Here is a couple more pics. That's John Holman on the right and Jocko. The picture of the engine was taken just before installation a few days before Sebring.
Is that a two barrel on that engine or am I seeing it wrong? I can't imagine they'd have run a two barrel at Sebring.
I can't determine if it is a two or four barrel from the picture. Keep in mind this small block Ford engine had just been introduced and it was REALLY a small block. Just 221 cubic inches. Even smaller than the smallest Y-Block it was replacing. It would be another 18 months before Ford offered the 289 Hi-Po engine. There were no performance items for it yet. This quite possibly could be the first performance engine built. I am certain if H&M didn't have the option of a four barrel they would have modified the largest 2 barrel available. Their 2nd place finish proves whatever they had available worked. You can bet H&M played a role in the development of the 289 Hi-Po engine.
Frank, do you have any information that that car was later modified by H-M into the first fast-back Falcon they made? I remember a pic' in Hot Rod mag back in the day. I seem to remember that the roof line was carried back a little further than the way the Sprint turned out.
Hey Frank: This is a great thread and it just keeps on going!! In between the 221" and the 289" Ford also had the 260" V-8 . The first new car I ever bought was a mid-year '62 Fairlane 260/3-speed .In '63 as I recall,they brought out the 289" ....Remember the Allisons out on Little Rock road ran those '64 Fairlanes (271HP)@ Shuffletown
Yes I do. It was Challenger III. Challenger II was a boxtop like C-I but sectioned. Challenger III was wild. A fastback roof and the body sectioned 3 inches. I will scan and post pics of the construction soon.
Hey Frank: Isn't the C-III the car Ken Thompson used as a model for his recent wide-bodied/Indy motored re-creation ? Did'nt H-M bring in old time tin-man Lujie Lesovsky to do the sectioning on CII & CIII ? ...I remember watching some oldtimer welding up a sectioned Falcon door with an O/A torch one afternoon...
I have a funny story to tell about David Allison and a 271 HP "K" code. Only it was not a Ford. It was a Comet. This was either '64 or '65 and and David had a new K-code Comet 2 door post. He told me it belonged to the local Mercury dealership and they prepped it for drag racing. He was going to race it for them at Concord Drag Strip on Saturday night and asked if I wanted to go with him. Sure I told him. So I met him at Allison's Used Cars, his family business as you know, and he had the Comet hitched to a Pontiac station wagon he borrowed from the front line of his dealership to tow it to the track. We got about 2 miles from the dealership and the wagon stopped running. We were already running late so he unhooked the Comet and left the wagon there. He put the dealer tag on the Comet and here we go driving it with slicks, open headers and a 4.88 gear. It was screaming up I-85 and I just knew we would get pulled over. Believe it or not we made it there fine, he raced it and then we rode back home in it. We didn't say a word to each other on the way up there or back. It was so loud in the car we could not have understood a word. But I truly believe he believed if a cop had stopped him he would have known the cop and let go. This is just one priceless memory from my aging brain. I have often wondered if that rare K-code Comet is still around somewhere.
I believe you are correct Stan. Here is Ralph Moody working on the roofline. As can be seen the wooden buck extends to the tail lights and eliminates a trunk lid. It looks like the original side glass was retained but chopped 3 inches. It was built to compete in Grand Touring sports car competition under FIA rules. The engine was bored out to 243.998 inches to fall within the 244 cubic inch limit. I can remember this car or one like it driving around Charlotte about 50 years ago.
That first pic of the CIII, if you look closely at the sheet metal in the front & on the door striker post ,its already been sectioned. It also looks like it may have been O/A welded.
Yes it was already sectioned. Here is a good shot of the tail light opening and and how the sectioning made the opening oval shaped. The finished Falcon was no taller than a Porsche.
Two of NASCAR's greatest drivers battling for the lead. #28 Fred Lorenzen is a wisker ahead of #27 Junior Johnson.
Who built Junior's car? I feel I know this and I'm gonna feel like a dunce but I'm drawing a total blank. Freddie has his window down some. I can't tell if Junior's is up or down all the way. Man, roll up windows, how cool is that? Kevin
Too cool. I'd cash advance if I had to for tickets if I could see real cars racing again. Tom S. in Tn.
Johnson did own his cars from about '63 forward. I'm thinking he built his own cars. I believe the infamous "Banana" '66 Ford was built in his shop ( I am not positive so correct me if I am wrong) and only raced one time (in Atlanta) before being permanantly banned by NASCAR. Johnson only drove in seven races in '66 and had turned over the steering wheel of "Banana" to another driver for the Atlanta race, a really good driver. Anyone know who drove it in that one race?
I think Junior built his cars over at his shop at Ingle Hollow just south of 421 & near the old North Wilkesboro track, didn't he? I was over there several times in the 90s when Elliott was driving for him - a wide open shop and definitely "old school" by comparison to todays "Garage-mahalls". Once when over there, he was in the cow pasture with some cattle, another time he was out in the shop with the guys. Without looking it up, I'd guess his replacement might've been Dan Gurney, or maybe Lorenzen in his banana car? Not sure on that one.
It was Fred Lorenzen. I visited Johnson's shop once back in the early '90s. It was definitely "old School" but produced a lot of winners.
That's not correct, Frank. All of the factory cars driven by Ford team drivers in the 60s were built at Holman Moody. Only the independents were home building once the money began to flow from Dearborn. Cars were pulled from the****embly line (Norfolk for Galaxies and Atlanta for Fairlanes) and delivered directly to H&M. The Galaxies came as either complete cars (60-63), rolling chassis (64) or bodies in white (65+66). The Fairlanes and Torinos arrived at the airport on their****embly line skids. H&M then modified the cars for competition dispatching them in various stages of completion (turn key to "kit) depending on a team's druthers. The cars did not, in fact belong to the teams/drivers. Rather they were sold via a "dollar" contract that required them to "sell" the cars back to H&M for a dollar at the end of the season.
The company partner of a friend of mine has a Holman Moody 69 Ford Talladega road race car. When he bought the car it was missing one side of the seat. So I had to make a copy of the side. Here are a couple pictures of the seat. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Thanks John, I knew if I was not correct you would chime in. Your knowledge of the early days is the best.
Frank, I doubt that Junior could have fit through the window on the Banana. Junior was pretty stout and the window opening was narrow. Clyde Lynn told me in the 1970's that he had purchased the Banana from Junior in 1967 and it was wrecked in the front. Clyde ran a junkyard in Christiansburg VA and he told me he took the front end off of a wrecked 66 Galaxie and the fenders were out of alignment about six inches on each side where they attach to the body. regards, Roland
ASR? I'm kind of surprised it'd be considered a sports racer. I suppose because of the heavy body mods it wasn't legal for A Sedan or Production. I wonder what for motor it was running here? Wouldn't the A designation make it a big block in SCCA classes? As I remember it the CanAm cars would run ASR in SCCA national events. Kevin
I believe at that time to be in BSR it would had to been a four cylinder engine. I don't recall any classes other than ASR running a V8. regards, Roland
I'm pretty sure that BSR was up to 5 liters or thereabouts. ASR was unlimited displacement. No restrictions on number of cylinders. Same with A and B production, big block Cobras in A and small block Cobras in B. It's been a long time and I may be full of it, of course. It could have been running a 351, I suppose........either way I'd love to see more pics of it in this trim. Kevin
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