BIG MOTOR

8 x 2.5″ laminated glossy outdoor rated

Wow. That’s really “big” power for a Ford. Too bad Ford had to build special “race only” 427s to do it and the vaunted “side oiler” is actually a WEAKER design overall thanks to the “upgraded” and “improved” lube system which did nothing but increase dramatically the number of “leak points” as well as significantly weaken the block thanks to extra galleries drilled and cast into it and all to make what was STILL not a real “priority main” lubrication system.
Unfortunately for Ford, “some +550hp on race gas” was a pretty poor showing at the time since in “Super Stock” NHRA drag racing classes without “factory support” of ANY kind “privateers” like Grumpy Jenkins were coaxing similar horsepower out of “factory stock’ 396 Chevys with no “race only” parts required and with strict “claimer” and “teardown” rules in effect in the late 1960s thanks to the tendency of Ford to “bend the rules” it couldn’t pay “officials” to make or not make specifically to benefit Ford.
Ford guys are all the time talking shit about Chevy and General Motors “getting out of racing” at the “corporate level” but the reality is that Chevy and General Motors never HAD “factory race teams” or even “factory support” of “independent dealers” and their “dealer” race teams. The “What wins on Sunday sells on Monday.” schtick/spiel must have been thought up by Ford guys who didn’t/don’t have a clue about the “car business” or RACING in the U.S. at the time since there was no “Win on Sunday” with all “major” and “sanctioned” drag and stock car races happening on SATURDAYS. Sunday, sabbath, day of rest….etc.
At least in most of the U.S. Maybe the “heathens” out in “Cali” played on Sunday but another giant myth is that California was the “epicenter” of all things “high-performance” as far as “hot-rodding” goes and “aftermarket” parts with “Detroit” serving the same role for “factory performance”. And nobody with a real job ever went “car shopping” on a weekday much less MONDAY i.e. the first day of business AFTER the weekend. To be a “businessman” or even an “employee” and be seen “car shopping” on a MONDAY or any other WEEKDAY was a sure sign that you were making WAY TOO MUCH MONEY THE REST OF THE WEEK and didn’t “need” anybody who couldn’t afford a new car or at least couldn’t afford to go buy one on a WEEK DAY to give you THEIR business whatever business you or your employer were in.
Not to mention the idea that anybody but maybe spoiled “rich kids” who were sons of “Ford executives” with a “corporate discount” would ever rush to buy a “winning” race car for the “street” may make sense to “car guys” stupid enough not to know when cars are actually bought and sold and why, but everybody else who has “been there and done that” and has purchased multiple vehicles for primary transportation and for practical rather than “pleasure” driving isn’t quite that “gullible”. We’re also not “gullible” enough to believe if those Fords “back in the day” were so
“hot” and “special” and “rare”, they wouldn’t be so “common” today and then and now wouldn’t NEED so much complete fucking PROPAGANDA to “sell” them. And Ford wouldn’t have had to build “race engines” that never actually made it into “production cars”. The SOHC “Cammers”? Never even were “raced” much less put in “production”. And wouldn’t even have been “experimented with” had their “427 side-oiler” ancestors been “up to the challenge” of beating GM/Mopar “competition”.
GM in general and Chevrolet in particular didn’t NEED that “publicity” associated with “high performance” for many reasons but mainly because from WWII on Chevrolet proceeded to “destroy” Ford’s sales, markets, popularity and overall “public image” with tons of help from Ford itself and the “make it as cheap as possible, ram it down our loyal customers’ throats and make it impossible to “change brands” once driving a Ford by making “resale value” and “trade-in value” fantasies only another Ford dealer/Ford vehicle will make come true” approach.
Chevrolet built its 50 MILLIONTH PASSENGER CAR in 1958 and was WAY ahead of Ford in “sales” and “production” all by itself with most of the Olds/Pontiac/Buick “high-performance” efforts being GM “infighting” over who was going to “replace” Mercury the way Chevy replaced Ford AND trying to “win back” B-O-P customers who’d “traded down” to CHEVROLETS.
That the Pontiac “GTO” was the “first muscle car” is HILARIOUS since the Chevy Impalas packing even the “lowly” 348 big-block much less the famous “409” (both engines were “truck engines” long before “high-performance” passenger car engines and the “mystery motor” that ended up being the 396 and later “grew” into the 427 and 454 was mainly a “mystery” because no new Chevy big-block HAD shown up in Chevy medium-duty trucks) were damned sure “muscle cars” if any “GTO” was.
