Features Ford Thunderbolts Photos Wanted

Looking for some nice color photo's of New Englander Sylvanus Pierce's beautiful wicked fast Factory Ford Thunderbolt and his gorgeous A/FX Mercury Comet!...

 

The wicked fast and the very beautiful early built Thunderbolt of "Mr. 427" Ford himself Butch Leal's 427 c.i. fairlane 500 always ran strong and lookin' great at Pocono Drag Lodge in PA....Sweet!

 

Car was turned into a dirt late model later on and destroyed. I know where the original fiberglass is. No, it's not for sale, I tried...

 

Yep, that makes two!

 

Love this ol' pic of Phil's dirty Bolt!

 

Al Kitts gettin' it done in the Willis Ford Bolt!

 

As I'm sure Jody knows that the rebodies discussed throughout this thread are complete rebodies not just plunking a new body onto the original frame of which in unibodies there really wasn't much 'frame' to speak of.

I recently talked with Brian Burnett the former Tbolt 'super sleuth'. I'll give him that. He was incredibly successful in tracking down the remnants of these former race cars. He said he was involved with the 'discovery/restoration' of (22) tbolts in all. Some of which we are all aware of and obviously others that we are not. When asked which ones he professed to have forgotten their names. Some he recalled when prompted. His primary customer was Jerry Moreland as has been mentioned previously.

I asked him specifically about the amount of obvious and some not so obvious rebodies and he said he didn't understand what all the 'hue and cry' is about. It wasn't just to make a buck. It was easier, faster, and safer to strip and refurbish a pristine donor car than it was to repair a former race car that may have had its sub-frame twisted after a (1000) or so hard launches plus various racing accidents that were rapidly and poorly repaired so they could get to the next race. I don't disagree with that. He said people weren't as 'picky' back then when an old race car was 'resurrected'. That includes both the seller and buyer. Whether that's true or not is a matter of opinion.

Unfortunately the nostalgia crowd and current owners are stuck with the consequences of decisions made 30+ years ago. Nothing can undo that physical fact. I wish it hadn't happened but it did in certain cases. That's why to the true believers it's so important to have a complete 'chain of custody' pedigree for their cars along with other supporting documentation and testimony.

Len

 

Thanks Wicked, I didn't have this particular pic. I'm sure Al Kitts will appreciate it if he doesn't already have it. For those of you who've missed it in the past this is a decent representation of the 'un-capped' or 'un-covered' rocker panel tunnel typical of the last (89) white cars that came off the line as 'rollers'. Behind the front tire is the open area which was normally capped off with a cover on production cars to keep out water and debris. Since the Fairlane Dragsters weren't meant to be run on the open road it didn't matter to them.

Len

 

Ive' been gone for a while, how was the open house? A Tasca visit is on my bucket list.

 

Here several months ago, there was discussion of this omitted panel in the wheel house, but I thought they were saying it was something in the rear wheel housings. I wish I could find the posts. Tom S. in Tn.

 

Search Dennis K's posts, he was involved in that discussion and might help you find it. But what's pictured above is what I got out of that discussion and it's nice to see an example. I still can't believe how much I've learned and continue to learn from of this thread.

Kevin

 

Tommy it was really lame no Thunderbolts, no 505 Mustangs . Force didn't make it because of the rained out Indy then I found out it was John Force coming, who the hell wants to see that old geeZer I wanted to see Courtney. Think I only took my camera out once just a got couple shots of Carl Tasca's record setting Cobra Jet. I guess it would be todays Thunderbolt. These new Cobra Jets wern't built at DST and don't have FE power but I sure bet they would give the old Thunderbolt a good run for the money !

 

On a side note on the way home my friend was telling me about a 64 white Fairlane for sale he passed on years ago many years ago. It had a fiberglass teardrop hood and ft bumper big engine and headers. He passed on the sale the car was just to loud and was an automatic he was looking for a 4-speed. The price was $800 just gotta love the 70's. This is Bob Tasca"s III uncle Carl on his record run http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2t6mLTwOb4k http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Csow1cNPm_o

 

New Englands Billy Lawton and Bill Flynn goin' at it in '64...

 

DST built all of the original equiptment Thunderbolt headers in-house with tooling they also developed and built themselves. They had a crew of very clever and resourcefull people. They were the go-to people for this type of work in thier day.

 

Thanks Mr. Lyall. I wondered if this type fabrication might have been the reason DST was given the Thunderbolt contract, since the exhaust arrangement was probably the biggest engineering hurdle to cross on these cars.
Tom S.

 

I concur, and stand corrected as well. (sure thought this was a rear fender photo and it had something to do with larger tires) Tom S.

 

Thunderbolt sponsored by Campbell Ford from Waterbury, CT

 

Kentuckian,

Do you know if the car still exists?? What happened to it after Dempsey got through with it?

Len

 

Who is Dempsey???

Len, All I did was find the photo on the internet. I have no idea of its history. Please fill us in on what you know about the car.

 

Here's a photo of the Thunderbolt from Dobbs Ferry Ford

 

Come on, let's get this thread rolling again.

 

The 2nd owner of this car was Joe Threatt originally from Mt. Vernon, Illinois.

Don "Pig Farmer" Hawthorne was the original owner but quit making payments early on so Bill-Rick Ford took the car back and sold it for $900 dollars from the sales lot to Joe Threatt in late 1964. Hawthorne had the car painted black prior to its return to the dealership. Joe says it looked like some kid painted it. Bill-Rick never sponsored the car. They only financed it for Hawthorne.

Don didn't race the car at the track that I know of and raced primarily on the street until he 'lost' the car back to the dealership.

Joe Threatt soon thereafter moved to California (Concord) where he let Jim Demmitt race the car. In late 67 Joe Threatt moved back to Illinois leaving the car behind with Demmitt who was his good friend. He eventually sold the car to Demmitt who raced it for some time in CA before it began it's journey through multiple owners.

Len

 

Here's a brief article on the car at the time Potenti owned it. I believe he purchased the car from Chris Knapp.

 

Bob Bowen's '64 T-Bolt runnin' at York 1965...