OUTLAWED!-#6 In a Series.
OUTLAWED!-#6 In a Series.
When the Chrysler teams rolled into Daytona at the start of the 1964 Speedweeks they had a surprise for Ford and it wasn't pleasant. After trying to catch what they considered an illegal and limited run engine in Junior Johnson's Chevy for most of the previous season Ford had hoped to have a better time of it in '64.
Unfortunately for the FoMoCo teams Chrysler had dusted off a design that, along with a certain outboard motor manufacturer, had given everybody else nightmares in the mid-fifties. Yep, the HEMI was back and better than ever.
Speedweeks was a rerun of the year before for Ford but with around ten or so superfast rides in the Ford competition's camp instead of two or three. And this time it looked like they would last to the end of the race. Here's the Dodge version of Ford's hemi powered nightmare driven by an emerging star for the Dodge marque. Bobby Isaac. Poor old star crossed Bobby. He sat out most of '65 because of the Hemi ban and then switched to Ford in '66 just in time for the Ford boycott over the single overhead cam engine flap.
Ford got a reprieve of sorts in '65 with the outlawing of the powerful Hemi and had one of the most one sided seasons in Nascar history. Without any clearcut competition Ford won most of the races but doing so over fields full of independents and one and two year old cars it couldn't even feel good about that. Somedays it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.