Alrighty then folks, Thursday is the day of muscle here at WRTV and that means a brand new installment of Muscle Car of the Week. Today’s post differs from the last several posts in that we aren’t looking at cars from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, but rather taking a look back at a car that was a part of the early horsepower wars. The 1963 Ford Galaxie 427.

The beginning of the horsepower wars had begun in the late 1950’s and the displacement only got bigger as the new decade dawned. The Chevrolet 409’s were cleaning up on the street and strip and Ford boys driving their Galaxie’s needed something new from the factory to replace the 390 and 406 V8’s that were getting slapped around by the bow tie bunch. Ford began work on a new engine, and as with most high performance engines of the time Ford looked towards the NASCAR scene to aim their new missile of an engine at. The Ford 427 (actually displaced 425 inches) was a big motor that made 410 horsepower at 5,600 rpm and about 480 pound feet of torque. If you wanted to go faster you bolted on the dual-quad manifold with two 650 cfm carburetors that bumped output to 425 ponies and peaked at 6,000 rpm. This combination made for awesome performance on the banked tracks and the racers in 427 equipped Galaxie’s won 23 NASCAR races in the 1963 season.

Although good on NASCAR tracks the 427-powered Galaxie’s had several things working against them on the streets. Firstly, the Galaxie was not a very aerodynamic car which made the engines work harder to get up to speed. Ford had tried several little ploys to get the car more streamlined in 1962 but these were rejected by NASCAR as they were not factory options available to the public. Ford restyled the roof for 1963 which helped to reduce drag at high speeds. As far as being light in the loafers was concerned, the Galaxie was a heavy lady weighing in at a few fries short of 4,000 pounds, making stoplight drag races sluggish compared to other cars of the time. Finally, the 427 was a high revving big block that made most of its power at the top of the powerband, perfect for NASCAR but not so good for street applications. As a result of these factors the Galaxie’s 1/4 mile times were less than stellar for a car with such high power, usually in the mid-15’s.

None the less, if you wanted a car with high revving high horsepower intensity, the $462 dollar dual quad, 11.5 to 1 compression 427 was perfect for you. Hope you enjoyed a look at some big block Ford power. Stay tuned for next weeks installment. Big_Blocker out.

Check out my previous entry for more info on the 427 and it’s subsequent replacement the 428 Cobra Jet. For some pictures of a 1964 Galaxie check out this gallery.