I ran across a brochure of the 1964 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt and was blown away with The 1964 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt had a 427 cubic-inch V8 engine, a steel chassis, and a top speed of 123 miles per hour in the quarter mile. Engine: 427 cubic-inch displacement, 425 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, 480 torque at 3,700 rpm, Dual 720 cfm Holley 4-barrel carburetors, and 12.7:1 compression. Transmission: Borg-Warner T-10 4-speed or Lincoln Cruise-O-Matic 3-speed Ford-designed, Borg-Warner-built four-speed with a Hurst shifter Suspension: Modified front and rear suspension Modified, relocated, trimmed, and reinforced upper A-arms and A-arm brackets New frame member, new shocks, special leaf springs, and heavy-duty traction bars Wheels and tires: 15-inch steel wheels Bias ply front tires, slicks rear tires Body: Fiberglass hood and front fenders, Aluminum front bumpers, and Plexiglas side and rear windows. Interior: Econoline bucket seats, No radio or heater, and No sound deadener or insulation. Dimensions: 190.3 in long, 73.6 in wide, 56.9 in high Wheelbase: 115.5 in Front track: 58.6 in Rear track: 55.3 in Weight: 3,225 lbs The cost was approximately $3,900 dollars when new. Key points about the 1964 Ford Thunderbolt: Limited production: Only 100 Thunderbolts were produced. Drag racing focus: Designed specifically for drag racing. High value today: Due to its rarity and racing heritage Hagerty valuation tools suggest the value today is around $201.000. As the title says, just daydreaming. HRP
Just for comparison, A base model 1964 Ford Fairlane 500 would have cost around $2,406 for a four-door sedan with a 260-cubic-inch V8 engine and a manual 3 speed transmission. HRP
You would have had to have been a top notch drag racer with a known track proven record to stand a chance, and if you had been a long term Ford loyal racer, the odds improved your chance to buy one. These were not offered to the general public. In 1964, nearly every car manufacturer was offering a hot drag car.
According to records of the 100 cars built, it's not known exactly how many exist today. After the first 50 T-bolts were distributed, just about anyone could walk into a Ford dealer and order a Thunderbolt. HRP
Even more rare was the OT 66 R code Fairlane w/ only 57 being built. You really had to know someone to get one. A friend of mine got his hands on one about 1973. Scary ride. Couldn't get him to part with it though.
Don Prudhomme said it was the most miserable factory car he had ever driven. He said it was designed for one thing and one thing only, to go straight for a quarter mile.
I recall reading a test report on a 1962 Dodge with the 413 Max Wedge engine. 13.5 compression and 500 ft.lbs. of torque combined with a very heavy duty clutch. The test crew called it one of the worst street cars ever built. Clattered and took a long time to warm up to anything close to a idle. After a 1/2 hour of street traffic their left knees started to hurt from pushing in the clutch.
698 A local guy here in East Tennessee came home from Vietnam and bought one new at the Ford dealership in Kingsport Tennessee. Still has it. Original paint, & the engine has never been apart. 29k miles.
1964 the year I was handed a license to drive. The local, the county, and the state, police, all wanted to know what my problem was.
Tom, I got mine the year before you and within a week I got my first speeding ticket, it was the first of many. HRP
You guys must’ve had or have RFI Right Foot Itus A condition where the affected persons foot tries to push the accelerator pedal through the fire wall when driving. Dan
Some people still don't understand the real drag cars don't have good street manors. Those that do understand have adjusted their driving habits accordingly. There are more people in the first group then there are in the second group. The modern high performance cars have deceived many into thinking they can handle the power available, but history will prove the first two statements are correct.
