Dog427435[/Dog427435, Thanks for the great posts and especially this one of Fred Lorenzen, without doubt the greatest nurtured H-M driver. Fred was first a drag racer in Illinois and raced with Arnie Beswick. But after his first win on an oval track drag racing was over. "When I won a drag race I won a trophy" he once told me "but when I won that first oval track race I won Cash" He actually came to work at H-M doing whatever needed done. The picture below shows him when he went to work there in his early 20s. He was told by Ralph Moody that if he came to work there he would be given a chance to show what he had as a driver. The rest is history.
My uncle was in the Air Force stationed in Charlotte in the early 60's and was an occational race fan but had the hookup at H-M.He knew I was infatuated(I was 9 at the time).You can bet every time we visited uncle Harrall there was a visit to H-M and Buck Bakers place.Think how many drag and round track drivers careers were golden because they drove and/or were sponsored by H-M.What a dynasty.
Got nothing to add except testimony to what a powerful force H-M was in NASCAR back in the day. Fastback Freddie, what a force of nature in his H-M prepared car . . . David Pearson, nearly unbeatable in his . . . Soaked up my first race, Dixie 500 at AIR in 1965 (12 yrs. old), and quickly fell in love with that Woods Bros. #21 (powered by H-M). That Robert Yates became the premier engine builder in NASCAR says a ton about H-M. Great thread.
My buddy bought a truckload of stuff from them in the late 70's from one of their sales, after the 427's and Boss 9's got phased out. He had about a dozen sideoiler blocks in the crates, 8 sets of LeMans rods in the boxes, a 494 CanAm block, and 15 complete used Boss 9 race engines, still had the car numbers stenciled on the valve covers. We drove all over the Bay Area three Saturdays in a row delivering those SO blocks out of the back of a pickup- should have taken a picture. Lots of little stuff, and I got a set of NASCAR rod bolts for one of the sets of LeMans rods I took home, and fitted them. About that time there was an interview article in one of the magazines with Robert Yates, and he talked about his engine building days at HM- told a story about an engine he built for LeRoy Yarborough's car, and they had "white" and "black" rod bolts- and the last few engines with the white ones had grenaded and windowed the blocks, and the one he just built had the white ones. They had an in-house rule that once an engine was completed, it couldn't be modified, so he had to thrash and build another complete one quick. Jolted me, went out to look, and my new rods were filled with- white bolts. Got changed real quick to a set of SPS- I still have the unused "white" ones in a box in the shop. I also have a friend I swap parts with that went to work for Ford in '66, ended up in R&D building engines and running dynos, and got shipped off to HM in '68, stayed until '72, still on Ford's payroll, same duties, worked on the Tunnel Port 302 and 427, Boss 2's and Boss 9's, Clevelands, etc. Still building engines for fun, Cammers and aluminum Cobra stuff, as he says, "for people I like" I have a few engine parts in these two cars, as well as a third, a red #26 '63 Curtis Turner car
I have a HM sticker on my 55 Ford and I have a HM t-shirt, purchased directly from HM.....HM has made Ford Racing what it is today.
I REALLY HAVE "Hard Time", Tellin' this, But! Used To go to GM School, at Charlotte, an I'd always find time to visit H-M!............Last Time was there...........Ford had pulled out frum Racin', and H-M was selling ALL!, Racing Goodies........There were FIVE (5) !!! GT40 bodies, crated an Stacked, "FOR SALE"....... $7,000.00 per/each! See why, I have hard time tellin' This!!!! NO, I did'nt have $700.00, But made sik, to this DAY! Went back, afterwards with aquaintance, he bought around 5 thousand dollers worth of only "small Parts" for the 427 engines........did'nt sell any of it until about 20 yrs ago. I remember him gettin approx 1500. american dollars for set of spark plug wires!!!!! History?? Right? _____________________________________ Smokin' in tha' GREAT SMOKEY MTS!
I have an Uncle in Homer, New York. He has his 55 Vicky that has a H&M prepped 406, toploader in it. It has been in storage for about the last 43 years! I would love to have that car, and if cars could talk...
Living in Charlotte and never have been to H&M must be a crime!!! When I first got my HEMI I asked around for an engine builder and the name that kept coming up was Pete Taylor. I still haven't got around to that engine but man would that have been cool. I am going there as soon as my '35 is on the road. One of my first little Saturday trips!
It's still a crime not to stop into H/M when you're in Charlotte. I stopped there several years ago and spent half a day with Lee Holman showing me around the place. At the time his major business was building continuation GT40's - the only place in the world to get one built to the exact specs and construction as the originals. According to the website, they are going to do parts and designer editions of new Ford performance cars. I believe that they still have all the drawings to build any of those old 60s NASCAR rides... http://www.holmanmoody.com/
One of my best buddies who worked at H-M right out of high school Is Kenny Thompson. We have been friends for nearly 50 years. His father, Willie, had been working at DePaolo/H-M for many years when Kenny went to work for them. Willie also owned the '33 Essex Convertible (that is my avatar) back in the 40's about 25 years before I bought it. Kenny's wheels was a '40 Ford Coupe with a supercharged "F" Bird engine. That was one of the cars parked in the employees parking lot. Kenny is one of the most gifted fabricators in the business. After many years at H-M he struck out on his own and at 60 plus years of age has never got caught up. The picture below is a V-12 Jag powered '48 Chevy Fleetline he built.
