Looks to me like an early, perhaps aftermarket attempt at a "shaker hoodscoop". See my above note about what we did in the '60's, I saw several Pictures of Don Nicholson's '61 Chevrolet with a form of "Shaker scoop".
Dave, i was wondering the same thing but today, i talked to Lee Holman by phone, he verifed that the scoop was theres, he said they are pretty rare and made around thirty of them, and that they were for drag boats in the mid 60's.
The scoop could also be part of a Marine Engine Flame Arrestor Bonnet. If there are flanges on the front side, they are there to mount Coast Guard-Approved Flame Arrestor panels. (baffeled screens to prevent back-fire flames from getting in the engine compartment) Holman & Moody had a big marine engine manufacturing facility, if it has the logo, it might be thiers.
Check out the scoop on this altered in the photo from alliance member Mazooma's collection, posted over on the Drag Cars in Motion Forum, pg. 1546.
Looks like an FE 427 too, I quess that all makes sense. Got a little too much wheel speed goin' on on the launch though, doin' a 4-wheel wheelie.
Awhile back, if I'm not mistaken ... there was some discussion about Talledega cars being run as drag cars ... ? Well, I found this picture on Facebook and thought I'd post it here. I don't know if there's any HM connection but it is a rare piece to see as a drag race car. Joel
Dave thanks for the reply. After going back and looking at the picture again I noticed the car was also a Fairlane and not a Galaxie judging by the wrap around rear window on the sedan. Real neat to be able to use a demonstrator car like that. Keep posting and I'll keep reading. Travis
With the lone exception of a Red 1960 360HP Starliner, Jack Gray's Demonstraters were always the cheapest, lightest bodies with the biggest engine available. In fact, his '58 and '59s were actual police specials. Plain Jane black two-doors with no options, just two big tailpipes. Never had trouble selling them because of thier reputation on the dragstrips though. Jack was ahead of his time in many ways, a very clever guy who knew how to make "connections" and find the right people. He introduced me to DST, Hammer Mason, Holman & Moody, Paul Harvey, and many people at Ford. He was a good friend and mentor, and I will always miss his sly smile.
Dave, Really interesting. Figured the cars would have been base models but did not know that they sold so easily afterwards. Thanks, Travis
Never a big Nascar fan, but Ford looks good again this year for Daytona, and the classiest of all acts, the Wood Bros. team; simply tops. Tom S. in Tn.
I came across these after finding the backing plates shown in a earlier post. I'm sure they must have some value. Most are 3 1/2 wide and some have neat gusset work on the back side. They are used but several are in decent condition. Wouldn't mind doing some trading on Allison/Frankland GN parts.
In all the H.A.M.B threads which I contribute comments about, I have frequently mentioned my old friend and mentor, Jack Gray. Jack was a salesman at Bob Ford in the '50's and 60's, and selling high performance and special vehicles were his specialty. He also raced his company Demonstrators at local drag strips, always careful to special-order the biggest engines in the lightest bodies. If a customer wanted something special not on the Ford order form, the dealer would build it for them. In addition to his power of persuasion, he was a very clever innovator, and he was well-known and famous on the Detroit Drag Race Scene well before Paul Harvey came North From Indianapolis to be the General Manager. Jack introduced me to drag racing brand new S/S cars in 1958, then to DST, Hammer Mason, to many Ford Executives, to John Holman, eventually to Paul Harvey. Jack was the man who set me on the course my racing career was to take, and mentored me during my formative years. I ran across this picture of Jack and his family. Judging by the ages of his kids I would say this picture was taken about the time we started racing together. RIP Jack, we miss your charm, your wit and your smile.
Looking for any old literature on HM oil coolers that have the HM logo and 427 cast into them. Thanks...
My contribution to this awesome thread... In July of 1975 (at the ripe old age of 15), I received my copy of Car & Driver Magazine. On Page 76, I found an article about a Holman-Moody built car, and I fell in love... In 1975, Holman-Moody built a custom, road-going, NASCAR Gran Torino, complete with a stroked dry-sump Boss 429 (460 cu. in.), NASCAR screw-jack suspension, roll cage, racing wheels, all emission equipment, and even the full vinyl roof with opera window (Brougham model?) The car was sold to a Swiss businessman by the name of Norbert Schmidlin. I contacted H-M ~ 12 years ago, and they replied that they didn't remember the car, and had no contact information for Mr. Schmidlin. So this is what I would consider the ultimate street machine...! Text from the attached photocopy: "King of the Open Road - Grand National Stock Car builder Holman Moody of Charlotte, North Carolina has created an automobile that is as close to the ultimate street machine as anyone is going to get: a schoolbus-yellow Ford Torino that, simply put, is a NASCAR racer with an interior. Fitted with a double-overhead-cam (?) Boss 429 stroked to 460 cubic inches and capable of 620 horsepower in racing trim, the car has a tube frame, dry-sump oil system, Franklin quick-change rear end, double shock absorbers all around, a Hurst shifter and a screw-jack adjustable suspension. It will do 160 mph with ease if not invisibility and can be fitted with trick heads worth an additional 20 mph. Every piece of the emissions gear is attached and, given the NASCAR roll cage, the care should comfortably withstand five-mph - possibly 105 mpg - crashes. While this particular car was built for export (its proud owner will be a Swiss businessman named Norbert Schmidlin), there's a good possibility that Holman Moody might make a stay-at-home model for you, assuming you can afford the estimated $45,000* tab - which by the way does not include air conditioning or stereo tape deck. -- William Jeanes Photos by Don Hunter" Anyone have any insight or information on this car? * $45,000 in 1975 is worth ~ $195,000 today!
