Wish someone at Ford would show as much interest

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I wish someone at Ford would show as much interest in the Mustang family and come up with the archive footage for the Mustang. I was a big fan of the flathead ford V-8. I drag raced and street raced them into the 70's. This pretty much tells the story of how Ford jumped into the V-8 engine. It was during the depression and almost took down the company. Henry Ford pushed his engineers to overcome the casting issues that had kept the V-8 from ever working. This is link to a very detailed history of the Ford V-8 for the 1932 Ford that put it on the top of all hot rod lists.


I still love the sound of a built flathead.

 

[Don C]

I wish someone at Ford would show as much interest in the Mustang family and come up with the archive footage for the Mustang. I was a big fan of the flathead ford V-8. I drag raced and street raced them into the 70's. This pretty much tells the story of how Ford jumped into the V-8 engine. It was during the depression and almost took down the company. Henry Ford pushed his engineers to overcome the casting issues that had kept the V-8 from ever working. This is link to a very detailed history of the Ford V-8 for the 1932 Ford that put it on the top of all hot rod lists.

I, too, like the flatheads, skinned knuckles on them a few times. Changing and adjusting the points and timing the early ones were good ways to learn patience

I agree, nothing like the sound of one.

 

[donkost]

There were flathead modified stock car races at the Reading Fairgrounds Speedway in the 1950's and 1960's, on their half mile dirt (clay) track. What a cool place- I was thankfully able to go a number of times in the 1970's when they were racing big block modified stock cars. That track was innovative and set many of the rules and regulations used in the rest of the US for modified stock cars. Also ran sprint cars, demo derbies, 1/8 mile drags, you name it. This was back when every modified stock car was a unique build, based on a Falcon, Pinto, Gremlin, etc. body shell at that time. The track was more or less forced to close in 1979 and a big mall was built in its place, back when communities thought that was the way of the future. Now that mall sits there deteriorating away year after year with probably more than half of its storefronts empty.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I know the feeling about the track closing. The drag strip we had was the old airport runway with 1/2 mile of paved track so a fantastic strip. People complained about noise so it got shut down. The circle track in Asheville, New Asheville Speedway 1/3 mile bowl and the same fate noise. It is still there but only foot runners and bicycles. I watched David Pearson and Richard Petty run there. They were slower with the 429 and 426 than the 6 cylinders were, lol. I helped build some of the flatheads and cars that ran there.

I just wish Ford would put someone to work on the archives of the factories, testing, builds of the mustang and share with us. It is out there but someone has to be able to get to the info.