The Skeletons Mustang featured the stretched fiberglass front end. Photos:Mecum Auto Auctions

At just about any classic car event or dragstrip you can come across one of the famed Holman and Moody license plates on a classic Ford muscle car. The name became synonymous with high performance Ford engines in the 1950’s as John Holman and Ralph Moody cut their teeth in the NASCAR ranks. It wasn’t until 1965 that Holman and Moody formed a drag racing division and they built ten A/FX Mustangs for drag racing events.  Eight of those cars were powered by the 427 SOHC engines and the other two had 427 hi-riser engine packages. Bill Lawton put them in the record books as he won the NHRA Winternationals with a 10.88 second run at 129mph. Also in 1965 the Wickersham Team campaigned a 427 hi-riser powered Mustang with Clester Andrews behind the wheel. They managed to pick up an amazing 40 wins out of 42 races in match race competitions.

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As great of  a year as 1965 was, it would be 1966 that would set Holman and Moody apart from the competition with feed back from professional racer Gas Ronda. Dick Brannan was in the front of the field and Ronda made it clear that he wanted to defeat Brannan, so H&M went to work constructing a car like no other. The 1966 Factory Experimental cars were scratch built with drag racing specifically in mind. They were constructed with tubular frames and the most noticeable was the stretched front ends made of fiberglass. Ultimately it was these cars that created the term “Funny Cars” with their front wheels being moved forward a full 16 inches from the stock location and the rear axle was relocated 10 inches closer to the door. The wheelbase measured out at 112 inches and were nearly a 1000 pounds lighter than previous H&M built cars.

The Hilborn injection made noticeable horsepower over the carburetors.

One of the most recent A/FX Mustangs to surface is the 1966 that was campaigned by Ed Skelton in 1967. The serial number is C6HM10068-DR which shows that it was part of a program run by Ford Motor Company titled “Drag Program Vehicles”. Skeltons Mustang was powered by the 427 SOHC engine with a Hilborn stack injection system on top. The Mustang found itself as a feature in Hot Rod magazine in May of 1967 and most recently went on the auction block at the Mecum Auto Auction in 2009. Its estimated value was between $250,000 and $375,000 and was featured with all the correct documentation to give it the prominence that collectors seek.