Chrysler racing chief Ronnie Householder took his football (and the rest of his racing effort) and went home, declaring a total Plymouth/Dodge boycott of the Grand National series. Ford decided to introduce as a regular production option, a new version of the tried-and-true race 427 wedge that came to be called the Medium Riser, featuring a main journal priority oiling system called the Side Oiler, and beefy new capscrew rods derived from the GT-40 program called LeMans Rods. A forged steel crank, the all-new-for-'65 Top Loader four-speed transmission, and a set of tubular exhaust headers (a first for a Ford stocker) created a reliable 500-plus-horsepower drivetrain in race trim.
This would be the first year Holman/Moody built Grand national stock cars from unserialized "bodies in white" that had been delivered to Charlotte in bare form, sans powertrains and interiors. When the chassis arrived at Holman/Moody, the bodies and frames were separated and heavily modified. Screw jacks were added at all four corners of the '65 Galaxie four-coil frame. Heavy-duty springs came next. A special rear crossmember was then installed, featuring two upper hemi joint-equipped trailing arms, reinforced stock lower trailing arms, and a very sports-car-like Watts-Link assembly. A through-frame, double-splined sway bar was added to the bow, and two shocks per wheel were installed. Special Holman/Moody spindles, a full-floater axle, double centered five-on-five steel rims, and special 11x3 (11x3/12 for road course and short track) drum brakes rounded out the underpinnings.
As you might have guessed, with Mopar drivers cooling their jets, Ford drivers ran away with the series. Dan Gurney won his third straight Motor Trend 500 in a Wood Brothers car, and Fred Lorenzen scored Ford's second Daytona 500 win to get the season off to a Ford-flavored start. Lorenzen went on to win both Charlotte races in 1965 and a number of short track events. Ned Jarrett won the Southern 500 with a field humbling 14-lap margin of victory over his closest competitor. His 12 other wins and 42 top 5 finishes made "Gentleman Ned" the series champ. Midwesterner Dick Hutcherson was the second most successful series driver. His 9 Ford wins and 32 top 5 finishes helped Ford secure the manufacturer's crown. It was an incredible season. Ford-badged cars won 32 consecutive Grand National races, and, by season's end, had finished first in fully 48 of the 55 races contested. But things would not go as well for Ford in 1966. The reason would again be Chrysler's Hemi.
1966Dodge and Plymouth executives decided to bite the bullet in 1966 and build enough street-going, 426 hemi-powered intermediates to homologate the cars for Grand National competition. Ford sought to counter the new threat by racing its own SOHC 427 hemi-head engines. The only problem-the engine was so huge it just wouldn't fit into the engine bay of a Ford intermediate without major surgery, which was disallowed by NASCAR. Ford executives sought special dispensation from the sanctioning body that would have allowed the Galaxie chassis (which was capable of accepting the Cammer) to go on a diet.
Big Bill France was having none of it, however. Worse, he ordained the Cammer would have to run an even greater weight than the Hemi-powered Plymouths and Dodges. In December 1965, Ford tested the proposed Cammer-powered package in Lorenzen's Daytona 500-winning Galaxie (that had been reskinned as a '66) and found it to be "uncompetitive."
Though Gurney won his fourth straight Motor Trend 500 in a Galaxie in January, Galaxie drivers got mugged at Daytona when Richard Petty ran away with the show with his Hemi-powered Satellite. When 426 Hemi-powered cars won three of the next four NASCAR races, Ford decided it had had enough and called it quits in early April. France had to do something to bring the fans back, and quick. He changed the rulebook.