Aside from prepping a Ford Fusion for the 2014 Daytona 500, the Harrisburg, North Carolina-based Wood Brothers Racing are at it again. This time working on a special tribute car for the NASCAR hall of fame. The car is a 1961 Ford Starliner which is a recreation of Glenn Wood’s (the Wood Brothers Racing founder) car that he drove in the 1961 NASCAR Grand National series. The car was also driven by Curtis Tuner, Banjo Matthews and Speedy Thompson that year.

The project begins.

The Starliner project began when the Wood Brothers were talking with Joey Arrington, son of NASCAR racer Buddy Arrington, about a few of the parked cars on his dad’s property. He had three 1961 Ford Starliners – two hard tops and one vert. A deal was struck for the three rides and the restoration project was underway.

Leonard Wood, the son of Glenn, his cousin Butch Moricle, and Carl Smith were the three men who led the build. One of the hardtops was chosen as the platform for the overall construction, it was disassembled and media blasted.

Leonard remembered when his dad built the original car in ’61; his father and his uncle Leonard went to the local Ford dealership and purchased a new Starliner. They brought the car home, removed the back seat and fabricated a roll cage in the interior. The motor was hopped up for 375 horses and they headed off to the races.

How the Starliner looked in ’61.

The original car was red with white lettering and retained it’s red tri-spoke steering wheel, two-tone door panels and vinyl interior paneling. To recreate a period correct interior, Wood Brothers Racing called upon Leon Brown Upholstery of Concord, North Carolina, to complete the seat and door panels.

A period correct Ford 390 V-8 was chosen as the power plant; the team worked with Jay Foley Racing Engines to do a complete tear down and rebuild of the motor. The block was overbored, painted satin black and topped with vintage gold valve covers. While hunting for a correct intake, Len found a Police Interceptor high-rise manifold. It was installed and topped with a Holly four barrel carburetor.

The exhaust system consists of a set of vintage cast iron shorty headers with side pipes fabricated by the Wood Brothers. After a dyno pull they discovered the car produced 385 horsepower, 10 more than the original car.

On the original car, the 390 was mated to a three-on-the-tree manual transmission. These trannys have become hard to find and Len discovered that in late 1961 several Ford stock cars where equipped with 4-speeds. They found an old Ford 4-speed transmission with a shifter setup mounted on the transmission tunnel. While this may not be 100% accurate it will work for the tribute car.

For period correct rubber the Wood Brothers racing crew called Towel City Retreading Company. They restored the Trac-Master Classic tires to look like brand new tires from the 1960s. These tires wrapped the original Ford stock car wheels which were purchased from a group of collectors in North Carolina.

Curtis Turner driving Glenn Wood’s Starliner. Circa 1961.

The body was painted Ford Monte Carlo Red, while chrome pieces from the other two cars were refurbished and installed on the Starliner. Other trim pieces where purchased from Dennis Carpenter Restorations. To recreate the hand lettering, NASCAR’s Buz McKim studied the pictures of the original car and spent 3 days painting the car at the Wood Brothers shop. He painted the big number 21, hand lettered the 375 H.P. markings on the hood, and painted on several other details.

A period correct Joe’s Rust Emporium decal kit was installed as the finishing touch. The car was recently unveiled to the public on Jan. 11 at NASCAR Hall of Fame Glory Road 2.0 Display. With all of these NASCAR tribute cars being built, would you like to see them race in a Nostalgia NASCAR series?