Drag racers rarely come with their original engine block, but this one does! Buy this 1964 Ford Fairlane Sports Coupe in Islip Terrace, New York and you’ll get what remains from the car’s tenure as a eighth-mile contender. Do you like short gears? How about a set of 5.43s installed and two sets of 5.67s? That will get you merged into traffic on the on-ramp. The listing here on eBay expires soon and, while bidding has topped $10,000, that’s not enough to meet the seller’s Reserve, which is probably nearer to the Buy It Now price of $15,000.
The Fairlane Sports Coupe was Ford’s closest thing to the then-upcoming Mustang, and a number of early Mustang parts transfer to the mid-sized Ford. Tipping the scales under 2900 lb makes the sprightly two-door lighter than a Fox-body hatchback, and equally responsive to weight reduction and additional power.
Ford stuffed 427 cubic inches (7.0L) of fury into the compact Fairlane with its fearsome Thunderbolts, but for the eighth-mile, this car’s small block and killer gears would have scared nearly any passenger. A K-code Fairlane could make a fine road-racer as well. Hot Rod Magazine said the solid-lifter “K Code” 289 cid (4.7L) V8 packed the “heart of a Shelby,” with 271 high-revving HP. Only 600-some examples were built, and this is one.
Extrapolating from the racer’s trick of mounting the tachometer with the redline straight up, the last combination in this Ford must have been good for 7500 RPM. Extra parts coming with the sale include two extra engines, scatter shields, three cams, and more. With no engine or interior pictures, the listing may struggle to bring top dollar. Despite its rarity I’d be tempted to put this two-door back in straight-line form and have some fun, postponing a true restoration for the future. How would you treat this angry-looking Windsor-block Ford?
May I be the 1st, what a disgrace. Took a beautiful car, like a 2 door Fairlane Sports Coupe, and butchered it. Awful pictures, and drag racing is fizzling as I type, I hope someone returns this car to a nice street machine again. From what I see, it looks relatively rust free. If it was a Thunderbolt, ( obviously what they were going for) be a different story, but 1/8th mile is lame to begin with. I am impressed by the alleged 1/8th mile speed, however, these cars are so rare today, seems a shame to beat the heck out of it at a dragstrip. Whachatink?
https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0110-90009/1964-ford-fairlane-sport-coupe/
This is a really cool old race car. It will probably never see the business end of a dragstrip again. The pictures of the exterior look like it might clean up well enough that it would be a hit at car shows and nostalgia races. Not many of these old race cars survived in the “as raced” condition, unfortunately that are often restored to stock and lose their racing heritage in the process. Fake gassers and other “tributes” try to emulate race cars from the 50’s and 60’s, this is the real deal, it will turn heads and draw a crowd anywhere it goes.
As for returning it to street use, rear end gears are simple to change.
Steve R
I agree Steve cool old race car even though I’m not a Ford guy (i like them all really) but i have to say this that’s the worst looking hood scoop i have ever seen it may be functional but definitely UGLY otherwise worth preserving
I would keep racing it, why not? Set up to run 1/8 mile, freshen up drivetrain and have some fun. Price is not crazy either.
Oh yea, get rid of that hood scoop!
Would have loved to see this thing roast some kids new GTO at the strip back then. Looks straight out of the golden era, so quick you’ll swallow your gum on launch! Very nice.
Dang, that scoop looks like an industrial HVAC inlet.
Desirable K-Code Fairlane that deserves to be restored back to original. No info or pictures of the interior but is a roll cage installed? Hard to tell from the exterior pictures but it doesn’t seem to have one so maybe the interior is complete? Why would you install that giant hood scoop when it looks like air was supplied to the engine like the original Thunderbolt with the inboard headlights removed for ducting direct to the carbs? The original Thunderbolts had a tear drop hood to clear the big 427, it wasn’t an air scoop. Looking at the front wheels, it looks like the car was parked on dirt so there may be some rust to contend with.
Better pictures and more info needed before pulling the trigger on the BIN. Still, the K-Code Fairlanes go for big money when restored so maybe the BIN is reasonable. Sell off the extra drag bits and get some of your money back if going back to stock.
Another example of no good pictures and a story that doesn’t say anything about the condition of the car!! Why not open the hood and show what’s in there???? Why not open the door and take a picture of the interior???? Is it to much to ask for a car you want $15,000 for????
As well stated above, butchery indeed and the comparison to an HVAC air handler inlet is well taken, but then I guess not a factor back in the day.
Islip Terrace–may have been run on the old Islip Speedway, now long gone.
And who thought that hood scoop was a good idea??? Please return her to street use.
No wonder my heating system only works in half the house someone took the duct work to make a hood scoop!!!
Usually the car is in the barn. In this case, we have the barn on the car (hood).
I can’t imagine that any benefit that trash-chute scoop gave would have offset the aerodynamic drag but there it is. With a high rise intake, 4-speed, 5.43 gears and 7500 red-line this thing must have hit like a M*****f***er. I would pay to watch this thing run. $15k might not be out of line depending on what close examination might reveal.
I am with Howard.
Neat car but butchered with useless race mods.
Nice hood scoop but it needs to be bigger.
Only hope is to buy it and try to restore to street condition
When we were in High School, (early 70’s Northern California) my sister found a ’65 Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe K-code with a spun bearing.
She had it dragged to our house where my father and I decided to fix it.
When we popped the hood we were in for a surprise. It was not only a K-code but the prior owner had swapped in a GT-350 engine that had an Engle cam (solid lifter of course), Holly 600 on a high rise manifold, Venolia 12.0:1 pistons, Ported and polished heads with Cyclone Headers, 4 Speed, 9 inch 4.11 limited slip, traction bars, and more that we weren’t able to identify.
Sadly the piston skirts had cracks in some of them so the had to be replaced. My sister couldn’t afford a new set of Venolias so we put in stock replacement Silv-O-Lite pistons. We we were able to polish the crank but we had to replace one connecting rod. As we were working on the car we discovered that the added on oil pressure gauge wasn’t working and the oil pressure light was burnt out!
That explained the spun bearing.
We got it all put together and WOW! was that car fast!
Also noisy with solid lifters and turbo mufflers.
The car was Maroon with the White interior, Bucket seats, console with Hurst shifter. The body was unscathed except for a poorly applied hood scoop.
Here comes the cliche’ line…
Seeing what they sell for now, I wish that car was still around!
As well as my ’68 GTO ‘vert, my ’69 Mach 1 428SCJ and a slew of others!
Damn….get a grip you guys – these were NOTHING cars by the time 1/8th mile drag racing started….just glad it survives !
Who ever butchered this car should be butchered himself. To Jerry Z. “The price is not crazy? Give me a break. I don’t care what this guy spent on the car. He needs to wise up and take a loss. I think its worth 2k all day long. God only knows what he did under the hood and chassis along with the inside. Look else where. This car is ghey.