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

cool post, thanks

 

Thanks,

 

Great thread!!!....

 

A couple of odds and end notes. In 1963, NHRA permitted mag wheels to be used in the FX classes. In 1962, steel wheels as used in S/S were required.

Prior to 1963, NHRA required at least 50 vehicles to be built to qualify for S/S competition but by mid year had changed that to 100 vehicles. This was possibly done to keep the Z11 and swiss cheese Pontiacs out of S/S competition. There was a lot of confusion about the Z11 Chevy's. NHRA had told the racers prior to the 1963 Winternationals that the cars would be declared S/S legal but then notified the racers after they showed up at Pomona that they had to run in either the L/P class (which was only used at that one event) or the FX class.

Pontiac racers knew in advance of Pomona that the swiss cheese cars were going to run in B/FX, and the 421 Tempests in the A/FX class.

Another rule change for 1964. Before 1964, any "one-off" FX car from the previous year were allowed to compete with the present years FX cars. In 1964, however, only current year cars could compete in the FX class. Those 1962 or '63 Chevy II's, 1962 Pontiac Tempests, '62 Dodge Lancer or any other "one-off" FX car were moved to a new class that came out in '64, Modified Production (M/P).

And finally, what constituted a legal FX car and what didn't?



This 1962 Fairlane with a 406 engine was declared illegal for FX.



This 1963 Fairlane with the 427 was declared legal. What was the difference? Who knows? Both were one-off cars, both with factory approval.

 

Great read.
I hadn't made the connection to Ford campaigning the Mustangs and Mercury campaigning the Comets. In my mind, the Comets were "paired" with the Fairlanes, but the timeline makes sense with the '65 model year.

-Brad

 

wonderful thread.

thanks to all that contributed

 

i agree

 

The Merc A/FX Comets and the Ford S/S Thunderbolts were very similar except in one important area. Ford produced 100 Thunderbolts, which qualified them for Super Stock competition. Mercury built about 20 cars in 1964 and a few more in 1965, not nearly enough to qualify for them for S/S status and keep them out of the FX class.

 

Thanks for the great write-up George.

 

cool stuff....thanks for putting it together....

 

Great read George. Arnie's Tempest's were the "Mrs. B's Famous Grocery Getter" wagon, and "Mr. B's Little Runabout" coupe. The coupe was a former Micky Thompson car which later became the altered wheelbase "Tameless Tiger". Arnie also campaigned a Swiss Cheese Catalina that year "The Passionate Poncho IV".

 

No one can ever say that the FX class was not an "interesting" class, that's for sure. I often wonder if that's the way that NHRA conceived the class when they first published the FX class rules for the 1962 season. I actually don't think so. This is one of those classes that was fashioned more by the racers themselves than by the sanctioning body or even by the factories. I would have loved to have been standing in tech at Pomona when Hayden Proffitt showed up with that 1962 Tempest stuffed full of 421 engine. I really don't think that's what NHRA had in mind when they created the rules. I mean, think about it. The class was conceived to deal with the S/S cars that had non-assembly line or non-production performance parts under the hood. The 1962 Pontiac Tempest was not a S/S car to begin with. The Pontiac S/S car was a full size 119-inch wheelbase (120-inch in 1962) vehicle, not a 112-inch wheelbase compact sedan. And the Chevy II and Dodge Lancer were even smaller (110-inch and 106.5-inch wheelbases respectively). The smallest actual S/S cars for 1962 were the Plymouth and Dodge full size sedans with 116-inch wheelbases. Those vehicles were introduced to the public in late 1961, well before the Winternationals in February of 1962. Had NHRA specified a minimum wheelbase for the FX class at 116-inches in the 1962 rulebook, we would have never seen the compact size cars showing up. As it was, there was no mention of a wheelbase dimension in the class rules for 1962, and racers being racers, created a vehicle that had nothing to do with solving the original problem that NHRA was trying to address. I really don't believe that NHRA was trying to build a "big engine in a little car" kind of Super Stock class. But leaving off a minimum wheelbase dimension in the rulebook brought just that. The "big engine in a little car" concept was also not what the factories were looking for. They wanted to maintain the full size sedan Super Stock concept. But once it started, once the cork was removed, it was too late to push the "big engine in a little car" concept back into the bottle. The whole idea about the "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" concept was not to sell Pontiac Tempests, it was to sell Pontiac Catalinas and Grand Prix and Chevy Impalas and Ford Galaxies, etc., which is why we never saw Chevy II's or Pontiac Tempests in NASCAR competition. I have to give Hayden all the credit, his idea of stuffing the "big engine into the little car" started the whole thing. His eyes must have opened up wide when he first read the rules for the FX class. He saw a loophole and drove the Pontiac Tempest right smack through it. As I pointed out, NHRA must have shit when Hayden showed up at Pomona with that car. And look where it led. Had the "big engine in a little car" concept for the FX class not happened in the beginning, Tasca would not have built their 406-inch 1962 Fairlane "test mule", which would have meant that there would not have been the Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt in the S/S class for 1964. The full size Ford had a 119-inch wheelbase, the T-Bolt a 115.5-inch wheelbase. When Hayden Proffitt rolled that Tempest off the trailer at Pomona in 1962, he started an avalanche that NHRA could not stop.

