1962The '62 season brought both good and bad news to Ford racers on the tour. The good news was an even larger version of the FE-series big-block engine displacing 406 ci and sporting a beefed-up, cross-bolt main journal bottom end. Horsepower was up ten from 1961 and advertised at 385. The bad news was the all-new for '62 Galaxie body featured a squared-off formal roof line that was about as aerodynamic as a brick.
Adding to Ford racers' woes was the double whammy delivered to them by the Pontiac Catalina's more aerodynamic roofline and more powerful 421ci Super Duty engine. GM Boss Bunkie Knudsen's Ponchos had their way with the box-top Galaxie competition for most of the season. Fireball Roberts won Daytona in February of that year with the Smokey Yunick-prepped No. 22 Pontiac.
Nineteen sixty-two wasn't a total loss for Ford. Perhaps the most important win notched by a Ford driver in 1962 was Fred Lorenzen's triumph at Atlanta in June. His mount that day was something called a Starlift Galaxie. This novel body package consisted of a '62 Galaxie convertible body and an "optional" bolt-on hardtop that just happened to look exactly like the '61 Starliner's roof line. The idea behind this "option" was clearly an aerodynamic improvement, and it worked.
Unfortunately, then as now, the NASCAR gods both giveth and taketh away. Though deemed legal the morning of the race, by sunset the Starlift roof option was ruled illegal. Ford's willingness to cook-up the Starlift option and take it racing signaled the company's willingness to do what was necessary to win in motorsports competition.
1963In 1963, Ford's commitment to winning produced an all-new, fastback roof-lined Galaxie midyear and the legendary 427ci FE-series racing engine. Building on the 406ci big-block that debuted in 1962, Ford engineers punched cylinder bores out to 4.23 inches. The sturdy, cross-bolted bottom end developed for the 406 continued with the 427. The 427 engine package was topped with new head castings (later called Low Risers), which flowed better than previous castings. Holman/Moody-prepped Galaxies rolled onto pit road at Daytona in 1963 with an advertised 410 hp emblazoned on their hoods, and there is little doubt that figure was conservative.
Like the full-size Fords that had been campaigned by Blue Oval teams since 1960, the 11 Galaxies prepared by Holman/Moody for race duty in 1963 all started life on the Atlanta, Georgia, assembly line as regular production street cars. in 1963, all Holman/Moody cars were serialized at the factory as single 4V-427 "Q" code cars. (Authentic '63 Holman/Moody Galaxies all carried doorjamb data plates and serial numbers with the sequence 3N66Q 120--.)
Sports car driver, Dan Gurney, borrowed one of Fred Lorenzen's Galaxies and won the inaugural running of the Motor Trend 500 (the first NASCAR race of the year in those days) at Riverside in January 1963. Towering newcomer Dewayne "Tiny" Lund underscored the arrival of the 427 engine with a storybook win in the '63 Daytona 500 while subbing for Wood Brothers driver, Marvin Panch, who'd been burned during speedweeks.
Fred Lorenzen continued to be Holman/Moody's primary driver, and 1963 was the year he broke both the NASCAR record book and the bank in his Wimbledon White and blue-graphic No.28 Galaxie. Lorenzen made 29 starts that season and won six times. His triumphs at Atlanta, Martinsville, Charlotte, Bristol, Weaverville, and Huntington earned him the title "Golden Boy of Stock Car Racing" and $122,587, making him the first driver to crack the six-figure mark on the NASCAR tour.