found this pic of fritz wilson's t-bird as restored and in a museum . the only thing real about that driver is the cool holman moody shirt he's wearing .
The first picture was posted by Skywolf earlier. The guy with his hand on the roof is Bill Huffstetler. The guy in the engine bay is Port Thompson. The guy standing on the bucket is Dick Behling and the guy at the front brake drum in shop foreman Eddie Pagan. The Tasca Ford Mystery Number "9" driven by Bill Lawton was one of the fastest A/FX Mustangs H-M built. The second picture is one I took at the '95 Super Stock Reunion. From left is Bob Tasca Sr., Bill Lawton, Bruce Larson and Hubert Platt. Ace mechanic John Healey (not pictured) came down with Tasca and Lawton in Tasca's motor home. I believe it was the last time the three were together. Lawton passed away less than a year later and Tasca just a year or two ago. Larson and Platt are still with us and Healey too as far as I know.
great pix , frank . that mustang was the prototype for the half dozen or so that followed . there was something different about that car , but i can't remember what it was . the body may have had some steel in it , while the others were all glass , or something like that . eddie pagan was a very good stock car driver . he may be most famous for the photo of his '58 ford flying through the fence and out of the park during the '58 southern 500 - after sitting on the pole . he later formed hutcherson & pagan with dick hutcherson , building cars along the lines of HM - but on a much smaller scale , of course . they're both gone now .
here's eddie on the pole at the 1958 southern 500 . that's fireball in the middle and joe weatherly on the outside . they started them 3 abreast at darlington in those days . weatherly was in one of the HM fords ; pops was in the other . the next pic shows pagan sailing out of the park during the race . the last shows the results of the crash . he was shaken , but not stirred -- i mean , not hurt badly .
here's that protype '58 t-bird i mentioned before . with big john and godfather ralph standing by . here's one of the t-bird zippertops , running as a convertible in the '59 rebel 300 . that's pops at the helm . i believe this car was owned by HM , tho i could be wrong . i have more pix of the t-birds , if anyone is interested .
i have more pix of the t-birds , if anyone is interested . I don't know where you are coming up with all the H&M memorabilia but keep it coming. That goes for all of you and anything Holman-Moody had their hands on back in the day.
Here is a shot of the replica 1963 Fireball Roberts Galaxie that was recently taken from the Joe Weatherly Museum and repainted. The re-do came out fantastically. As mentioned elsewhere, Kenny "Red" Myler got the color wrong when he was given the job of rebodying the old Banjo Matthews (AJ Foyt and Junior Johnson) H&M 1964 Galaxie to "Fireball" '63 trim back in 1965. I am very glad that the car has been freshened up. The new paint job is much closer to the original " Regency Purple" scheme that graced Fireball's last Galaxies in late '63 and early '64. Here's a frame capture of Fireball's actual Southern 500 Galaxie from post race in 1963. Note that this particular car was originally a red car (as indicated by the window frame that was covered up by weatherstrip when the purple got laid down). The custom body work is what the real men who used drive Grand National stock cars called a "Darlington Stripe".....
Fireball was running his '57 Chevy by then and doing quite well against the newer '58 cars winning the Southern 500. Joel
Dang ! This is a great thread!!!! Help me out..Are my near 70 year-old brain cells playing tricks on me or do I really remember in '56 , Curtis Turner winning Darlington in a purple 56 Ford (aptly named "The Purple Hog") sponsored by Schwam Ford???? I met Randy Holman (John's oldest & Lee's brother)in the fall of '56 when we were in the same Jr. High school class. He was telling everybody that his Dad's company built the car. So, it had to be right after John came to Charlotte and it was still Depaolo Engineering. I know we visited the shop and they were just starting the '57 cars. This was in a building off of Wilkinson Blvd, before any moves to the old Army barracks around Douglas Airport.
Stan, Curtis Turner did win the '56 Southern 500. Joel, Fireball did win the '58 Southern 500 in a '57 Chevy. But get this!!!!! Speedy Thompson (Kenny Thompson's uncle) won the '57 Southern 500 in a '57 Chevy and Jim Reed won the '59 Southern 500 in a '57 Chevy. Now we know why the Black Widow '57 Chevys are so much in demand.
Frank, Fireball's '57 was a hardtop though, not a Black Widow ... but those cars were runners to be sure. Northern modified legend Frankie Schneider had a Black Widow if I'm not mistaken and it got pretty used up. Talking about Chevies on the H-M thread, uh-oh! ... but the HM cars didn't fare too well in the '58 Southern 500 ... I think Weatherly and Turner both lost engines. Joel
Pop's Ford was painted "Regency Purple" just like Fireball's late '63 cars were. http://www.tcpglobal.com/aclchip.aspx?image=1955-ford-pg01.jpg
The supercharged Y Block Ford teams were tearing the Chebbies up early in 1957 until that dolt Robert McNamara (Ford pres. at the time and later the fellow who infamously saw "light at the end off the tunnel" in Vietnam as JFK's Sec. of Defense) got snookered into honoring the AMA racing ban that had been secretly engineered by GM execs. The last half of the season was a blood bath for Blue Oval forces after idiot boy pulled all factory support (drivers got to keep their cars and a few spare parts, and when that was gone, it was all over)...while GM kept the back door to their race shop wide open (natch). Fords won 17 of the first 23 races in 1957, for example. Things didn't go nearly as well after the ban went into effect in June. It took until late 1961 for Ford to repudiate the ban. By then McNamara was screwing things up in SE Asia and the Myth of the invincibility of the '57 Chevrolet had been born. It's easy to be invincible when there is no one racing against you.....
