As a wee lad, I remember watching a bunch of NASCAR races on TV. As an impressionable young boy, the roundy rounds of the early Seventies were pretty neat stuff and that Petty guy was just too cool. As I grew up, NASCAR lost it’s luster for me and I lost all interest. The cars from a decade earlier never really became more than the tiniest blip on my radar.

Lately though, as I learn how many of those early oval track drivers also got involved in open road races like La Carrera and how many of the cars were sort of multi use, I’m starting to notice these cars a lot more. There is a whole new element of automotive cool that I’ve just never really exposed myself to.

At the 2008 VARAC Festival at Mosport, I came across what might have been the coolest car I’ve seen in years, David Strachan’s 62 Ford Galaxie. That’s a pretty strong statement for a clone car in a paddock full of Can Am cars, but it is the truth. Strachan’s machine is a period correct copy of the Holman Moody Galaxie’s from the early Sixties. David and the team went to great lengths to use as many original bits as possible. The shocks are true old Holman Moody pieces, as are the wheels. Great care was taken to replicate trick pieces like adjustable front shock mounts. The car is powered by a big honkin’ 427 cubic inch V-8, just like one would expect to find.
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