thank you scrapiron and mammyjammer . you guys are giving me a swelled head . but , you know , i really hate all of these compliments ; so i'm going to give you guys until the end of the year to stop . if you don't stop by then , i'll ..... give you until the end of NEXT year to stop . thanx again . jack
thought i'd add a few more pix of cars that we've discussed in the recent past . first up is the yellow banana , with fred at the reins . this might be the best angle to show the ...ahem..."massaging" of the not-so aerodynamic galaxie lines . subtle it ain't - nor was it supposed to be . i believe this was an "in your face" jab at big bill . ford and junior pretty much knew that bill would have to accept the car , after all of the wrangling he did to get ford back after their boycott . after the banana passed tech , cotton owens' dodge failed for being 1/4 inch too low . looking at junior's masterpiece , he got so mad that he packed up his car and went home . 3 more pix of the holman moody t-birds . i might've posted the first one before , as it's the car i call the "prototype" . it's a '58 , and big bill wouldn't rule it legal at first . i've read that he considered it a "sports car" - possibly because it had bucket seats - and sports cars were not legal in GN . i don't know what changed his mind , but they were legal for 1959 . that's ralph and john posing with the car . i have no idea who's sitting in the...bucket seat . next is cotton owens with his bird , which he called "thunder chick" . cotton didn't didn't drive fords very 0ften . i guess both partys lost out on that deal then there's "tiger tom" pistone - every bit of 5 foot 4 and 110 lbs. - and his bird .....ahhh... make that "T" - bird . he must've been pretty virile , tho - i think he had ten kids ! i imagine his wife was glad to see him go racing for days at a time ! the pic on the left shows fireball in the HM built 427 fairlane at the 1964 daytona continental - which was the predecessor of the daytona 24 hour race . it's believed that HM was testing this car to see if it would do well in GN . as far as i know , they never pushed to get it in GN for either or both of two reasons - and i've heard it both ways : it was said that france wouldn't legalize it , and / or they couldn't make it handle . it sure ran well in this race , however , as fireball finished second to A.J. foyt in a scarab sports racing car. the pic on the right shows the fairlane again , along with walt hansgen's '64 falcon . i can't remembr if the falcon was an HM car , but it was a factory ford entry with 289 power . this last pic shows hansgen in his falcon , again . for those who don't know , walt hansgen was killed practicing at le mans in a ford GT in 1966 . my father knew him , tho not very well . my father was a young mechanic in his [ and my ] hometown of rahway , n.j. hansgen worked for his father , who owned a sports car garage in westfield - 2 towns away , so their paths crossed every once in a while . my father once told me just how good he thought hansgen was with a car . this would've been in the 1940's . my father was sitting at a traffic light . when the light turned green , he stepped on the gas , but the car wouldn't move [ i guess this happens to chevy drivers all the time . but i digress ]. he didn't know what was going on until he looked in the mirror and saw hansgen laughing his head off . walt was in a big , heavy chrysler , which was softly sprung . what he had done was to hit the brakes hard as he came up behind my dad's car . this caused the nose to dive , moving the massive front bumper under my father's rear bumper - locking it behind as the front end came back up . then he locked the brakes when my father stepped on the gas . my father was shaking his head in awe as he told me "i never felt a thing ! "
hi scrap - i don't know what you mean . are you asking if one of the cars is pictured at daytona ? which one ? jack
Still lovin' this thread. Thanks Jack (and the rest of you gents) for the great stories. Don't worry about saying too much, some of us can't get enough.
I was told the 64 Daytona fairlane was built as a feasiblity study by NASCAR to see what was needed to be done to a unibody car to make it suitable for NASCAR racing.
