What's with the hood...

[Gary Smith]

Originally Posted by dlux

Well everyone, thanks for noticing the hood on my Comet. I'll give you guys the short version of a long story that started about three years ago. Beside my 1964 289CI, 210HP/220HP Mercury Cyclone K Code Comet, I have a 1964 427CI, Mercury Cyclone K Code Comet that I asked NHRA to approve like they did for the 427 Thunderbolt Fairlanes for Stock. I did alot of research about Comets over a two year span to get the 427 approved by NHRA. During that time I guess I became a Comet Expert.
NHRA will not approve the 427 and if I pushed it more it would have to be decided in a court of law. I think we have a good chance to win or NHRA would have to make some combinations being run today also not legal. I don't want the latter so we laid off.
The hood was questioned at Englishtown last year and I gave NHRA some of the documentation. After that I raced several points meets, Bristol and Indy and did not get one comment from any of the Top three tech including one from "Headquarters".
The only comment was a threat that if I kept pushing for the 427 Comet the hood could be illegal.
The fact of the matter is the hood was an option available late in the 1964 model year on only Mercury Comet Cyclones that were K code with a 210HP, 225HP, and a 271HP.
For your information I have seen no performance gain from the hood.
If anyone wants to see some of the documentation I'll be glad to show some.
Thanks for the comments on the paint job and God Bless America and you.
D Lux

Thanks Dick for clearing that up, and PLEASE, no offense to you was intended. Some folks here feel I fell of the turnip truck just because I'm not racing right now, but I've been involved in the battle and around long enough to know how ugly the 289 fight once was....when dad fought Cloy Fitzgerald in '76 for 210 in early '65 A code 2+2 (ours has factory date code 8/64, came with 5 bolt bellhousing). Got shot down 3 times and gave up, went bracket racing. Then I noticed Huffman running that same combo in Div 7....the same deal dad, Charlie Hoffman, and Greg Foreman fought for. It's just upsetting to see how lax the rules have gotten, wondering what else we could get away with.