Back to the Fairlane 500 for a moment, you learn something new everyday.
from wiki:
Thunderbolt[edit]
Main article:
Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt
Modified, street-driven 1964
Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt factory experimental drag car
As the
muscle car market took shape, Ford built a small number of Fairlane two door hard tops prepared for
drag racing during the 1963 season.[
citation needed] These cars were running the 289 and were set up at Dearborn Steel Tubing that built the special cars for Ford special vehicle operations .[
citation needed]
These soon evolved into the "Thunderbolts" for 1964. The racing Thunderbolt was a two-door post car, heavily modified to incorporate Ford's new 427 CID (7.0 L) V8 race engine with two four-barrel carburetors on a high-riser manifold, ram-air through the openings left by deleting the inboard headlights, equal-length headers, trunk-mounted battery, several fiberglass parts (hood, door skins, fenders, and front bumper), acrylic glass windows, and other lightweight options, including deleted rear-door window winders, carpeting, radio, sealant, sun visors, armrests, jack, lug wrench, heater, soundproofing, and passenger-side windshield wiper. The cars wore Fairlane 500 trim, and were only offered with the two-door sedan body. This special model, of which 111 to 127 total were made (sources disagree),[who?] delivered 657 hp (490 kW) at 7,500 rpm[11] and was known as the Thunderbolt.
Racing in NHRA
Super Stock (which required only fifty cars be available to the public
[12]), on 7-inch (180 mm)-wide tires, the Thunderbolt was based on the midlevel Fairlane 500 two-door pillared sedan, and in 1964 set elapsed time and top speed records at 11.6 seconds and 124 mph (200 km/h).
[13] took the Super Stock title (with
Gas Ronda taking the honors
[12]), and won the Manufacturer's Cup. The car as delivered was slightly too light to meet NHRA's 3200-lb (1451-kg) minimum weight unless it was raced with a full tank of gasoline, which would bring it to 3203 lb (1453 kg). NHRA rules at the time required a metal front bumper, so the cars began to be supplied with an aluminum bumper and previous purchasers were supplied with one.
Thunderbolt production was ended due to NHRA rule changes for Super Stock competition, requiring 500 vehicles be built to be entered in that class
. Ford had been losing $1500 to $2000 on each Thunderbolt sold at the sticker price of $3900. The first 11 Thunderbolts were painted maroon (known as Vintage Burgundy in Ford literature), the rest white; 99 had manual transmissions. Many are still raced. About 50 similar
Mercury Cyclones were also produced by Ford in 1964, destined to be modified to represent Ford in A/FX competition, which they dominated, as well. These vehicles varied greatly in wheel track due to customer options for varying suspension and wheel/tire combinations. Front tracks from 54 to 56 in and rear tracks from 53.5 to 55.5 in were common.
below is a '64 Thunderbolt (body changed after this year) at the track. Running in A/Factory Experimental class you can see his qualifying index was 9.77 -based on weight to horsepower