It's funny how things happen, isn't it? But NHRA learned. The rules for the NHRA Pro Stock class today call for a maximum wheelbase of 105-inches, and a minimum wheelbase of 104-inches...

 

What a great time for drag racing!! A/FX cars, AA/FA's, Comp coupe, A/GS!! First time I went to a drag strip was Dover in Wingdale/Dover plains,NY in 1962 I was in the 8th grade.( I have a pic of me, my grandfather & Cousin bobby from that day). The big names in those LaGana bros(?)Eastchester chevy,Larson ford,and any other person with a passion to race & a car( even the family daily!lol) who lowered there tire pressure & took off there air filter!I took my dads 65 falcon, 289 standard with posi there and got a 17 sec ET!I thought I was turning in the 10's when I street raced it!! Guess I was proven wrong!
I miss that stuff.I still like going to the drags now but its nothing the same as it was.I'm so glad that I was around to see it.
JimV

 

Jerry's Dead,Phish sucks,get over it!!

I don't think that Phish sucks, however, I've never really gotten over Jerry's death...

 

LOL Well after 50 years I goofed on the Grocery Getter name. I guess it could have been worse. He was at Martin U.S.131 drag strip a lot as were a lot of the biggies of the time Those were good times.

 

Thanks Mr. Klass for the post. I still own the M/T 63 LWG, since 77:

 

During the time period I was discussing, 1961-1963 or 1964, Oldsmobile did not play a role in the world of Super Stock competition. Unlike today where we have separate "Stock" and "Super Stock" classes", back then we only had "Stock" classes. Actually, Super Stock was not a "class", it was a category, as in S/S, or A/S, or B/S or C/S, etc.. The typical S/S (or S/SA) vehicles were Chevy, Ford, Pontiac, Dodge or Plymouth, with their highest horsepower engines.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing in my opinion. While the FX classes did not come out of the Gasser classes (it came out of the Stock classes instead), FX probably should have been incorporated into the Gasser classes in the first place. The Stock classes were built around the concept of assembly line produced vehicles, available to anyone from their local dealers. The FX cars never fit into that concept. If anything, they were more Gassers than they were Stockers. In fact, they were classified under the "weight to cubic inch" formula (just as the Gasser classes were), whereas the Stock cars were classified under a formula based on "advertised horsepower". Had NHRA done that, there would never have been a great need for the Modified Production classes (I always though of M/P as "Gasser light").