Here's another shot of the last H&M Ford in action at Riverside. The snazzy gent in the Ray Bans (directly behind the car and right above the Pepsi logo) is my friend John Bach. John was the graphic artist at H&M back in the day and he penned the line drawings in the H&M parts catalog. He also is the artist who drew the famous Pearson Talladega cut-away poster. Here's a shot of John at a recent Wine Country Classic vintage meet in NorCal. He is still able to wear his original H&M team gear from 1970-72. That's enough to make you not like the guy. Even so, he is a prince of a fellow with many stories to tell.
Oops!!!I was wrong. Jim Reed won the '59 Southern 500 in a '59 Chevy. The list of winners had his car a '57 but doing futher research it was a '59. Joel, Speedy Thompson's '57 was a Black Widow.
Great picture John. Fords, Chevys, Mercs and I believe an Olds in the field. I bet there was plenty of moonshine to be secretly consumed there. Not by the drivers of course. Haha.
for you , turbo . pops' purple hog at the '56 southern 500 . that's tim flock in the #86 . ol' curtis won the race going away . the nearest chevy finished 4th - 14 laps down !! pops' car was still a depaolo engineering ford at that time , tho holman was running the operation . ralph was still driving and "mechanicing" , as HM would not come into being for another 9 months .
and note the cars on the front rowww . by the way , that's moody in the blue and white ford - 4th row on the outside . now frank , don't get your dandruff up and yell at me for being "dramatic" [] , but you can't wave a red flag [ or , in this case, a bow tie ] in my face and expect me to just go away [ unless you ban me from the thread , of course ] , but i'm so sick of hearing / reading about the almighty , invincible chevys - especially the "tri-fives" , that i have to speak up . first , while the GM instigated ban REALLY helped the guys from flint , they couldn't totally knock out the boys in blue . before the ban , fords won 15 races to chevys 5 . after the ban fords won 12 to chebby's 14 . that's not exactly a drubbing . and , yes , speedy thompson did win the '57 southern 500 in a stovebolt , but , IIRC, he wasn't much of a force until late in the race ,when so much of the competition was gone . smokey , believe it or not , had 2 fords in the race . one of them , driven by paul goldsmith , was the fastest qualifier . the other , with pops in the saddle , started 3rd . goldsmith was involved in bobby myers' fatal , while richard's papa - lee petty - put curtis in the wall [ after extensive repairs , curtis still finished 11th ] . fireball was driving HM's lone entry . he led early , but crashed toward the mid part of the race . the ol' Y-BLOCK could still sing , even without FoMoCo directing the orchestra !! and while joel is right about both pops and joe exiting the '58 southern 500 with engine woes , i believe it was with that same car - sans roof [ zippertop ] that curtis won the '58 rebel 300 . it was also that same car that won the '58 daytona convertible race , and nearly caught goldsmith for the win in the daytona GN race the next day . i do go on , don't i ?!!
couldn't sleep , so i got into a posting frenzy . don't know why your pic of bob tasca , bill lawton , bruce larson [ once known as "MR. FORD" , believe it or not ] and "hugh baby" didn't show . still trying to figure out this blasted computer...it's running about as slow and as poorly as a well tuned chevy !! anyway , i was at that show , also . it was a heck of a thrill , as i spoke with all of those guys - misters tasca and lawton for the first and only time . i also met dick brannan and phil bonner there , tho i'd spoken with phil several times on the phone [ i'd been interviewing him for a planned magazine feature ] . below is a pic of phil examining my model of his "daddy warbucks" falcon . that's yours truly in the center , wearing my usual attire , and the late john slivoski on the right . the pic was taken by joel "race artist" naprstek . if anyone is wondering why our faces are so red , this was july....in virginia . it was 95 degrees . i remember phil was carrying a red umbrella , as he said his skin is so fair . he jokingly said that he was going to get a pink umbrella for his good friend dick brannan .