I go visit the shop several times a year. The last time I was there Pete Taylor was there. Almost every employee has worked there for 40 plus years and are well past retirement age. When I leave there I have lost 40 years for awhile. Lee Holman is as nice a guy as you will meet and loves visitors....really. If you have a chance stop by. The one I miss the most is Tommy Turner who worked in the engine shop for a gazillon years and his sole job for many of them was building the Wood Brothers #21 engines. He died several years ago but worked there until he couldn't work any longer.
I will never forget my first nascar race.I was selling FORDS at Lee Motors in Fort myers,Florida.It was just before the Firecracker 250 in those days and myself and another fellow went as he was personel friends of the flagman at that time.(I can not remember his name but was quite well know) anyhow we drove down to the Ford Dealer their in Daytona and on the floor was a fliptop 1962 ford and I believe the price was around 5200.I have never seen another one nor have I heard very much talk of them.I bet if I had it know I would be a rich man. sp1ke
yes...I bleed "Petty blue"....but have alot of resoect for old H&M....and why one of my fav shirts is a H-n-M..."Competition Proven"....good to see the Daytona win,,,,
Wow, this thread has really taken off. Must be a lot of pent up demand on this subject and especially stock car racing from the old days of when they built em from production bodies. I know I sure miss the cars all looking different.
What's amazing is how many icons in racing and rodding either worked there or got their start. For instance, Ron Fournier and Cale Yarborough started working there on the same day, Fournier as a fabricator and Cale as a floor sweeper. Fournier became a legend in fabricating and sheetmetal. That Cale guy did something, too, if I remember right...; H/M was almost a finishing school for racers. To this day, H/M alumni still are major players in NASCAR.
Exactly...H&M and Pettys were where so many people within NASCAR got their starts...if you look back at the resume's of many of the movers and shakers, a lot of them started, or at least worked for one of those two organizations. I look forward to seeing this thread grow...
Some of the old timers say he was the greatest driver ever. I know when he was killed in his plane he held the record for all time wins well past 200. Some say Dale Earnhardt adapted his driving style. He lived only a few miles from us in a very large home (for that time) that was notorious for parties. One thing for sure. There would be no Charlotte Motor Speedway if it hadn't been for Curtis Turner.
At the Crane Cams liquidation auction in Daytona I bought the contents of their dyno room which included this way cool 1965 Snap On toolbox. While sprucing it back up I saved the stickers that were on it and found the one that was almost faded out seemed to be this one: I also found some receipts under the drawers in the name of Bill Woodul as c/o Holman Moody and employee. Some of the tools also have Bill Woodul engraved on them. I'll share them here just to see if it rings any bells... as bought... now... and found under the drawers...
You also might or might not know that Robert Yates got his start in nascar through H&M by sweeping the floor in the shop. sp1ke
This topic has only been active for a couple days but has been very active. I guess I should establish some guidelines for posts. H-M's glory years were the '50s-'60s and the '60s is the last decade the HAMB considers on topic for it's website. You might disagree with that reasoning but that is their rules. So I am asking you to keep your posts and pictures to pre 1970 H-M material as it has been so far. I would hate to see this topic get closed before the complete History of H-M is told here. Below is a picture of Marvin Panch (#98), Ralph Moody's teammate at DePaulo Engineering, in a 1956 race.
Bill Lawton's 1966 Mystery 9 AF/X Mustang takes shape at Holman Moody's workshop. Holman Moody were responsible for fabricating many of FoMoCo's AF/X drag cars.
Here's a H-M post that may be a bit of a reach. <O I'm told that in the early 50's H-M became the U.S. Importer and Distributor for Tecalemit-Jackson (TJ) mechanical fuel injection that was developed in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com</st1:country-region>England</ST1:FONT][/COLOR] <O<O They used it on the GT 40’s apparently at some point. <OT-J also made some units that were a direct bolt-in replacement to convert Weber DCOE and IDF carbureted race engines to fuel injection. <O I acquired a pair of these and put ¾ of them to use as pictured. Anyone wanting to contribute a H-M decal? <OHope this is on-topic.<O
True. By 1970, Yates was building many of the engines that went out to customers. At that time, my dad was running H/M Fords in IMCA and Yates was the guy who built Dad's Tunnelports.
Yep, my buddy's second race GT40, #P1009, had them on it when he got it, and there was a new spare set with the car- I have them upstairs, along with an original HM Weber intake that came off a V-drive boat that had a complete HM medium riser in it. The set off the GT40 was sold to a guy in Vallejo that was going to put them on a street rod. They were VERY responsive, but a little touchy to get started with no chokes. That thing still had the LeMans gears in it, and the open bundle-of-snakes headers- we took it for a ride down I-780 one night, sucker would go 70 in first, 120 in second, crap yer pants in third, and we were just getting into fourth. He had a magazine with an article about them, from some tests at HM where they took a set off a 289 and put them directly on a 427 with no tuning and it ran great. Do you happen to have any extra throttle bodies? You see, the whole reason I haven't used these since I got them around '78 (I had a set of Gurney-Weslake heads I was going to put on my 351 at the time) is that I discovered I had 5 bodies for one side, and 3 for the other The system is all new, all the fittings are still in plastic bags, I have the mechanical pump, throttle valve, regulator, nozzles, all that stuff, and the manual, if I could just get the 4th body for the one side- do ya, huh, huh, please, please??? They need to go on this one
Another well-regarded engine builder who started out @ H-M is Keith Dorton of Automotive Specialists. Keith built our 303" SB2 engine which set records @ Bonneville the past two years, and has a long record of success in NASCAR and late model series engine building. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention H-M employee Slick Owens, who told me (when I worked with him @ Cale's in '94) that he was the guy who got Cale the floor sweeping job @ H-M. vic
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