Especially since the “GTO” was just the Pontiac “answer” to the Chevy “SS” package but aimed AT fighting Ford and Mopar for a far-distant “2nd place” behind the Chevy “Impala SS” and the other Chevy full-size 2-door sedans/hard-tops/convertibles. Sorry, no “coupes” in Chevy full-size 2-doors -but only in the “mid-size” Chevy “Nova” chassis which included the Chevy II and eventually “grew into” the Camaro. That’s right. A Camaro is/was a “Nova” under the new sheet metal back the the same way a “Mustang” is/was nothing but a RESKINNED FALCON.
The Mustang exists because Ford bet huge and WRONG on the Falcon “family” and at the worst possible time since it had to “compete” against the Nova/Chevy II and was supposed to be Ford’s
“salvation” as Ford conceded the “full-size market” to Chevy along with the light-duty and medium-duty truck markets and the “Edsel” – which was going to be an entire new “marque'” rather than just a “model” was Ford’s “response” to the “Tri-5” Chevys and we all know how that worked out.
And Ford and the “Ford Family” were forced to “eat crow” and let an “outsider” by the name of Lee Iacocca “design” the “new Mustang” by reskinning the Falcon and adding some wheelbase and trackwidth. It sold “huge” because Ford forced it down dealers’ throats, sold huge numbers of them as “fleet cars” and because it was the first “new” Ford product that wasn’t a complete “flop” from an engineering/design/equipment/pricing/marketing standpoint for DECADES.
But since an “outsider” had to “save” Ford Motor Company and by “simply” coming up with a “Nova copy” based on the Falcon chassis, Ford or rather the “Ford Family” has always privately detested the Mustang. Which is why its NEVER been “upgraded”, has been “canceled” ONCE only to be “replaced” by the “Mustang II” and was NEARLY “canceled” multiple times since then including plans to shitcan the current “Mustang platform/chassis” (which other than some use of IRS suspension is literally still the same shitty old Falcon/Fairmont “chassis” and front suspension underneath several “generations” of “new” sheet metal) after the 2017 model year and slap the “Mustang name/brand” on a Focus-platform 2-door AWD “econobox” freeing up the “Coyote” for the low-production “GT” and giving Ford HUGE and MUCH-NEEDED “breathing room” in CAFE standards/requirements.
Ford HAS NO “popular” and “compact” highly fuel-efficient cars, has NOTHING “hybrid” much less “EV”, the “500” platform/chassis “replacement” for the “Interceptor/Crown Vic/Town Car” platform was a complete disaster and Ford is so SCREWED when it comes to CAFE it had to settle for a V6 in its “supercar” GT.
Ford has the same problems today it’s had since “Day One”. A “CEO” and “Board of Directors” far too eager to believe Ford’s own PR, propaganda and bullshit viz a vi the “superiority” of its “engineering” and “performance” and “appeal” to “customers” who stopped having a “lack of options” and stopped being “stuck with Ford” back when a former Ford Motor Company employee by the name of Chevrolet got tired of the “genius” Henry Ford – who not only didn’t invent the “car” he also didn’t invent “assembly lines” or “interchangeable parts” and was a ultimately a FAILURE in every “venture” he tried where he didn’t have a “monopoly” to exploit and “ran off” engineers and designers that other companies eagerly “snapped up” figuring anybody that Ford let “get away” not only had brains but “balls” enough to tell Henry where to stick his big bank accounts and “investors” also eagerly “supported” for the same reason – and decided to take a swing at building a “working man’s car” that not only was “cheap” and “reliable”, but also “made to order” in so far as Chevrolet decided to build the cars that Ford “customers” who had the money and means to pay more to get more had been asking Ford for since about the third year of Model T production with absolutely no change in “options” or “technology” or “styling” or “convenience”.
What sells on SATURDAY – which is when people who WORK FOR A LIVING GO “CAR SHOPPING” – is what they see on the STREETS AND ROADS AND HIGHWAYS AND NEIGHBORS’ DRIVEWAYS AND NOT IN THE “GARAGES” AND “REPAIR SHOPS” AND “SCRAPYARDS” OF THEIR HOMETOWNS DAY IN AND DAY OUT AND SEE NEW MODELS OF LONG ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT THEY’RE NOT BUYING A “NEW” MAKE/MODEL OF CAR THAT IS ALREADY YEARS OLD AND “USED” THE DAY THEY DRIVE IT OFF THE LOT.
