Sorta O/T : Shelby employee Don Pikes 64 Falcon

[zombie289]

Hi everyone, It appears that this car was quite successful in A/Sedan & Trans Am, any one have info, pics, history of this car??

Im just a ford geek wanting to know a little more about the history of a car that no one really seems to know about/care....

Also any info on the holman moody Walt Hangsen 64 Falcon that raced at Daytona and sebring would be great!

Cheers

[bitzman]

I think the H & M car had a fastback, with the roof hand made, kind of crude looking.
But the car was a real barnstormer and led to the Falcon Sprint being available because it showed the potential in the Falcon once mated to a V8..
I think there were 2 to 3 made. I know it raced at Sebring,not sure about Daytona. I don't think the 24 hours of Daytona existed yet, only a short race at Daytona.
At any rate, the fact that Holman & Moody could build a road racer put them in conention for getting the production contract for a run of special Fords and I think that the Cobra they prepped for augie pabst was also a feather in their cap but when it failed to win at Nassau, Ford thought they'd give Shelby a chance and producing it, though Shelby as a car builder was an unknown quantity compared to H & M.

Much later on Holman & Moody did take on another hybrid car, the Omega made in Italy with an American V8 and made darn near 100 of them. But it wasn't competitive to a Cobra because it had a heavy steel body and some
chassis problems.

I guess until some former employee is interviewed, we will never know how close H & M came to getting either the Cobra production contract or Shelby contract, maybe they weren't as sweet-talkin' as Ol' Shel.

[racingdivision]

Don't know of the car but here is Michael Eisenberg, 1963 Ford Falcon Sprint V8Falcon

[Seaweed]

Sept. 2008 Hot Rod mag.- There is an article by Lee Holman, regarding the Ford falcons, Shelby, & Ford Motor Co. page 13. You might also be able to get this on HOTROD.COM very enteresting.--S.

[zombie289]

Thanks for the input guys, Im sorry, I should have been more specific...
Yeah the 62-63 falcon challengers by HM are well known, the first one having a destroked 260 and later being sold and becoming a C/FX drag car (in a private owners hands).
HM also built several 64's for the 64 monte carlo rally. They were the fibreglass panelled cars that were called Falcon Rallye Sprints. Many of those cars ended up racing in the british saloon car championship with GT40 weslake engines 4 links and GT40 brakes.

I believe the Hangsen car is one of those Rally cars converted to be road raced, I think it came 7th outright in a 64 Daytona sports car race (the same race that HM ran their 427 powered 64 fairlane) It would be interesting to see what spec engine etc that car ran.... And I cant find a good pic of that car anywhere!! (it was white w/ steel wheels that's all I know).

The Don pike car is pictured in the 'remembering the shelby years' book, it has radiused rear wheelarches, what looks like a halibrand type set of wheels and in the picture is claimed to be goodyear tyre testing at a SoCal track. I have other pics of it running trans am w/ steel wheels, different paint and what looks like a GT350 hood scoop. It seems that although it wasn't raced often it was very competitive....
Just wondering where they may have ended up... would be great to see them on the track again if they were still around...

Yeah Mikes 63 sprint is awsome, I believe it gets quite a bit of street use! Its one of very few 63's that actually raced in trans am.

There is also another interesting falcon that from what im told was a 63 monte carlo rally car (unverified), converted to a 64 shell (to enable use of the light glass panels) and utilizing some GT350R parts??? This car looks like a 64 but still has the 63 dash!! (so im told) Its owned by Mike Eddy and hopefully we will get to see it race w/ the trans am guys soon.