hi zombie- can i ask where you heard that ? i don't mean that to sound like a wise guy , but i'm just wondering where that could've come from , as it makes no sense to me at all . while nascar might do something like that today , it was a totally different world 47 years ago . first of all , nascar did not have the means to build a car back then . the fairlane was definitely built by holman moody [ and , in fact , i'm suspecting that 2 were built ] . the cars that plymouth and dodge were running back then were unibodies , so what was needed to be done was known . the difference between the fairlane and the mopars was that the fairlane [ and all FoMoCo unibodies at that time] had shock towers , which , at least in the case of this HM fairlane , were removed [ i believe we've posted pix of the fairlane's engine bay showing this ] . this could've been the reason that nascar refused to rule the fairlane as legal , if , in fact , that's what happened - as removing the shock towers would've rendered the car as totally non-stock...at least in nascar's eyes . in addition , i don't think nascar would've cared about promoting the fairlane in 1964 ; as they would've felt it was ford's problem...and apparently ford felt it was their problem , also . two and a half years later , during ford's boycott , ford had to push hard to get big bill to let them race their 1966 "half-chassis" [nee shock tower unibody ] fairlanes . these fairlanes were "way more" non-stock [ now that's gotta be grammerically incorrect !] than the '64 fairlane was . no , i don't think nascar built , or had this fairlanr built , themselves . if anything , ford / holman moody might have asked permission to run the fairlane - to see if it was doable / practical . this is all based on my "somewhat" educated opinion , but i'll stand by it until someone proves me wrong . unfortunately , most of the people who were involved are long gone , so i doubt that we'll ever know for sure . jack
hi tom [ ecode - i believe you're tom ] - great cars ! i was hoping you would post the pix when you got back . there was a replica convertible built in the early - mid '80's . it was featured in some mid-'80's mags , like "car exchange" . is this the same car ? a man named gerald lewis , from N.Y. state , i believe , built a replica tudor like yours 20 years ago , or so . it appeared at several shows , and i remember seeing it at the '95 or '96 all-ford nats . is this that car ? i took photos and as far as i can tell , it's about as authentic as any recreation i've ever seen . gerald lewis also built a replica of pops' '63 USAC ford . i heard several years ago that both of his cars were for sale . jack
forgot to add this pic with the other pix i posted yesterday . this is tim flock painting the head gasket for his torque monstor lincoln/t-bird at the first daytona 500 - 1959 .
#675; Every time you post these Jack it flips me out to see the small cars on the big paved super speedway! Tom S.
It might have been in the HOTROD magazine article on the Continuation cars H&M are building, it was a few years ago now, IIRC, they figured it wouldnt work out too good and thats why the 66 fairlanes ended up with frames grafted into them as opposed to keeping them a unibody. The article I read said NASCAR used the 64 as a test bed as they knew they would be moving towards using the intermediate sized cars in 1967 or so. I cant see any other reason for HM bulding this car as it was too far modified to be a legit sedan racer. MAYBE it was a one off build similar to the challenger Falcons etc to play around at Nassau with..dunno...
Jack Yes the 26 car was built in the early 80's and was in some magazines back then. The 99 car was built by me for Jerry Larwance from N.Y. Both cars are very period correct and I was lucky enough to have had technical help from Ralph Moody and other greats fom this era, such as Tim Flock and Neal Castle, and racing historion Flether Williams. The 26 car is in the speedway motors museum in Neb. And last I knew the 99 car was at Moorsville,in the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall Of Fame.
hey zombie - i read that "hot rod" piece a few years ago , tho i can't remember what it said now . and i don't know what issue it was in , so finding it would be a project right now . but let me say this....verrryy carefully , as i don't want to get in any trouble . over the past few years we discussed this and a lot of other info that was coming out of charlotte on randy ayers' nascar site . it's been said that the person who has been releasing some of this info does not know an awful lot about his company's history . it's also been said that this person has "authenticated" several nascar GN recreations , when it's known that they are not "authentic" . a certain frequent poster is an expert on historic nascar cars , and knows a lot more about what i've just alluded to , but i'll leave it at that and let him post something on the subject if he chooses to do so . but still , i don't believe nascar had anything to do with the fairlane project , beyond possibly giving their OK . i believe i said this in an earlier post , but i've heard 2 versions of why the project was apparently dropped after the daytona continental . one said they couldn't make it handle , while the other said nascar outlawed it . ralph moody , himself , told me one version , while drag racer phil bonner , who said he was given the car by ford to use as a match racer , told me the other . i BELIEVE mr. moody told me it would not handle , but i can't remember for sure . but once again , i wouldn't take that "hot rod" article info to the bank . jack
thanx , tom . that's right - it was gerald LARWANCE - not lewis . at least i got the first letter right . i've never seen the convert in person , but i did see the tudor 2 or 3 times - and took a bunch of photos . i was , and am still , very impressed . i'd always thought mr. lawrence built thecar himself . do you still own either or both cars ? let me see if i can find some photos . jack thses 2 pix show curtis and fireball [ in the white #22 ] in the '56 daytona GN race .
