Before the pony cars took over, mid and full-size cars ruled the drag strips and stock car tracks of America. Based on the mid-size Ford Fairlane, the Thunderbolt was Ford's hot ride, that is, before April '64 when the Mustang burst on the scene. Within a year, most Ford drag racers dropped their awesome T-Bolts to race the smaller and slightly lighter Mustangs.

From 1963 to 1965 only 103 Thunderbolts were built. And make no mistake, these were factory-built Super Stock and A/Factory Experimental (A/FX) racecars. Under the tear drop bubble fiberglass hood lived a 427 Hi-Riser big-block Ford engine with two, 4 bbl carbs and forced cold-air induction. The car was available from Ford with either a 4-speed or 3-speed automatic transmission for around $3,800.

And to make these beasts uncomfortable for street use, all non-essential items were either removed or replaced with lightweight parts. Thunderbolts came with plexiglass windows, fiberglass front body panels, bumpers, and doors. Sunvisors, mirror, sound-deadener, armrests, even the jack and lug wrench were deleted. As long as your trips were limited to 1/4-mile everything was just fine!

However, those trips usually only lasted about 11.5 seconds. - ST