TAILS FROM THE TAILPIPE 7/17 : by Charlie Morris
The year was 1959 and the location was southern California. Here I was just a young lad immersed in building scale models of WWII aircraft, ships and tanks. Then along comes an older friend who presents me with a model car kit that he had built, a 32 Ford roadster with a Flathead engine as I recall. Along with the kit came a sheet of water transfer decals, racing numbers and sponsor decals. The red and black Air Lift ovals are still fresh in my mind. Thus began a life long addiction with the American automobile and the spirit of hot rodding. I was officially a car guy. I also remember thinking that the Flathead Ford V-8 was cool and quite pleasing to the eye and still do to this day.
Slow forward (because the years didn't fly by as quickly back then) to the 1960 Daytona 500 which just so happened to be the first televised running of what was the Great American Race for "stock" cars. Here I was sitting in front of a small black and white television absolutely mesmerized by the spectacle unfolding before me, but even more so by the 1960 Ford Starliner's that were in competition that day. And while a Pontiac won the race it was right then and there that yours truly came to the realization that I was indeed a Ford man. For those not aware if you were a "car guy" in the 50's and 60's it was more than normal to be loyal to one particular brand. Can't say that I've heard anyone say "I'm a Hyundai man myself" lately. But that's how it was growing up in the car culture of the time. A lot of young guys inherited their brand loyalty from their dad or other male role model. For me it was the 1960 Daytona 500 and the Ford Starliner.
Car magazines played a large part in the life of anyone interested in the hot rod life style back in the 50's and 60's and to that end I would obtain and devour any I could get my hands on. Thus began my education on how the modern V-8 engine worked and how one could make them go faster. One magazine featured a comparison of the "Hot" cars for 1960 and one of those tested for the article was a Ford Starliner with the new High Performance, 360 horsepower, 352 cubic inch engine. Now I didn't know from FE and wouldn't for a number of years to come but here was the car design that won my heart, with a special engine that made it one of the fastest cars tested by this magazine and that was good enough for me. Just like the Flathead before it the engine in the test car just looked right to me. I read everything I could about this new high performance Ford power plant and even before a larger, hotter version was introduced for 1961 I was already an FE guy.
Along comes 1962 and as always I found myself among the minority of guys who liked Fords at my school. By this time Ford had introduced the 405 horsepower, 406 cubic inch version of the Thunderbird Special High Performance engine (FE) and I was in love. That particular model of the FE has remained my favorite to this day (406's R Us is my social media mantra). Why? The answer is simple. Among my class mates was a big, loud mouthed bully who was a MOPAR guy due to his dad owning a 62 Dodge ( A car that I thought was ugly back then but pretty cool today). I can remember saying to myself that one day I would have a 406 Ford and shut up loud mouths like this guy. I vividly remember when a man named Ed Terry, who would later become a member of the Ford Drag Team and my friend, took his 62 406 Galaxie to victory at the NHRA Winter Nationals in 1963. Ed's victory has been forever filed under Bragging rights at school in my memory bank.
Several years later I bought a beautiful 1963 Galaxie 500 XL 406 car that, while by no means a race car, was faster than anything at my high school. Teen aged foolishness led that car to being wrecked and sent to the junkyard, but not before I removed the engine and transmission. The purchase of a repossessed 62 406 Galaxie that had some local drag strip and street race history from the Chrysler dealership where I worked provided me with a home for my engine and transmission and a car that I could drive back and forth to work and race on the weekend. Once again youth and inexperience led me to make continual efforts to increase horsepower while not understanding the value of a proper combination. This resulted in several drag strip victories but more often than not one or another failed drive train component. I remained persistent and toward the end it appeared that I might even be learning something from all my mistakes then along came something called Bracket racing and I pretty much lost interest. The 62 was sold for less money than one of it's special components would be worth today (A story for another time) and life moved on.
In 1987 I purchased a 63 Galaxie 500 with what else? a 406 from a friend. That car has remained my loyal companion and cruiser to this day. Always being of the mind that one needs as many 406 parts as possible I bought an extra engine and other components along the way under the guise of "In case I ever need a backup engine"
In the early 1990's I witnessed the birth of Nostalgia drag racing and once again I was on board. Suddenly I had an outlet for my memories by writing nostalgic articles that were published in car magazines and I could get hands on with my friend and former FE drag racer from the 60's, Fast Fred Henderson who had a replica of Dyno Don Nicholson's 64 Comet that ran in the 9's at over 140 MPH. Elapsed times and speeds unheard of in 1964 that were made possible by advances in tire and other technology.
The 2009 season found me helping a friend with a series championship winning AMX Nostalgia Super stock car and when he purchased a locally famous 63 1/2 Galaxie bracket racer with a broken engine my "Backup" 406 finally found a home. The resulting collaboration resulted in a bulletproof combination of a consistently reliable FE Ford engine and driver which led our partnership to the 2010 East Coast Nostalgia Super Stock Assoc. championship. A repeat of our championship season was thwarted in 2011 by virtue of a rules change late in the year which relegated us to second behind another Ford.
Life goes on and so do the stories so I'll save some for another day.
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