*I believe Don was referring to the handling characteristics from driving it back after the pass. There’s some stories. Who knows if they are true. You know you read a lot of stuff through the years. * One story is that a few Thunderbolts were bought bought for rich kids as street cars. Some of these were wrecked with fatal results....so the stories go. What is true..... The little Fairlane and the short lived Meteor were designed around the small block Ford. NASCAR had interest in the mid sized Fairlane and had Fireball Roberts test drive two Holman and Moody prepared 64 small block hardtop coupes at Daytona prior to ‘64 season. Roberts died of burns that season after wrecking his Galaxie. Roberts had an allergy to the fire retardant used to treat early race suits so he never wore them. *NASCAR abandoned the idea of mid sized cars, I assume because the manufacturers wanted to showcase the full-size “flagship models”. *In 1966 Bobby Allison; who had lost factory sponsorship, bought his own ‘66 Chevelle and ran it that season as an independent. That was the first midsized car to run a season. With this said I have to mention the Super Stock Dodge..... *The big block Dodge was really the daddy of the Fairlane Thunderbolt in NHRA drag racing. It’s probably why NASCAR was toying with mid sized cars before the ‘64 season. The big block Dodge was a smaller car. There were rules in the factory class. A certain amount of cars had to be offered to the public in the stock class. What wins on Sunday, sells on Monday. *The big Galaxies, Catalinas and Impalas could not hang with the little but still “full-size Dodges”, especially in drag racing. GM was so pissed they did not do factory drag racing in ‘64. Ford offered the Thunderbolt. Those two NASCAR Holman and Moody small block coupes went on to road race in Europe. They were restored a few years back and still exist today. Going back to the little Fairlane..... *The little car was designed around the thin wall cast small V8, the 221 in ‘62. The was a tribute to the 221 V8 of 1932. One of my pet peeves..... the 221,260, 289, 302 and 5.0s are not Windsors! They are not Windsors. There’s only one “Windsor” the 351 which is a different casting. So what is the small thin wall casting V8? *Originally Ford called the 221 family the Ford Fairlane Engine or FF like the Ford Edsel big block or FE. That really did not catch on. Later it was called the Ford Cobra engine due to the popularity of the Cobra sports car. When Ford went all in with Total Performance the small block was called the “Challanger V8”. In ‘65 and up or 6 bolt era.....the Mustang V8. * For some reason after ‘69 all small Ford V8s suddenly became Windsors. I just call them Small Block Fords using GM based nomenclature. The now orphaned 62-64 Fairlane and the 62-63 Meteors were small block cars. They had quite a history as small block drag racers before the big block Thunderbolts. They made sweet street cars with the 4 speed 289 K codes in ‘63 and ‘64. There were all kinds of factory performance parts offered off the shelf for your 221, 260, 289 Fairlane from Ford Performance. I say all this.... Why does every other 62-64 Fairlane fixed up these days have to have a “Bolt Hood” and headlight vents? Maybe there is some coolness maybe even some humor in putting Thunderbolt hood and light vents on a 6 cylinder 4 door. Doing that to a nice 289 Sports Coupe.... not so much. * This is my history....it may not be 100 percent but it’s pretty close.
You are correct, look at the hellcats, and super cars that have been rolled up into balls, just because a guy has the money to buy one doesn't mean he can handle the horse power. HRP
My absentee father owned a Mustang, 271 horse. Never let me drive. Drat, wanted to say Thank you @F-ONE for the facts. Good learning these things. ( often I wonder does anyone else care what about went down in details and such about what was? ) Sure spent enough time trying to wear them out.
Back in my youth (licensed in 72), dad had a 64 Olds Dynamic 88 with a 394 4 bbl. When my older sister got her license, mom & dad went to buy a 69 Olds. The plan was to trade in the 64, but when the salesman told dad it was going to cost $50 more to trade in the 64 then it would cost to buy the 69 without the trade, it cost them the sale of the 69 as well. Dad found another 69 Olds, and they decided to just keep the 64, because my sister was getting her license, that then a year later I would be getting my license. My sister didn't drive the car much, she had a boyfriend and was riding with him most of the time. When I got my license, that 64 was the car I got to drive. A 16 year old kid with a 394 and a 4bbl! Yes! At the time I was in the auto shop at high school and we were doing tune ups as a class project. The 64 became the project of the day. A few of the students were not very good at doing the tune up, so by the time I got to class, near the end of the day, the car wouldn't even run! Before we got out of school, we managed to get it running, but not very well. Lets just say dad wasn't very happy with the results. He took the 64 down to his buddy's garage (they ran a dirt track car) and they gave it the "super tune". When dad got home, he demanded that I get in the car with him. He drove to the end of a blacktop road, about a mile from home, turned the car around, put it in low (I'd never seen him put a auto trans car in low before) and proceeded to flat out smoke the tires! He wound it out in low until the valves started to float before he shifted into 2nd. Then ran that out until the valves started to float again before he hit drive, then he ran it up well past the limits of the speedometer! Man, what a ride! I didn't know the Olds would run that hard. Then he turned the car around, and repeated the entire process in the direction we just came from! The end of that road was coming up fast with the speedometer buried, scared me 1/2 to death, but he got it slowed down. Then we turned around and went home. On the way home, he instructed me that the Olds was never to be a school shop class project again. I sure was not in any position to argue with him. About 3 months later, on a Sat morning (after Friday night of "cruising") when I was ready to go to work, the transmission didn't work, at all. I went in and told dad. He asked two questions. Who drove the car last? and Did I have fun the night before? I got to buy the used transmission. His buddy had it in by Sunday evening. The car was my high school ride until my senior year.
""*I believe Don was referring to the handling characteristics from driving it back after the pass. There’s some stories. Who knows if they are true. You know you read a lot of stuff through the years."" I believe that the car Don was referring to was the earliest [65 +/-] with the wonky front suspension for ride height, was pretty evil and Ford pulled all of them back an went to a straight axle. Some pics of the early ones launching you can seen some strange independent stuff. I have pics of rusted remains some where..
The Jalopy Journal
