Anyone know about this Falcon?

[64SprintV8]

In researching Holman Moody builds as it relates to my 64 Fairlane K-Code I ran across an interesting Falcon. I already knew about the 64 Monte Carlo Falcons but had not heard of or seen the Challenger 3 Rally Falcon. It's almost Flarechero-ish :D


Located Here: http://www.holmanmoody.com/rally_gal.html

[ew1usnr]

My attached photo looks like an earlier version of the same car. They lowered the body by cutting it lengthwise and removing a 3-inch wide section. In your photo, it looks like they lowered it more by dropping the roofline as well. This is on page 69 of "Falcon Performance Portfolio 1960-1970" and is a reprint of a March 1963 Road and Track article. The car had a Holman-Moody modified Challenger 260 V-8 that made 260 horsepower at 5800 rpm and a four-speed. With a 3.5 rear end it did 0-60 mph in 8.5 seconds and a quarter mile in 16 seconds.

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[64SprintV8]

Thanks for the reply, it made me dig deeper.

I think the car you have there is a different car than the "fastback" maybe they made a sedan too or it's a an optical illusion due to the picture. - UPDATE: The #26 car looks different to me than the #9 car as shown in the Sebring photo.

As you can tell, the 1962 Fastback Falcon is a really interesting and obscure piece of Ford history.

Called the "Falcon Challenger", the car was built by Holman & Moody, with the hopes that they could make a limited production car, with a race history, that would be sold by selected Ford Dealers.

The Falcon Challenger had a stock 164-horse 260ci V-8, four-speed, 3.50:1 gears, handling package, larger tires and four-wheel Airheart disc brakes. (Although, I do like the idea of an additional 100hp.)

It/they raced at Sebring and Nassau. Here's a picture of it in Nassau.

And in the while were at it section...

Did you know that a 1964 Falcon and 1964 Fairlane both ran at Daytona in the same race back in 1964? They raced against, Lotus, Ferrari, etc. The Falcon finished 7th, the Fairlane 2nd.

[ew1usnr]

I'm just guessing, but maybe #9 is Challenger 1. The body is original but they changed the front end some and cut out the rear wheel wells. The article you included says that the Falcon "finished dead last" at the March 24, 1962 Sebring, while this: http://www.racingsportscars.com/results/Sebring-1962-03-24.html says that it finished 36 out of 37, beating an Alfa Romeo. But the red, white, and blue Falcon finished the race. Look at the Porches, Ferraris, Maseratis, and Corvettes that didn't finish. Go, little Falcon! This picture is from: http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Sebring-1962-03-24.html
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Challenger 2 is the one shown in the March 1963 Road and Track magazine. They cut the body to lower it and jazzed up the 260 engine. The article says " ... but a car condemned by its unacceptable stopping resources. To correct this, Bell Auto Parts installed Airheart discs (like you mentioned earlier) and voila, a car that would stop as well as it would go."

#26 is Challenger 3. They dropped in a 289 engine and added a fastback roofline to the lowered body of Challenger 2. The Nassau race was on 8/12/63.

Update. Look at this link for the book "Holman Moody: The Legendary Race Team, By Tom Cotter, Al Pearce." Starting on Chapter 10, page 92, they explain Challenger 1, 2, and 3:
http://books.google.com/books?id=UCeqHvvdYfwC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=Falcon+Nassau+1963&source=bl&ots=pTPIjcmf49&sig=GFhBAlYJvro7UgyDr1kVfiDdniY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rq0KU6uOO4bSyAHXyYD4Aw&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Falcon%20Nassau%201963&f=false (http://books.google.com/books?id=UCeqHvvdYfwC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=Falcon+Nassau+1963&source=bl&ots=pTPIjcmf49&sig=GFhBAlYJvro7UgyDr1kVfiDdniY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rq0KU6uOO4bSyAHXyYD4Aw&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Falcon%20Nassau%201963&f=false)

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[64SprintV8]

I think you are spot on! Nice resource with that Holman Moody book.:rocker:

[ew1usnr]

It was an enjoyable read. The Challenger 2 was superseded by Falcon Sprint. The Challenger 3 was superseded by the Mustang. That was a fantastic era for automobiles. Things were really happening.

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