As I said, hindsight is 20/20. I've always felt that NHRA had too many classes "back in the day". If I had the job of setting up the classes back then, and knowing what I know now, they might have looked like this:

1) Stock Eliminator
Stock Cars, Pick-ups and Stock Sports Cars (all assembly line produced in quantity and the same rules across the boards).

2) Street Eliminator
Gas Coupe/Sedan, Street Roadsters (full fendered) and Modified Sports Cars. All the class rules were almost identical to the Gasser rules anyway.

3) Competition Eliminator
Altered Coupe/Sedan, Competition Coupe/Sedan, Roadsters, and Modified Roadsters.

4) Top Eliminator
Dragsters.

 

True in 65 I ran a 327/ 350 HP Chevelle that was "A" Stock class.

 

Interesting read and it re-activated some semi-dead brain cells. The era just under discussion in my mind IS the golden years of drag racing, especially from a factory backed perspective. While the drag strip provided weekend thrills for the racer and spectator alike you should have been on Woodward (Detroit) during the week. The action there was just as intense as any dragstrip was on the weekend. Monday through Thursday night gave the factory teams a showcase for their latest "inovations" before the sanctioned (i.e. "legal") action on the weekend. It was wonderful!!!!

Frank

 

Frank, that reminds me of my first trip (1963) to the Nationals in Indy. Just pulling into Indy and who do I see on the Eway? None other than the Ramchargers doing some off track testing

 

great stuff! thanks

 

Great reading. Thanks for the education George.

 

Very good article George. Thanks.
I actually loved the idea of the factories dreaming up these cars and then producing them. It seemed like every month in 1962/1963 there were more unbelievable cars available.

There is a good write up on the Thompson/Proffitt Tempest in Car Craft's website, under Elapsed Times.
http://www.carcraft.com/dragtimes/1342_mickey_thompson_the_pontiac_tempest/

 

wow...some threads just bring out the good stuff....like.....MT63AFX...nice going there......

 

Just a side note here: most of the FX cars were transported on ramp trucks and even though gas was less than a buck a gallon, traveling was expensive. Jerry Jardine built headers for the Nicholson and Schartman (sp?) transporters that helped the MPG numbers. Doug's, Hooker and other header makers followed suit. Low end torque intakes were also popular. Performance headers for RV's and trucks were a result of the FX craze and are still with us today.

 

My friend,Joe Alterizio, with his '61 409 Biscayne F/X car at Old Bridge, NJ 1962. This was a 1/16 mile track, hence the ET and MPH numbers on the side in white shoe polish.

 

I have a lot of fun with my website, looking for photos, having folks send me photos, etc. It must be the same for stamp collectors or bird watchers in the park. Here is a photo I just found today. In 1962, when the M/T Pontiac 421 Tempest was winning the A/FX class at Pomona, there was one other '62 421 Tempest being built by the folks at Ace Wilson's Royal Pontiac in Detroit, MI. The car was not finished at the time that Hayden Proffitt won the A/FX class at the Winternationals, but I knew that the Royal '62 did enter and run at the Nationals in Indy that year, and I remembered that after all was said and done, the two Pontiacs won all their rounds and paired up for the A/FX finals, which the M/T Tempest won. Here is a long lost photo of that race. Only two of these '62's were ever built (they were non-factory, independently built cars) at the time and they raced each other only this one time. The 1963 421 factory built Tempests were soon to be on their way from Pontiac and both Royal and M/T were first on the list to get them.



Stuff like this makes my day...

http://georgeklass.net/super-stock.html

 

You should pick up the book "We Were the Ramchargers," it's pretty good:

http://www.amazon.com/We-Were-Ramchargers-Racings-Legendary/dp/076801932X

 

This site has jarred my memory and is very informative!!!!!!!!!!!! I remember seeing Ronny Sox at Concord Drag Strip in the early sixtys go through a field of big block Fords including the one of Jake King. Jake later teamed up with Sox &Martin to write some drag racing history. Good times remembered...........................