1964 Ford Film with Cobra footage

[eschaider]

Here is one more for the those of us who didn't get the opportunity to see the event or were not even born yet (that won't be many on this site).

We all remember the dominance of Ford's 427 engine in the NASCAR ranks before the advent of Chrysler's Hemi. Not withstanding those memories, it is hard today, to put into perspective just how overwhelmingly Ford's NASCAR 427's outclassed the best race cars in the world, power-wise, in 1965. Today we can easily eclipse those, at the time, unbelievable power levels with modern builds of this historic engine.

This clip is from the 1965 Daytona Continental that brought that horsepower dominance message home to everyone in spades, right after the opening of the race. Watch Bob Bondurant pull away from the pack, at race speeds, in his 427 powered GT40. His horsepower demo begins at time mark 1:20 in the clip.

Remember this is the high banked oval at Daytona and this is occurring at race speeds for everyone except Bondurant — who has his own race speeds. Click here for an enjoyable 10 minutes => 1965 Daytona Continental. As race historians will recall, and the footage illustrates, Bob missed the turn into the road course after lap 1 and put himself way back in the field.