Genuine Jack : Thanks for validating that my brain-cells all didn't get killed off in the '60s... Thats the car and I see it was "the Wild Hog " ( Not the Purple Hog) and it was sponsored by Schwam Motor Co... I saw that car post-race @ Johns shop . What a bit of history I witnessed Stan
you're welcome , stan . FORMALLY , they [ both pops' and joe's ] were called "schwam's wild hogs " . but they were often called simply "the purple hogs" . i believe someone posted a B&W pic of pops' winning car , taken after the race at the depaolo shop , with holman standing next to it , earlier in this thread . i guess that's a run on sentence , but i'm too tired to straighten it out now . anyway , you might look for it in previous pages . i have the same pic in a 1956 issue of NSSN , but all of my early issues have been in a friend's attic for a number of years . i hope to retrieve them soon , as i'd like to post one or two of HM's early " t-bird power products" ads.
having all sorts of problems downloading pix . i tried to post a couple more '59 t-bird pix , but they wouldn't "go" . part of the problem is that they are listed as "bitmap files" . claymore has tried to help me convert them to something else , but sometimes this old dog has trouble learning new tricks . anyway , i'll keep trying . in the meantime , i've posted 3 more pix . the first shows one of the 'birds under construction at HM . the second and third are photos of a model i built of johnny beauchamp's 2nd place finisher in the '59 daytona 500 . i built the model in the early '80's . the color pic was taken outside by joel naprstek with a pinhole camera or lens . jack
finally able to download one pic . don't know what's going on , but i just have to say , one more time , that ....I HATE COMPUTERS !!! okay , having said that , i feel a little better . the pic below shows tim flock's 'bird at daytona - '59 . i have 2 or 3 more of tim's , but they wouldn't upload . i'll keep trying , and with claymore's help i may survive this .
Thanks for all of the effort that has been put into this thread by all invovled, it's got my Ford Blue blood a pumpin'!!!
this is the only other t-bird pic i'm able to post at the moment , as the others are "bitmaps" - and i have no idea what that means , except i'm not able to post them at this time . claymore is trying to help me , so maybe it's just a matter of me being smart enough - or not - to learn the process . i never had a problem posting ANY photo on randy ayers' nascar site , so i don't know what the problem is here . anyway , below is a pic of the lincoln engine in one of the '59 HM t-birds . and yes , they were a stock production option in 1959 and '60 t-birds . they were slow revving and built like a brick , uuhhhh , outhouse ...producing enough torque to pull the meanness right out of dale , sr. i don't know which car this was , but it's not likely the pic was taken at the daytona 500 , as it looks like this car has been raced a bit . and don't get too close to the pic , as that engine is running , and all of that power is liable to suck you right into that open carburetor !!
Here is another picture from my visit to Holman & Moody recently. This is another Vintage '64 Fairlane race car under way for a foreign customer.
i don't know if many HM fans will know what this car is . it was not successful at all , tho big john named it after himself...or rather , his nickname . it's the "honker II" [ holman was "honker I" * ] . it was an early can-am effort by ford , and it fell on it's face . mario drove the car , but said he'd like o get a tetnes [ sp.?] shot before he got back in it . paul newman , who sponsored the car at one time , tried to coax andretti , who replied "i'll put my name on the car and YOU get in and drive it !" . i don't believe the car raced many times and , like i said , it couldn't go fast if it fell off a cliff . i was in charlotte in november , 1990 for the automotive modelers' society [ AMS] convention . they were selling tours of the various race shops in the area , but the only one i was interested in seeing was the old holman moody shop - even tho it's glory days were long past . i saw and heard several people who were in total awe of the place , as was i . i think we were trying to visualize all of the history that was made there . as we walked around the place , we were shown several vehicles that were in various stages or assembly or disassembly . i spotted the honker in a dark corner , as it was apparently awaiting restoration . you can still see some of the purple paint on it [ DARN , i love purple !! ] , as it was painted 1955 ford "regency purple metallic" - the same color as the '55 & '56 "purple hogs" and fireball's late season '63 and '64 galaxies . note the gurney eagle heads on the small block ford . the engine looks like it's ready to go . the car has since been restored , and vintage races here and there . i tried to post a couple of pix [ one from '67 , the other as restored - what a beautiful car ! ] , but there was that "bitmap" again , so they wouldn't post. if anyone has pix of the car as restored or raced , i hope you'll post them . i have a few more pix from my visit to HM . i'll try to post them shortly . * holman drove the parts truck for clay smith's and bill stroppe's mexican road race lincolns . he had to leave before the race cars and get to the end of each leg before they got there so they'd have whatever parts they needed to fix the cars . there was a big danger of bandits stopping vehicles on the road , and a big truck loaded with all of those gringo race parts was a tempting target . big john mounted a locomotive horn on the roof of the truck , and became known as the "big honker" . it must've worked , as he got thru every time ...and so did those fabulous lincolns !!! jack
#422; " anyway , below is a pic of the lincoln engine in one of the '59 HM t-birds . and yes , they were a stock production option in 1959 and '60 t-birds" I hate to slow the progress of this discussion down again, but I have to know before moving on; Is the engine in this 59' T'Bird pic a MEL or a FE, and what size was it? Sorry for the intrusions guys, but; Tom S.
Is that a Carter AFB with an electric choke? It's weird to me that they would have run a Gurney Eagle when Can-Am was unlimited displacement. Any idea of the displacement of that engine? Maybe it's not as small as I think it is. Kevin
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