Very cool. I don't know why but it always surprises me when a car like this was built for export. KRH
Holman & Moody would build anything you desired. They had a very good foreign business because of the scarcity of shops in other countries that could do quality specialty work. AND, the BUILT BY H-M was held in high regard in other countries. The H-M accomplishments were known worldwide.
Pretty cool, Dave. I have to ask about the other Jack, though. Was it a requirement that you party as hard as the Cat in the Hat if you worked for him? I ran into a Roush GT bunch in Atlanta in the early '90s . . . whew! Big Fun! Anyway, thanks for sharing, we are paying attention.
Yes, there were two Jacks who had a big impact on my life and career. I worked for Jack Roush for 17 years, and yes, the race teams were party guys. Jack himself is kind of a health nut, except for his sleep habits. Jack drinks very little, watches his weight and his diet, and is very conservative in all things except cars, but he runs on little sleep. Jack is a very complex guy, and I could write about 3 books about him without repeating stories. If you asked 50 people who knew him to describe Jack to you, you would end up with stories that described 50 completely different people. Jack becomes the person he needs to be for the particular situation. He can talk like a college professor when in the boardroom or on TV, and swear like a sailor in the shops. He is the most obsessed and driven guy, and perhaps the smartest guy I ever knew. He is as tight as a tick with money, except with people who he believes have served him well, and then he can be quite generous. I have seen him go out of his way to do great acts of kindness, and the next moment be as brutal as a street thug. In the right setting, he has quite a sense of humor, and likes telling hilariously funny stories about his youth on the farm. He is quite a guy, and he has earned and deserves everything he has obtained in life. You would not want to ride with him in a car, and I hope is he becomes a more careful pilot.
I have really enjoyed reading through this thread. My Dad, Junior Martin, worked at Holman Moody for 40+ years. Here's a picture of him holding the pit board for a Bobby Allison pit stop.
My dad started his own garage and bodyshop in 1961 so I gew up around cars and loved drag racing. I remember reading about Garlits, Larson, Jungle Jim and remember reading in Hot Rod magaizine about a place in Charlotte, NC called Holman Moody. When I turned 18 years old the economy in our area was in bad shape so I packed up and moved to Hickory, NC to work at an automotive restoration shop called Carrera Motorsports. On Sat/Sunday I would drive over to Holman and Moody and be the young kid who just hung around and soaked up as much information as possible. They would always show me the different cars they were building or repairing and I remember one in particular was a 24 hours of Lemans MAZDA. Who would have thought. On occassion one of the fabrication guys would let me watch as they turned flat pieces of aluminum in to works of art. I remember seeing dozens of motors in crates 427 SOHC, 427 Ford FE, Boss 302, and 429's everywhere. Box after box of heads, intakes, blocks and tons and tons of cool parts. GT-40 chassis's and body bucks. By todays standards it was truely the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. At one point after talking to Mr. Holman they were getting ready to start building the GT-40's again from the origianl bucks and he offered me a job. Because I was making more money where I was working they he originally offered me I didn't take the job. To this day I still regret that decision. I could have worked with some of the smartest car guys on the planet. As they say hind sight is 20/20.
Here's one of the Wil E Coyote/Roadrunner "Beep beep your ass" stickers mentioned earlier. These use to be plastered all over our stuff when I was a kid.
Never saw a talledega drag car before, looks like E-town. Any more info, color or what class it ran ? Thanks, Pete L.
We just passed 1000 posts. Thanks to all who have posted and followed this thread. It has produced much more than I expected. I hope there is a lot more to come. I know I ain't through yet!!!
These "Beep Beep Your Ass" stickers were originally done by Bill Holbrook, who ran the race program support area at the Ford Experimental Garage in Dearborn from the late 50's until he retired in the 80's. Bill was a good friend of mine and Len Richter, and a mischievous kind of guy. He could not officially have the stickers done, but he had a friend whom we all knew who was a Ford Supplier do the deed, and we plastered 100's of them all over the place at the Indy Nationals in '68. Bill was another of those who without his help, my racing career would have been much different. Bill, now well into his 80's, had a new bunch run off last year, and was passing them out at Milan Dragway last summer (2011) during the Detroit Dragway Memorial Weekend. He is the one who autographed my 1963 Indy Picture while I was driving the Bob Ford ’63 Lightweight.
The Jalopy Journal
