1964 Ford Thunderbolt

 

Ford Vice President Lee Iacocca’s “Total Performance” program reached around the world into international motorsports, but one of its biggest impacts was felt on the drag strips of America with the sensational Thunderbolts. Built by contractor Dearborn Steel Tubing, the Thunderbolts were stripped and lightened Fairlane Tudor sedans, each one modified to accept Ford’s sensational 427 CI Galaxie V-8. The 1964 Thunderbolt presented here is number 68 in the Thunderbolt production sequence of 100 cars. It was originally purchased through Webster Ford in Schenectady, New York by racer Elwood Banker, who raced the car as the “Hemi Hunter.” described the car as “unbeatable.”
“I picked the car up at Dearborn Steel Tubing and then raced it locally,” recalls Banker. “It was unbeatable. The track at South Glen Falls guaranteed me money to race, and there was just no competition. The car beat the Hemi racers so bad that after a while they stopped showing up. Lebanon Valley only paid if you won, which I did all the time.”
“The only problem was that the automatic transmission kept breaking - I eventually concluded that the converter stall speed was too low, but that was much later, well after I installed the 4-speed.”
Shortly after making that one modification, Banker was asked to drive a gas dragster, and the Thunderbolt was retired, although not entirely - the car saw street duty for a period before Banker sold it virtually unchanged except for the 4-speed conversion.
Today the “Hemi Hunter” Thunderbolt is in spectacular condition after being restored by Performance Restorations. It has never been tubbed or fitted with a roll bar, and retains all its original sheet metal beneath the as-original Wimbledon White paint. Most importantly, it also still packs that “unbeatable” Ram Air-fed 427 Galaxie engine under its factory tear-drop hood.

HIGHLIGHTS

- Very rare 1964 Thunderbolt
- #68 of 100 factory built lightweights
- Bought new by Elwood Banker
- Restored by performance restorations
- All original sheet metal
- Low miles
- Raced as the Hemi Hunter for Webster Ford
- Restored to perfection

1964 Ford Thunderbolt

Even with their strong 427-cid V-8s and lightened front ends, big body-on-frame Ford Galaxies were no match for the lighter-still unibody Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars. The obvious solution was to stuff the 427 into the midsize Fairlane. Nothing good comes easy. With help from Dearborn Steel Tubing, a contract car builder, Dearborn concocted the race-ready and street-legal, if not exactly streetable,1964 Ford Thunderbolt.

 

To compete in drag racing with lighter muscle car rivals, Ford stuffed its
biggest V-8 into the midsize Fairlane body to create the 1964 Ford Thunderbolt. See more muscle car pictures.
Extensive front-end modifications were necessary to custom-fit the big-block, and eight equal-length exhaust headers had to be snaked through the suspension components. The competition 427's high-rise manifold elevated the air cleaner above the fender line, requiring a teardrop-shaped hood bubble. It gulped air via screened inner headlight bezels. Transmissions were a Hurst-shifted four-speed with 4.44:1 gears or an automatic with 4.58:1. Massive traction bars, asymmetrical rear springs, and a trunk-mounted 95-pound bus battery helped get down what was realistically 500 bhp.


Weightcutting was merciless: plexiglass windows and fiberglass front body panels, bumpers, and doors. Sunvisors, mirror, sound-deadener, armrests -- even jack and lug wrench -- were shed. 

 

The back seat stayed, but the fronts were lightweight Econoline truck buckets. At 3225 pounds, the T-bolt weighed more than a stock Fairlane. But it was only 20 pounds over its NHRA-class minimum. At last, Ford had a winner. ETs in the 11s earned Thunderbolt the Top Stock crown and Ford the '64 NHRA Manufacturer's Cup.

Anyone with $3,780 ($200 more for automatic) could walk into a Ford dealer and order a Thunderbolt. Still, just one was assembled in 1963, 100 were built in '64, and two were built in '65. These were real race cars, and few went to battle on the public highways.

 

^©2007 Publications International, Ltd.
Though technically legal for street use, the Thunderbolt was too
raucous for the public roads. Just over 100 were built,
and every one spent nearly every minute at the drag strip.
As Hot Rod warned, the T-bolt was "not suitable for driving to and from the strip, let alone on the street in everyday use."