And the other thing truly STUPID about the “factory racing/factory-supported racing” mythology of “what wins sells” is you have to be really moronic to spend tons of money to go around the country competing and racing against and beating CURRENT AND POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS WHO ARE “LOCAL” AND “AMATEUR” AND SELF-SUPPORTED/SUFFICIENT/FUNDED “PRIVATEERS” WHO DAMNED SURE AREN’T GOING TO PAY TO BUY NEW VEHICLES AND “PERFORMANCE PARTS” FROM MANUFACTURERS/DEALERS THEY HAVE TO “COMPETE WITH” ON THE WEEKENDS.
Nor do any or have any Ford dealers EVER save a few “performance dealers” EVER “stocked” performance vehicles/parts “willingly” because THEY’RE not going to “compete with” Ford’s” factory/factory-backed “racing” teams/dealerships/programs either because Ford always “plays favorites” and “bends rules” and “buys officials” and “participates” in “racing” at the factory level ONLY AS LONG AS IT BENEFITS “FORD MOTOR COMPANY” AND FORD IS “BEATING” GM/CHEVROLET “PRIVATEERS” AND THEN WHEN EVEN HOLDING ALL THE CARDS ISN’T ENOUGH AND FORD IS LOSING AND/OR GETTING INVESTIGATED OR DISQUALIFIED OR OTHERWISE SANCTIONED “IN THE PITS” OR “SALES” AREN’T SUPPORTING THE “WHAT WINS SELLS” CROCK OF SHIT “NARRATIVE” AND THE “FORD FAMILY” WHICH STILL HAS “CONTROL” OVER FOMOCO DESPITE ONLY A VERY TINY MINOR FRACTION OF “STOCK” ONLY BECAUSE NOBODY ELSE IS “GOOD ENOUGH” AND “INVESTORS” HAVE NO INTEREST IN SUPPORTING A TRUE “PUBLICLY TRADED” FOMOCO, FORD “BAILS” ON “MOTORSPORTS” OR “PERFORMANCE MODELS” AND CERTAIN TYPES OF “RACING” AND FORD DEALERS, DISTRIBUTORS AND CUSTOMERS ARE LEFT HOLDING THE BAG AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN “WORTHLESS” HARDWARE.
And if you don’t believe Ford Family members HATE the Mustang and will “cancel” it in a heartbeat if they get the chance, just ask yourself this. How many Mustangs have been built with “FORD” and the BLUE OVAL PROMINENTLY FEATURED ON THE “EXTERIOR” AND VISIBLE “INTERIOR” OF MUSTANGS? VERY DAMNED FEW. Meanwhile, Ford had no problem and still doesn’t letting “Shelby” and “Rousch” and “Hurst” and several other “tuners” put THEIR names on “Ford Mustangs”. Of course they’re all “owned and operated and financed” under the table BY Ford Motor Company and always have been as a way to “work around” the various “issues” that make associating the “family” and “family name” and especially the “family finances” and the “funds” provided by “investors” all over the world who also have “family names/fortunes/reputations” to “protect”, but still Ford would rather NOT “claim” what is supposedly an “iconic” so-called “sports car”. When its not a “pony car” or “muscle car” or “performance car” or “race car” or “track car” etc.
Too bad the Mustang has always been and apparently will continue to be nothing but a “2-door sedan”. And Ford’s vaunted “427 side-oiler” will remain nothing but a “race only” STRAIGHT TRUCK/PICKUP TRUCK/PASSENGER CAR ENGINE only “exotic” and “special” in the minds of Ford fanboys who are highly impressed by 289s and 390s and think “390 hp” is BIG POWER when “back in the day” the “hot” Chevy 327 was FACTOR RATED AT 350 HP and the “hot” 350 was factory-rated at 375 HORSEPOWER and NEITHER NEEDED “SOLID LIFTER CAMS” OR MULTIPLE CARBURETORS TO PULL IT OFF AND THERE NEVER WERE ANY “RACE ONLY” CHEVY ENGINES.
