done on motorcycles, Top Fuel for many of them riding a twin engine Harley. During those years I had a lot of different high performance cars I drove on the street and it became a business almost 40 years ago. My avatar is a '33 Essex Terraplane convertible I owned for 41 years. It was Cadillac powered when I bought it but I eventually had a 6.71 supercharged 427 Chevy in it. Floyd Garrett is a very good friend and we both have an insatiable appetite for exotic factory muscle cars although we both have slowed down in recent years.
This piece of work is on eBay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/?cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649&item=180935116477&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT anybody know anything more about it? I have had several Cortina's over the years but none like this regards, Roland
I was lucky enough to sit and be around this car in early 80s in its original form. The only one Holman Moody built for Ford in 67 was automatic single 4bbl., and dry stored after 67' until 79 or 80 when my friend bought it. since was sold to someone in Fl. the last I heard....Al
Kenny Thompson has been mentioned here as one of Holman & Moody's most talented craftsman back in the 60s. I was at his shop recently and was surprised as usual at his new project. He saw pictures of the original car in a magazine and liked the design of the car so much that he is now replicating it to drive on the street. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! And, it will be NOVI powered. I will keep up with the progress.
Pete Arend of St. Petersburg, Fla. purchased this '63 Corvette Stingray Split-Window Coupe new and immediately shipped it to Holman & Moody for modifications. What they did voided the warranty. No, they did not make a race car out of it. I wiil post "the rest of the story" tomorrow. Anyone remember why Pete sent it to H-M?
Pete Arend liked the new Stingray but did not like the fact it was only available with a small block engine. Ford had just released the dual quad 427 engine so that is the engine he chose for his Corvette. What better shop than Holman & Moody to do the work.
It has been almost 50 years since the engine swap but I have not seen anything in magazines or the internet about it since. I bet it is still out there somewhere. A car this unusual does not get junked. Maybe this exposure will turn it up.
Here are the last two pictures I have. One shows the modifications to the factory air cleaner to clear the Vertex magneto. Notice the C P sticker on the valve cover.
Looks like that would have been a domestic Cobra, and just as fast. Tom S. addenum; I bet making headers was wild. I wonder how long it took to complete this job?
Many of you will be glad to hear Holman-Moody guages are available again. You can thank George Poteet and Classic Instruments for this. George is well known on the HAMB with his awesome cars and his recent Bonneville efforts. Lee Holman tells me how it came to be. "George called me and asked if he could have Holman Moody guages reproduced for his own use. He offered to pay me a royalty for doing so and no others would be manufactured. I agreed to his request. But after he had them made and were in his cars other racers seeing them wanted them too." Lee sells them individually or as a package. I have seen them and they are first class items with a nostalgia flavor. You can see a better picture on the HolmanMoody website.
This is Challenger 1, a '62 Falcon Futura Holman & Moody built to run at Sebring in '62. They exchanged the original 6 cylinder for the just introduced Fairlane 221 cubic inch V-8. The decision to run this car at Sebring was made just 2 weeks prior to the race and this car was built in only 10 days. Ralph Moody tested the car himself at an area of the Charlotte Airport they were allowed to test on. Team drivers Marvin Panch and Jocko Maggiacomo finished 2nd in the class behind Jim Hall in his Chapparral. This was an amazing accomplishment considering it was just a thought 2 weeks earlier and the 221 was an untested engine for racing purposes. But Holman & Moody had that ability.
The Jalopy Journal
