Watch as a Galaxie Lightweight Dominates an England Road Course

If you’ve ever seen a Galaxie Lightweight before, you know they are potent drag racing cars. However, this video we found on Bangshift doesn’t feature a drag racing Galaxie. Instead it features a ‘63 Lightweight tearing up the road course at the 2011 Sandown Historics in England. Not possible you say? Think again.

Driven by Denis O’Brien, the #30 right-hand drive Galaxie Lightweight is powered by a 427cui V8 that pushes 660hp and 600 ft.-lbs. of torque. Put that much power atop eight-inch wide tires, and you’ve got yourself one hairy ride. But that doesn’t deter O’Brien from enjoying his Galaxie Lightweight. In the video, O’Brien explains, “They’re big, they’re ugly, but they’re a great thing to drive.”

After you hear from O’Brien in the first two minutes of the video, the rest is in-car footage of the race. That means lots of rumbling power from the Ford and some serious driving skills from O’Brien.

Due to an electrical fault in qualifying, O’Brien is forced to start at the back of the pack, but he doesn’t stay their long. With the brute force of the Galaxie, O’Brien flies past Mustangs and Porsches half his size to move up in the grid.

In the first race of the event, shown above, O’Brien finished 24^th out of 33 racers to finish. In his second race of the event, he finished 14^th out of 33. Unfortunately, the third race proved to be too much for the Galaxie and O’Brien did not finish.

None the less, this ‘63 Galaxie Lightweight is one hell of a car. Created to go straight rather than turn corners with brute power, we’re very impressed with O’Brien’s car and look forward to seeing him compete next year.