Ford Thunderbolt

As the muscle car market took shape, Ford introduced a Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt for drag racing for 1964, heavily modified to incorporate Fords 427 CID (7.0 L) V8 race engine with two four-barrel carburetors on a high-riser manifold, ram-air through the openings left by deleting the inboard headlights, equal-length headers, trunk-mounted battery, fiberglass hood, doors, fenders and front bumper, acrylic glass windows, and other lightweight options including deleted rear-door window winders, carpeting, radio, sealant, sun visors, armrests, jack, lug wrench, heater, soundproofing, and passenger side windshield wiper. The cars wore Fairlane 500 trim, and were only offered with the 2-door sedan body. This special model, of which 111 to 127 total were made (sources disagree),^[who?] delivered 657 hp (490 kW) at 7,500 rpm ^[3]and was known as the Thunderbolt.

Racing in NHRA Super Stock class on 7-inch (180 mm)-wide tires, the Thunderbolt was based on the mid-level Fairlane 500 two-door pillared sedan, and in 1964 set elapsed time and top speed records at 11.6 seconds and 124 mph (200 km/h), .^[4] took the Super Stock title, and won the Manufacturer's Cup; it is probably the quickest and fastest production drag racer ever produced. The car as delivered was in fact slightly too light to meet NHRA's 3200 lb (1451 kg) minimum weight unless it was raced with a full tank of gasoline, which would bring it to 3203 lb (1453 kg). NHRA rules then^{[clarification needed]} required a metal front bumper, so the cars began to be supplied with an aluminum bumper and previous purchasers were supplied with one.

Finally,^{[clarification needed]} the NHRA changed the rules to require 500 models of a car to be manufactured for Super Stock competition, and Ford, which had been losing $1500 to $2000 on each Thunderbolt sold at the sticker price of $3900, gave up. The first 11 Thunderbolts were painted maroon (known as Vintage Burgundy in Ford literature), the rest white; 99 had manual transmissions. Many are still raced. About 50 similar Mercury Cyclones were also produced by Ford in 1964, destined to be modified to represent Ford in A/FX competition, which they dominated as well.