Forget the “big-cube” big-blocks including the Chevy 427 “L88” and “ZL-1” ENGINES AND THEIR CORVETTE AND “COPO CAMARO” FACTORY “PERFORMANCE CAR” VEHICLE “HOMES”. FORD WAS JUST DESPERATELY TRYING TO “KEEP UP WITH” ORDINARY WORKING MEN AND THEIR “HOBBY CARS” THEY WERE “BUILDING” DURING THE WEEK AFTER WORK WITH PARTS RIGHT FROM THE LOCAL CHEVY DEALERSHIP AND WERE DRIVING TO THE TRACK ON THE WEEKEND, SPANKING FORD FACTORY/FACTORY-SUPPORTED ASS WITH ON THE WEEKENDS AND THEN DRIVING HOME AGAIN. AND WERE “FINANCING” MAINLY WITH “DISPOSABLE INCOME” EARNED AND WON FROM “FORD GUYS” WHO TRIED TO BEAT THEIR CHEVY “DAILY DRIVERS” ON THE STREET AND THEN WHEN THEY DIDN’T HAVE MUCH LUCK AND FOUND OUT THE “CHEVY GUY” WAS A LOCAL “MECHANIC” EITHER FOR THE CHEVY DEALER OR HIS OWN “GARAGE” OR BOTH PAID THE “CHEVY GUY” TO GET THEIR FORD “PERFORMANCE CAR” RUNNING “GOOD ENOUGH” TO MAKE A DECENT SHOWING AT THE “DRAGS” OR “CRUISE NIGHT” SO THEY COULD SELL IT AND MAKE ENOUGH “PROFIT” TO GO PUT MONEY DOWN ON A NEW CHEVROLET.
Again, what SELLS is what “wins” on the STREET and stays OUT OF THE REPAIR SHOP and doesn’t come with big-buck, nationwide “marketing/advertising campaigns” and what the manufacturer and local dealer “stand behind” and support and keep “current” and maintain FACTORY PARTS/SERVICE FOR while being ready, willing and able to provide “performance parts” at “factory stock part” PRICES. Its NEVER been necessary to go to a Ford “SVO” dealer/tuner to get “performance parts” and there has NEVER been a “premium” put on “performance” parts OR vehicles themselves in order to “tax” somebody wanting to go out and make the manufacturer’s/dealers PRODUCTS LOOK “GOOD” WHILE MAKING HIS/HER OWN PERSONAL RIDE LOOK GOOD.
Like I said, it takes a special kind of stupid to compete with your own customers. Just like it takes a special kind of “stupid” when it comes to “high performance” to be impressed by a dual-quad, 13:1, 427 cubic inch big-block “race engine” making a whopping “+550 hp” (the PLUS SIGN GOES AFTER THE “NUMBER”, Speed Racer) with all that “factory support” and not “get” that Ford didn’t even put THOSE ENGINES IN “FORD” STOCK CARS BUT INSTEAD CALLED THEM “MERCURY” CARS/ENGINES. Ford only “factory supported” the vaunted “427” in DRAG RACING AND THAT ENDED AS SOON AS “PRIVATEERS” WITH “HOME-BUILT” CHEVYS STARTED SPANKING FORD ASS HARD WITH THOSE LITTLE OLD 396s THAT YOU COULD BUY ALL DAY LONG AS “CRATE ENGINES” FROM ANY CHEVY DEALER IN THE COUNTRY AND PAY “LIST PRICE” FOR THEM JUST LIKE YOU WERE BUYING A STOCK CAMSHAFT FOR A 265 SMALL-BLOCK FOR YOUR ALMOST TEN YEAR OLD “SHOEBOX” ’55 CHEVY.
