Factory Experimental (the FX Class) and the myth...

Maybe I am old and crazy ( 68 ) but I had more excitement watching the FX cars ( Thompson Ohio ) running in the 11's than I have watching clone Pro Stockers running sixes. Pro Stock is DULL. Just my old man opinion.

 

Dickie Walters comes to the shop from time to time and talks about those old days when he and Hayden Profit matched raced, esp when they ran the AHRA when the rules were different. He talks about rebuilding his 'Iowa Shaker', they had a truck to haul both cars - Haydens' Georgia Shaker' and the 'Iowa Shaker' and Hayden would get to the track, Dickie had an airplane and they'd stop racing so he could land and after competing he'd fly out. He talked about when they had the AWB mustang injected cammer at Indy, Ford told them to do whatever they had to do to at least qualify and had a stack of the cammer motors in crates waiting. He said they kept adding nitro until qualifying and got very good at changing engines.
I asked him if he had any of that old stuff laying around and he said, 'Hell no, we were just kids having the time of our lives and Ford footed the bill' the only thing he has left is some of the model car kits that Revelle made.
He wants to build another car but I doubt if that will ever happen, wishful thinking.

 

For those that may not be aware, the FX classes are still in competition, a good friend runs in that class. It is targeted to the 6 cylinder engines, very hightech, exotic, expensive and fast. Got to have your 'A' game to run with those boys.

 

http://f-100xl.info/

 

Way cool (old!) thread. After the Great HAMB Nuclear Holocaust a few years ago a lot of the original photos were lost. I wish they weren't. Let's keep it going and revive the past!

 

Not all the Chevy z-11 cars ran the cowl induction. Dyno Don ran headlight ducts, a scoop and probably tried the cowl induction in the beginning. Sox ran a scoop as did Hubert Platt, Huston Platt and a number of others. Ford had A/FX specific cars in '63 as did Pontiac. The limited numbers of Chevys and Pontiacs built is what put them in FX classes by the NHRA. AHRA and open competition events did not designate the cars as F/X.
Joel

 

Very true, Joel. The Chevy Z-11's and Pontiac "swiss cheese" cars were originally developed for NHRA S/S competition, and not F/X. It was only after NHRA raised the minimum production numbers (almost without warning) that put those cars into F/X. Chevy really had nothing from the factory that was actually developed specifically for Factory Experimental in '63. On the other hand, Pontiac did, with the 421 powered '63 Le Mans coupes and wagons. In my opinion, NHRA's decision wound up being their loss, as it just pushed these guys into the "match race" circuit, where they could race almost every weekend, instead of only twice a year with NHRA (Winternationals and the Nationals).

 

Great read..During 64 to 70 or so I lusted over all the F/X and Gassers in HRM...

 

In 62 there was super super stock SS/S.

 

AFX and Modified production classes went away when Pro Stock came about....And Funny cars had a class of their own...

 

I wish that @George Klass (or someone) could go back and edit those early posts to re-place the original images. They HAD to be way cool!

That's Al at the front of the car messin' with something.