The Roaring Season

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In the foreground of these two photos is a white sports car known as an Intermeccanica. Originally founded in Italy, Intermeccanica partnered with Jack Griffith in 1965/66 to produce the Intermeccanica Griffith, with steel body and Chrysler V8 engine. Cars went manufactured in Italy and sent to the US without engine or transmission. Griffith is probably better known for having teamed up with British cottage industry sports car manufacturer TVR, in which he fitted 289 cu.in Ford V8s into the tiny Grantura to make the TVR Griffith.

A small number of Intermeccanica Griffith's were produced before Griffith's company went bankrupt, at which point enthusiast Steve Wilder took over the project, renaming the model Intermeccanica Omega, and had Holman Moody do the assembly work.

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These beautiful Mark 4 GT 40s only raced twice at Sebring and LeMans in 1967 and won both races before being banned in 1968.
The # 3 Ford in the photo had this happen to it.
" The Ford-representing Shelby-American and Holman & Moody teams showed up to Le Mans with 2 Mk.IV's each. The installation of the roll cage was ultimately credited by many with saving the life of Andretti, who crashed violently at the Esses during the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours, but escaped with minor injuries." Wikipedia info.
The winning Ford Mk IV # 1 car of Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt still looks great to this day, as seen at the Laguna Seca Historic Meet
August 2017.
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( Ken H photo.)

[video=youtube;Fl3HRvv1qWo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl3HRvv1qWo[/video]

Bruce McLaren in #2 and Denny Hulme in #4....

Awesome photos Steve, Check out the crowds back then!
There is nothing like the sound of a 427 FE big block. I would love to hear one of those babies sing!
They would have been incredibly fast powered by the big block circa 550 HP. The big block Mk2 weighed 136kg more than the Mk1 (The Mk1 weighed 1207kg)
I guess in race trim they may have been lighter

Cheers

[quote="Steve Holmes"][ATTACH=CONFIG]59827[/ATTACH]

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Another of the Ford GT MkIIB's in one of the many stacks is this #6 car, which by my reckoning is the car entered by Ford France and driven at 1967 Le Mans by Jo Schlesser and Guy Ligier. It was eliminated in a shunt on lap 183 after 13 hours.

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It appears here prior to the race at top of screen next to the #5 HM gold car.

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Check this site out and it might take you a while;
Starting here;
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[url]https://www.stangtv.com/features/shop-tours/shop-tour-holman-and-moody-ford-performance-history/[/url]



I can relate to this scene ! (Unrelated to Holman Moody.)
[video=youtube_share;TgTIHEGvYCw]https://youtu.be/TgTIHEGvYCw[/video]



(Ken H )

[quote="Paul B"]Even today they are a beautiful design Steve[/quote]

I agree Paul. Its amazing to think there wasn't really a lot of use for a three year old big block Ford GT sports racer in 1970. I guess thats why it was sitting on the shelf.

Even today they are a beautiful design Steve

[quote="Steve Holmes"][ATTACH=CONFIG]59821[/ATTACH]

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The #5 Ford GT MkIIB would almost certainly be the Gardner/McClusky car that was wrecked at Le Mans 1967. Given the 7 litre cars were banned from 1968 with new 5 litre limit introduced in the World Endurance Championship, it must have sat here ever since.

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[quote="Steve Holmes"][ATTACH=CONFIG]59839[/ATTACH][/quote]
Wonder where that truck is now?

[quote="Steve Holmes"][ATTACH=CONFIG]59825[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]59826[/ATTACH][/quote]
Wow amazing scenes. That stack of Boss 429's .

During the NASCAR 'aero-wars' of the late 1960s, both Ford and Chrysler set about building special models featuring bodywork designed to cut through the air on the super speedways. Ford were first to realize the importance of wind cheating bodywork at nearly 200mph, with the 1968 Ford Torino and Mercury Cyclone. But the most famous and successful of these were the Chrysler aero cars, the Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird with their extended beaks and tall rear wings.

To be allowed to race these cars meant building a limited number of road cars, which Chrysler duly did. For the 1970 season, Ford were due to unveil its slippery Torino King Cobra, based on the new 1970 second generation Torino. Only three cars were produced before Ford pulled the pin.

This this photo from HM you can see the nose piece for one of the Torino King Cobras dumped outside next to the back half of a Mustang body. I assume this was made for one of the planned race cars, as the wheel opening differs from the production cars.

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Stacked on the top shelf here is the 1967 Honker II, the Ford supported Can-Am car with Paul Newman's name on the nose, and driven by Mario Andretti. It was part of what was lauded as an epic 6-car Ford entry into the Can-Am, as part of the companies Total Performance program. In fact, the effort fizzled quickly, with just the single Holman Moody Honker II, plus an elderly tube-frame car entered by Team Shelby and based on an old King Cobra chassis. Neither were successful and neither were seen again in the Can-Am after 1967.

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Imagine if you had some coin and went along to that auction. Mouth watering collection.

Some interesting vehicles in the background of some of these photos, including the 1964 Ford turbine truck (in the doorway), the famous concept vehicle built to promote how Ford were a forward-thinking company.

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Its my understanding these photos were taken leading up to an auction HM was due to have, to clear out old sock and to appease Ford. Ford had massively reduced its racing budget for 1970, and cancelled several planned racing programs as well as various homologation specials.

That would explain why so many people are pictured in the photos. The hangar was apparently where HM stored their old cars, junk and parts! We look at pretty much everything in the photos as incredibly desirable pieces of history. But for HM and Ford, in late 1970, they were just old cars and parts. This wasn't part of their racing workshop.

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So Paul,
You accepted the job offer at H M. Good on ya mate !
One building at H M was rather gruesome being filled wth all types of racing Fords that had been involved in fatal racing accidents mainly during the sixties such as the GT 40 wreckage from Walt Hansgen's crash while practicing for the 1966 Le Mans race.

K H

Grant, Its really great that Lee has managed to preserve Holman Moody and keep it alive, as you say he must have gone through some tough times in those earlier days, But, I believe they are doing very well now. I may plan a trip there later this year.
Can you imagine moving it all!
Cheers

[quote="John McKechnie"]Damn, no XA Coupe bodies there[/quote]

No XA bodies but when I first visited there circa 2004 there were five new Allan Mann GT40 chassis on the "shelves".
The factory went through a period of deterioration after the adjacent Charlotte international airport lodged a claim on the Holman property ( eminent domain I think) for expansion of the airport. They wouldn't decide about the purchase for many years ( at least a decade) which was frustrating for Lee Holman as he couldn't sell to anyone else to fund another building elsewhere. Eventually the airport went ahead with the takeover and Lee Holman moved to a new facility elsewhere in the Charlotte area. I might have some of the timing and dates out of kilter but that's the gist of the situation.

Damn, no XA Coupe bodies there