No matter the make of the car, there is a common thrill to high speed driving, in one of the second incarnations of my aforementioned ‘63 Galaxie, I was able to obtain a 427 side oiler block ($300 from Orange Ford in Villa California at the time), unfortunately my budget wouldn’t allow for me to stuff that block full of the high speed goodies I wanted, so I had to improvise:
(1) 428 SCJ Crankshaft (3.98” stroke as opposed to factory 3.78” stroke of the 427)
(2) 428 SCJ Connecting Rods, forged steel, polished and magnafluxed and stress relieved.
(3) TRW L2240 Flattop Pistons, a standard TRW part for stroking the 427 out to 447.
(4) 1968 427 Hydraulic Cam C8AX-6250-C, 282 degrees intake duration, 296 degrees exhaust duration, 58 degrees overlap, .500 lift (or .509 w/adjustable rockers)
ANYway, with the original 406 heads polished and ported, combined with the OEM 6-bbl carburetion, that engine put out both torque AND horsepower although a realistic redline was 5200, maybe 5500 (428 crank was nodular iron as opposed to the ‘27 forged steel crank).
To sum up this long-azz story, I was working at a summer job at the Mouse House near Orlando Florida (aka Disney) and the access road from the Tragic Kingdom to U.S. 192 was pretty much empty after 1:00 am (when I got off work), and that was my ‘test track’ and the highest speed I dared take that big Ford was up around 115 and I backed off because it was an eerie feeling to see the road narrowing ahead and the white slashes turning solid at that speed, and I wasn’t about to run TOO much risk, especially since the Florida Highway Patrol was notorious for waiting for vehicles to exit that access road and merge into US 192 at ‘higher than advisable speeds’.
What great days those were.
Yeah, making the trees get all blurry with a big American V8. That's an experience that few kids born today will ever be blessed with.