Burgundy Beauty – A Red Hot 1964 Ford Thunderbolt Tribute

For those who watch Spike TV’s Powernation, that airs in between the shots of Courtney Hansen you may recognize this ride. This sweet red hot musclecar was built by Mike Rider of Tinbender’s Garage as a tribute to one of the first factory backed drag racing machines: the 1964 Ford Thunderbolt.

The Thunderbolt was designed as a Super Stock drag racing package for the Fairlane. Mopar had dominated Super Stock drag racing since the ’50s and Ford was going to knock them off the podium. They took their flagship Fairlane and stuffed her with biggest chunk of Iron they could find: a thumping 427 “high rise” and thus the Thunderbolt was born.

The Thunderbolt was a limited production factory backed drag racing machine. Less than 100 rolled off the assembly line and the bulk of which were sold to drag racing teams. The first eleven of these cars were coated in Ford’s “Vintage Burgundy” while the remaining 89 were coated in “Wimbledon white.”

For insurance purposes the Thunderbolt’s 427 was rated at 425 horsepower, but according to Hot Rod Magazine it produced closer to 600. Ever the factory hot rod, she was capable of a 11.61 quarter-mile in 1964 and 9.23 quarter-mile on today’s slicks.

Mike Rider says this Ford Thunderbolt has been updated into a modern Super Stock fighter. It has a 453 cubic inch mill assembled by Precision Machine Service. It’s built around a Dart block, houses 10.1 pistons, a Comp Cams roller cam with a .574 lift with Trickflow heads and an Edelbrock intake manifold with dual 500cfm carbs on top. Its fires are ignited by MSD and its exhaust blows out through a pair of custom headers by Crites Restoration.

Recently, she found its way on to eBay, where it did not meet its reserve despite reaching a bid of $45,000. Perhaps we’ll see it again, but what do you think this beast is worth – and how do you like the “HEMI HUNTER” insignia on the trunk lid?