I can't find the old news paper clippings I have somewhere but they were about the testing of the '64 Fairlanes at Atlanta International Speedway, they had a photo of the car and of Lorenzen standing there with a HM jacket on. I had always thought the problem was the roof just like the '62 big car and its' lack of aerodynamics. I don't have anything to back that up, just my thoughts or remembrances.
i was thinking the same thing , and meant to include that with my comments , above , but i forgot . it seems to me that we discussed that aspect in an earlier post . it seems likely , as ford had gone to great lengths to eliminate that problem with the galaxie when they introduced the fastback roof in january , 1963 . maybe they were thinking about putting a fastback roof on the fairlane . poor aerodynamics can definitely effect high speed handling - so maybe that's what ralph meant when he said it wouldn't handle . who knows ? i hope you can find that newspaper clipping - it might make things a lot clearer .
Dunno guys, like I said, it was something i read, could be complete BS.... Now, is there a possibility that more than one of these fairlanes was built...As I always thought the Conntinental car ended up in england at Alan mann Racing and was sold and roadraced in england till the late 60's by martin biranne....
now that's something i'd never heard or read about before . i know about alan mann's falcons , which had also been built by HM and used in european rallying in 1964 , but i've never heard about this fairlane . where did those photos come from , and what was the cover date ? looks like an old british magazine . "motorsport" ? like i said a few posts earlier , i suspect that more than one fairlane was built by HM . i posted several photos many pages back in this thread , if you want to check . it looked like the wheel openings were cut differently on what was thought to be the same car . then there was phil bonner's fairlane , which he said came from HM and was a failed nascar test car . i posted a pic of that car after it was restored , showing that the shock towers were intact . so i've been wondering if they might've built one car with shock towers and the other with the towers removed . in the words of sherlock holmes , "this case gets curiouser and curiouser" . do you have any more photos or info on the alan mann fairlane ? any idea what color the car was in the second pic ? it doesn't look like alan mann's usual red and gold . has anyone noticed the tires on the fairlane and the cortina behind it ? those were big muthas by mid-'60's standards . i wonder when that pic was taken .
Jack, I beleive the pics were from "Autosport" magazine, I have no dates at this stage. The car from what I know was never painted AMR red & gold. Alan Mann himself drove the car in a few races and sold it. Martin Birrane, (who later raced a Falcon Gp5 Rallye Sprint, a HM built 68 427 stang & a Boss 429 stang in the UK I believe, & now owns Lola cars inc.) bought the car and raced it in a series called Super Saloons for highly modified Sedans. The cars whereabouts are cloudy after the 1969-70 season. It was painted red and silver as shown in the pic, sponsored party by castrol. BTW that cortina in the pic has a 4x webbered 289 in it...... Here is the only other pic I've found on this car:
neat stuff , zombie ! i had no idea about most of this . i'm assuming you follow sedan racing in the UK . and that cortina really looks like it's got some hair on it . it's practically dragging it's knuckles ! seems to be keeping up with the fairlane with no trouble . edit : i just checked my copy of "ford in touring car racing" on the off chance that author graham robson mentioned the fairlane and i'd either overlooked it or forgotten about it . but no luck . with as much as has been written about the '63 galaxies and '64 falcons racing and dominating in the UK , you'd think someone would say something more about an HM built 427 fairlane . robson may have mentioned it in one of his books , as he wrote so many about fords specifically . i have several of his books , but i don't believe i've ever come across a mention of the fairlane . have you ?
No I have not, this car is not well known even in the UK, as it was not raced in the BSCC as it was not legal, and it was not raced that often in the UK. The interwebs is great for unveiling stuff that most of us would have never heard of.... I put a thread up on a UK forum a few years ago and got little reponse as I said earlier, not much is known about the car. No Robson writings I have seen mention the car. I am just a Ford nut Jack, been bleeding blue since I was 5 years old, being from australia has exposed me to a lot of different fords and types of racing around the world as we had Aussie, US, Canadian & English Fords exposed to us throughout the years. If there was two of these Fairlanes built that opens up more what if's than just if the one was built, thats for sure.
Bill Lawton driving the H+M built Tasca Mystery 9 against SW+C Willys at the Winternats in Pomona 1966
Lawton doing battle against Dick Landy. When the Tasca Mystery 9 left the Holman + Moody shop in NC they had misspelled John Healey's name on the front fenders in the last shot it is spelled correctly and if you notice any other Tasca Race car note the spelling
Hi Zombie..long time,no see.Regarding that Fairlane..check what mr Martin Thomas writes in this thread.. http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109943
Hey good to see ya Blazer, Wow, looks like there may be some light at the end of this tunnel after all! Cheers. Great to hear that the car may still be around.
I don't know if this has been mentioned before,but the 64 Fairlane road race car is a hardtop with a longer wheel base,than the thunderbolt Fairlanes that were made from a sedan body.
The Jalopy Journal
