Sorry to bring up such an old thread but I have to share this. I know right where the Mistery 7 funny car sits right now. Although it has been painted many times over the years you can still see alot of the original lettering under the paint. The car has been sitting behind (not in) a barn for many many years.
There was a post that mentioned that a company called Detroit steel and tube built the 100 er so 1964 427 T-bolts.... NOT! It was Dearborn Steel Tubing that did the engine swaps on those cars.. They're located a few blocks away from me down the street from the old BOB FORD dealership which is now FAIRLANE FORD. Dearborn Steel tubing is still in business by the way..
Here's a pic of the '63 Fairlane. Other than 64Cyclone's pic of the '62, I've been trying to find others, and have had no luck.
The guy I was working for in the fall of 1965 got a good deal from Tasca ford on a new truck. We were in Yonkers NY he sent on the greyhound bus to go pick up the truck . The A/GS car was in the showroom. Ii remember being really impressed with that car.
Sidebar/Info Inquiry: Not only did Tasca arrange for the '64 T-bolts with the 427s, but there was at least one '64 T-bird that Tasca arranged to have a 427 installed in place of the stock 390 which also received some customizing by the Alexander Bros (Cibie rectangular headlights, custom emblems, revised front bumper and custom aluminum slat grille), modified front/rear springs, HD shocks/brakes, even a beefed up cast iron Cruise-O-Matic. The styling of their 'Bird was designed by one of the people who became synonymous with "Hot Wheels," Harry Bradley (?-going off of memory and too lazy to open the book I authored on '55-'66 T-bird history in the mid-'90s to double check: he gave me the photo to use in "Thunderbird 1955-1966"). An article in CARS magazine in mid-1964 gave a lot of info on this car's build. The claim was that Tasca used his connections to have the 427 installed at Wixom Assembly. I'm still searching for documentation on this car (VIN, data plate info) to chronicle it for my Thunderbird database, but none have surfaced yet. Supposedly there were a few other '65 T-birds that Tasca arranged to have 427s installed in lieu of the 390, but I haven't seen any firm documentation on this. I did find telegrams in Ford's Industrial Archives from '65 between Tasca and Jaque Passino, who was involved with Ford's perforance program, commenting about the potential for (and problems associated with) fulfilling his request. I'm wondering if the supposed 427-equipped 'Birds were also rigged up by DST?
This one? It was Harry Bradley probably. He designed most of the original cars then Larry Wood and Ira Gilford took over
Harry Bradley - that be him! Will edit my previous post since I also see I got the grille wrong, too. Was really nice to chat with him when I was doing the research for the book - I forgot how I got turned onto him, though.
I am looking for one of the Tasca trunk scripts and a set of the license plate frames (die cast chrome type) from the 1960's era. It's for a 63 Fairlane build I am doing anybody have some or know where I can find them?
I seem to remember an article about a Tasca T-Bird with a dealer-installed 406 with 3-2V. Straining my brain here, but I think they had a learning curve on that car due to the installed angle of FEs being different between the big Fords and the T-Birds; machining the carb mounting pads was necessary. In any case, that was a crate 406 by the dealership and certainly done before the special-order 427 T-Birds. Sort of a locally-manufactured, nonfactory prototype?
You are right they would have had to do that mod. I had a 61 Tbird 390FE that I drove for few years there was a wedge plate that mounted on top of intake to change the carb mounting angel and level it. Because those Tbirds were very low to ground the engines sat very flat in the chassis.
Thanks, cool to know there's a factory provision for the different angle in the '61 and maybe up to '66 T-Birds. Tasca was in unfamiliar territory with the Galaxie engines in the Thunderbirds, and spent some time trying to correctly tune their carbs before seeing the difference in the mounting angle.
I think you would probably be right as the Chassis looked to be about the same dimensions and layout through the 66 models.
Great thread. I was googling around and came up with some articles that had been posted on photobucket that were interesting and legible, an article by Martyn L. Schorr. I hope this is going to work (not real computer literate): Here is the link: http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/...?action=view¤t=tasca427_1_pienempi.jpg& From the link there is access to other articles that are well worth the effort.
You can still get the "tasca" metal badge on their web site. I put one on my gt350 i grew up in conn. And watched them race every week end in a time when chevys ruled. I always loved the fords! I can remember in 1968 (i believe) they helped develope the scj 428 for ford. They had a new mustang there with the 428scj, they anounced that they would race anything in the pits heads up with street tires with this car. I dont remember the outcome, but they really did good marketing for ford and their dealershipss. I remenber that mustang as well, it ran as nice as it looked. We recently bought a scooter for a pit bike from a gal down in southern mass. She signed the bill of sale with a last name "tascA" i asked her, are you.. And she said yes my uncle bob is bob tasca. It seemed to make the scooter more special... L.oL. Thanks for the memories geo.
I believe Bill Lawton was the best 4 spped driver back in the day. Unfortunately he is no longer with us. John Healy was and still is one hell of a tuner. Ah yes, the memories are many.
Grew up in EP RI , Billy and Johnny Healey were good friends of mine and in the late 60's we would go to Tasca Ford and their dad would start the Mystery 7 Fuel Funny car, it was totally awsum. After Tasca got out of racing John opened up shop. I was down in Englishtown NJ with them where Bob Moulton set the NHRA D/SA record in a 428 69 Mustang. John also built and ran a Pro Stock 351 Pinto. Bill Lawton built and ran a Pinto funny car called The Mover
last summer i saw the thunderbolt at a wendys in canton, ohio. i asked the owner if it was a replica and he said it was the real car, if i remember correctly, it had bob tasca as the driver name on the door. real or not , it was awesome to see. very nicely done as well. i follow drag racing pretty closely, especialy the ford teams of Force, Wilkerson and Tasca. Bob Tasca III is a great young driver.
Bob Tasca was not the driver. Bill Lawton was the driver for Tasca. Bill Lawton's family was in the moving business thus the name of his funny car, The Mover.
I was lucky enough to get to attend the SEMA Show this year and as part of that ticket, NHRA sponsered a Breakfast highlighting some of Racings familes that have been involved for multiple generations in Drag Racing. The Tasca's were one of the families on stage that were interviewed and it was fasinating to here their stories and their answers to questions coming from the attendies. The price of admission was a buy if this breakfast was the only thing involved. The rest was just icing on the cake after this so to speak. From what I heard and saw I would say that the Tasca family is a class act. To me they seemed like guys you would like to set with and bend an elbow with over an evenings time. Not hard to believe that they run top notch Dealerships. This event went by way to fast.
I've become friends with Bob Tasca II over the last couple of years. I spent some time with them in their pits at the NHRA race in Reading PA. recently. Here is Bob II & Bob III checking out my Tasca photo collection I brought to show them. They are a great group of people and couldn't have been nicer to us. They also embrace their racing history and are very willing to talk about their racing past & future. I also met Bob II's brother Carl who races the world's fastest Cobra Jet Mustang. He has been a best of 8.09 and won't be happy until he runs in the 7's.