I was looking thru some old files, and found some old photos of our old Fords.
This car started my love affair with Fords. In 1966, my Dad bought this 58 2 door Ranch Wagon as a "2nd car" for my Mother to drive. It was a 6 cyl auto, but something about that car "clicked" in my 9 year old brain. Thats me sitting on the fender. I dreamed of owning the car when I turned 16, but it was totalled a few years later, when my Dad tried (unsucsessfully) to teach my Grandmother how to drive.
My first car was a green 57 Ford Sedan Delivery, bought in 1974 for $50.00, and made my first dragstrip passes with, 17.5ET @74 MPH, with a very tired 272 3 speed standard.
In 1975, I found this second, much nicer 57 Sedan Delivery, but I had to pay a whole lot more money ($175.00!) My buddy fixed the rusty front fenders, and I replaced the dying 272 3 speed, with a used FE 360 from a buddys 72 F250, and a C6. With a new 390GT/428CJ cam and cast iron C4AE intake and 600 Holley, it ran 16.2 @ 86 MPH.
Very nice!
Neat photos! Thanks for posting them. I love the old pics. I just ran across some oldies yesterday...Have to scan and get them posted. No '57's in mine though.
Funny how as we get older the pictures that were put in a box and set on a shelf are now important. Learned that hard lesson after my Mom passed as we (brothers and sisters) sorted through the many boxes she had in the closet. It was fun but also a wake up to our own mortality and what we were going to leave our own kids to sort.
Sorry to get in the dumps with this, the old pictures really are fun to sort!
I only wish I had more pictures, no one in my family seemed to care much about the cars back then.
By 1966 I could finally afford a 57. Then in 1968 I built a new one.
You could race it during the day and sleep in it at night. Looks like Seattle when you used to be able to camp over night at the track. A lot of good times back then that's for sure.
Yes Randy, that was Seattle International Raceway, in 1979 or maybe 1980. Note the taller starting line "Chistmas Tree" in use back then. It used 5 amber lights, which was reduced to 3 sometime in the 80s as I recall. This was at a time when we had no local dragstrip close to Vancouver BC. the original Mission Raceway closed at the end on the 1978 race season (which was my most successful year to this day, 3 wins and 2 Runner Ups that year.) Between 1979, and 1987, when Eagle Motorplex near Ashcroft BC opened, if you lived in Greater Vancouver, and wanted to go drag racing, your closest tracks were either SIR, or Bremerton Raceway, about 3 and 3 1/2 hours one way, respectively. Gotta admit, driving my 1970 Mach 1, 428 Cobra Jet 4 speed, with 4.30 gears made the trip a fair bit longer, and worrying about being able to make it home in 1 piece was always in the back of my mind! (Always made it home intact though.) The blue & white 57 Sedan Delivery is still around, a local Ford Pro Mod racer bought it and redid the car in the late 80s, and it sits in his personal collection, alongside his 70 Boss 429, twin turboed 68 F100, chopped and channeled 34 Ford coupe (with a 312 Y Block), and a few other cool cars. Glad to know its living a charmed life.
Back in the mid 80s, there was a few 57 Ford drag cars around the Seattle area, Ed Gallwas ran a white 57 Fairlane 500 2 dr HT, Brian Thompson ran a black 57 Custom 300 2 dr, a guy in Bremerton had a 57 Ranchero with a 390 FE , and John Haskell ran his shortened yellow & white 57 wagon, with a 427 FE and Jerico 4 speed. Of course, one of the most famous 57 Ford drag cars has been here in BC Canada for 45 years, Larry Walkers old "Legal Cheater" supercharged 312 NHRA Stocker has been up here since 1970 or 71, still owned by the guy who bought it from Walker.
The only one Iv'e ever seen at the Loafers or All Ford drags was this one. I think the car was from Idaho and may have run a stroked Windsor, never did get a chance to talk to the driver.
Randy, you are correct, that blue & white 57 Custom is owned by Steve Pyborn, from Idaho. It does have a stroked 351W short block, but is topped with CHI Australian Cleveland heads. He usually makes the long haul to Mission once a year for the Langley Loafers Oldies race. I talked to Steve this year at the NHRA Div.6 ET Finals, but although he still has the 57 Ford, for the past year or two, he has been racing his newest car, a blue early 50s Studebaker Bullet Nose Starlight Coupe, powered by a similar Windsor/Cleveland Ford small block.
You may not have ever seen it, but Mike Moore from Delta owns a full tube chassis 57 Custom sedan, also blue, that he used to race in Super Street (10.90 ET class), but has not had it out in several years now. However, he does have another 57 Custom, that he has participated in 3 years of Hot Rods DragWeek, once with a 460 type Wedge, once with a Boss 429, and last time, with a SB Ford.
Also, there was another blue 57 Ford 2 dr sedan with a straight front axle and 429/460 power, that I believe came from Northern or interior BC, that showed up at the Loafers a couple of times.
You can still do that over in Forks on the Olympic Peninsula. Only an 1/8 mile track, but everyone who has ever been there just goes on and on about how great the people over there treat the racers...like family. There are 4-5 runs a year.
Quote from: rmk57 on 2016-12-07 22:06
You could race it during the day and sleep in it at night. Looks like Seattle when you used to be able to camp over night at the track. A lot of good times back then that's for sure.