Ford’s “factory racing programs” have NEVER used ANYTHING remotely “stock” or “factory” for “stock car racing” and only win when Ford is helping “write the rules” and/or is a “major sponsor” of or the CREATOR of the “class” or “organization” or “association”. Ever heard of a Chevrolet/GM “version” of “Formula Ford”? Hell, Ford hasn’t ever even TRIED to “push” or even “qualify” its vaunted “modular V8s” as “race engines” including the supposedly “new: so-called “Coyote”. And all of Ford’s “NASCAR” success has come whenever major “rule changes” and/or “new divisions” and/or major rules and changes to “improve safety” and/or “lower costs” and/or “improve fuel efficiency” have given Ford the opportunity to help write/re-write the “rules” again. Go look under the hood of a “Ford Focus” Cup car and try to ignore the fact that there is no such thing as a 2-door Ford Focus RWD V-8 powered vehicle PERIOD and just look at the Ford “technology” under the hood and if you know anything about “NASCAR” and Chevrolet engines and “small-block” Chevrolets and the Chevrolet NASCAR “SB2” and “SB2.2” you might notice that Ford and “Rousch” pretty much made a Chevy SB2.2/Dodge NASCAR engine “hybrid” and its more or less built on what amounts to a “Powerstroke diesel” block that’s not even remotely similar to any Ford V-8 “passenger car” engine ever made.
But things are going to change now that Ford is going to run the “Mustang” in NASCAR Cup races instead of the “lower levels” and Chevrolet teams are running a Camaro that is an actual CAMARO instead of a “Car of Tomorrow” with “decals” to make it look “Camaro-ish”. Seems like Ford should be “forced” to run a “mod motor” and Chevys SHOULD be allowed to run “LS” engines and just maybe “stock car racing” and a REAL “Ford vs. Chevy” situation with “factory race programs” both with their “latest and greatest” technology and hardware will go “head to head” for the FIRST TIME EVER.
It damn sure hasn’t EVER worked out for Ford in the past even competing against Chevy “privateers” and the Mustang in particular has been nothing but Camaro-fodder although beating the Falcons/Fairmonts with that PATHETIC chassis and front suspension has never been a “challenge” either in straight lines or “through the twisties”. The only Ford “stock” cars that have EVER handled even remotely “well” have done so with lightweight small-block cam-in-block 2-valve “obsolete” engines up front and IRS or NASCAR “truck arm” REAR SUSPENSION.
And for the record, that NASCAR rear suspension that’s been “standard equipment” for NAS”Cup” cars longer than the “Chrysler Hemi” has been “standard equipment” for NHRA “Top Fuel” cars (Top Fuel AND Funny Cars both are “Top Fuel” cars) is called the “truck arm” suspension because it was “standard equipment” under Chevrolet and GMC 2wd light trucks (1/2-ton and 3/4-ton) from 1960 though the 1972 model year with leaf-spring rear suspension being “optional equipment”. And all the GM “big-block” trucks including the “Custom Camper” and “Cheyenne Super” trucks had it.
And of course the “Chrysler Hemi” started out as an INDUSTRIAL/TRUCK ENGINE before finding its way into Chrysler Corporation’s heaviest and heavy-dutiest passenger cars. The difference between Ford and Chevy and even Chrysler is that Chevy and Chrysler used “truck parts” in their “performance cars” and it was the “organizing/regulating bodies” of NASCAR and the NHRA that “adopted” what was obviously “superior” technology and designs mainly so GM in particular would be “forced” to keep in production factory parts like those “truck arm” suspension parts back in the day when they were still “stock cars” as far as the “chassis” went so that “Brand X” racers and Ford Motor Company could “keep up” and use GM “truck parts” to keep up with GM “stock cars” even when blowing 99% of their “budgets” on “stock” Ford engines.
Of course starting in about 1966 the GM “A-body” chassis became a rear-coil sprung “four-link” rear suspension design too. And that’s when “truck arm” rear suspension became “legal” for everybody. And its when Ford decided to “change course” viz a vi “NASCAR” and ran back to the NHRA for one glorious year prior to the Camaro showing up. Then Ford ran to “Trans Am” racing. And “dominated” for a season or two until the “Z28” Camaro showed up with its 302 Chevy engine that pretty much did then and will still now make a Ford 302 look as pathetic by comparison as a Chevy 350 makes Ford 351s look and Chevy 427s make Ford 427s look.
Like I said, Ford fanboy are easily impressed and very “informed” on Ford’s version of “history” but sure don’t have any long-term “track record” of even continuous Ford “factory” participation in major “national” motorsports competition to brag about and their claims that GM/Chevrolet “left” or “abandoned” or “walked away from” factory/factory-supported “competition” they never JOINED IN THE FIRST PLACE is just hilarious. At least for Chevy guys. Its kind of sad for Ford guys, though. Just like a whopping “+550 hp” from the “pinnacle” of Ford “factory race engine” performance.