Jimbo's 56 Ford
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It was a warm August evening in 1967 at the corner of Ferry Road and Silver Avenue . Ferry Road had long been the home of Jim Gale's Blue 1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan and Silver Avenue was a half-mile long straight stretch or road out by the Airport. In my neighbourhood it was where you came to see who was the fastest and to be fair we paired '50s cars with '50s cars and '60s cars with '60s cars.
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Ferry road was filled with Fords Mercurys, Monarchs and Meteors, while two blocks over the Pontiac and Chevrolets were abundant. We don't know why, it just ended up that way and it seemed like there as always a feud as to who had the fastest ride.
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The Town Sedan from the curb was pretty ordinary, blue, grey interior, standard shift with full wheelcovers and a radio. Under the hood was a 312 bored .060" over with a '57 intake and Holley 4-barrel carb and distributor and dual glasspacks. The three-speed standard trans was from a '56 Merc because every other Ford trans we put behind it blew up. The Ford had long been the one to beat, so on a dare we told the other guys to bring the best '50s Chevy they could find to beat it.
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We waited for 9:00 p.m. for the competition to show up, but they were late, so Don Welder pulled his '51 Merc Coupe up to the line against the Ford. The dual-carb Flathead was cool, but it was no match for the Y-Block '56. Chris Pullin sat patiently with his new '67 289 four-speed Cougar waiting for a challenger.
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About 9:20 p.m. a black '55 Chevy 150 two-door pulls up. Three guys hop out and say, "sorry we're late we had a dead battery." No big deal you're here now let's race. The '55 had chrome reverse wheels with fairly wide tires on the back, traction bars and a four-speed trans and there was no back seat. It took two guys to pull the Fiberglass flip front end forward to show us the engine. A 283 they said, yet all of us spotted the double-hump 327 heads on top as well as a Carter four-barrel carb and full-length headers.
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Jimbo pulled the Ford to the line as the '55 Chevy did its best burn-out. Looked pretty good spinning the tires. When the old dish towel hit the ground they were off. The Chevy stayed with the Ford until second gear, with the Y-Block finishing nearly two lengths ahead before the quarter-mile mark.
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Chevy guys said it was a distributor problem that held them back and that they'd be back next week for a rematch. We never saw them again.
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To end the night Pullin put the Cougar up against the '56. It was a nice race, but in the end Y-Blocks rule!
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Jim Gale passed away this week at 65 years of age. We can only pray there are Y-Blocks in Heaven.
Larry D
Winnipeg, MB Canada Eh!
'57 Fairlane 500 Club Victoria
'58 Custom 300 Tudor
'56 Crown Victoria
'61 Starliner Z Code
'51 Ford Victoria