FACTORY EXPERIMENTAL! The F-100 XL Prototype Drag Truck
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Ford commissioned this one-off F100 XL prototype in 1963 to compete in NHRA's Factory Experimental class. This truck was built by Dearborn Steel Tubing, a shop that was known for its factory drag car builds, including the famous Ford Thunderbolt. But before the Thunderbolt project came along, DST built this 1963 Ford F-100 XL factory drag truck. It featured Ford's 427ci 425hp FE engine, a T10 four speed transmission and 4.86 gears inside the 9 inch rear end housing. The truck ran in the 12's, which was right on the mark for the B/FX class in 1963.
DST built the truck and had one of its employees handle the driving duties during a 10-track tour to prepare for the NHRA Nationals in Indy. After breakage at Indy, the truck was sold with a bill of origin to Jack Whitby, a Ford dealership owner in Delaware. He raced the truck for a short time, claiming 17 wins in 17 races. He then listed it for sale. Bill Naudain had put down a deposit on a Ford Thunderbolt, but decided to buy the truck instead. He raced it for a few years and then stuffed it in his barn. Ford sent numerous letters to retrieve the truck, as it was not to be sold to the public. Bill bought the truck with a Delaware title, so he held onto the truck and kept it in hiding for many years.
Eventually, with the help of a friend, he dragged it out of the barn and got it running again. Unfortunately, Bill passed away, leaving the truck to the fellow who inspired him to get it running. The truck now lives on as a tribute to Bill's legacy and it's certainly a piece of Ford Racing history, as it is the one and only 1963 Ford F100 XL factory drag truck prototype.
my dad and mom tried to order one of these. none of the dealers in tampa, Florida area were interested in working with dearborn steel tubing or any special orders of this nature. They ended up ordering a 1964 Dodge D100 with the factory installed High Performance Option equipped with a 365HP 426 wedge head signle four barrel Street Wedge, rear axle traction bars, dual exhaust, full cluster, and push button automatic. i still have this truck.
You should produce a video showing your Hemi truck.
@@MrJohnnyDistortion thank you for asking. to be clear the truck is a street wedge - not a hemi. there are a few video already out there. Mopar Collector's guide did one on mine and a couple other in the registry. i'll try to find links to it.
@@simonsben
Thanks for the clarification and response.
I was wondering if any of these trucks still existed. I've only seen pictures of the one the DJ from Southern California raced. Nice to hear you have one!!
I had a 63 F100. Nothing like this one!👍🏁
At 67 and retired, I am still building scale models. I am working on AMT's 1/25 1963 F-100 Custom Cab truck. The unibody - cab & bed in one piece - interests me.
Go for it!
I have been a GM guy for decades and decades. I have grown to appreciate the Fords and Chryslers though.
Same here. My fascination with factory drag cars always leads me back to Ford. Those guys really had it going on.
@@HotRodHoarderTOTAL PERFORMANCE was no joke! I remember the FX cars but never saw the truck. I have had 428 CJs in 65-66 F100 pickups. That was the best F100 ever. The quality went south from that point in time. Those things were a tank, practically indestructible.
There comes a time when anyone, regardless of loyalty to a brand, will grow to be unbiased.
I bleed Ford blue but I appreciate what GM and Chrysler (hell even AMC) accomplished in their glory days. The competition from each other kept them all going, they all had to keep stepping their games up if they didn't wanna be left in the dust.
They're all so boring, sterile, and "safe" now days... It's not about what the customers want, it's about keeping the government nannies and share holders happy.
@@admiralrustyshackleford119 Keeping everyone but the EPA and NHTSA happy lol
My father also had a 63 F100.
It was a center oiler 427, with a 4 speed out of a Fairlane, a set of 406 3 deuces, and 3.91 gear.
I grew up in it in the 70s. I loved it.
That's awesome! I bet it was a blast.
My uncle (dad's oldest brother) had a 68 F-100 short bed with a tripower 406 and a toploader 4-speed out of a 62 Galaxie in it with a big cam and headers. I think it had 4.11's in it. Pretty fast for a truck and seriously loud.
My good friend has a 1967 F100 which a 427 FE. I’ve got some videos on my channel of it.
Tri-power on the FE was the hottest setup for street duty back then. I had 428s with the same induction. You could burn through a tank of gas in record time but the acceleration was unmatched by anything I have ever driven on the street and I had a 68 falcon with the tri- power from a 406 for my daily driver, It went undefeated for the whole time I had it but it was hit from the rear and totaled. That’s when I put the engine in a 66 f100. That was the best vehicle I ever had, not as quick as the little Falcon but much more fun to cruise the street.
@@MikeFL2TX Lucky friend. There’s nothing wrong with a little extra torque in your pickup.
I have a rail car that once belonged to the late Bob Beezer.
The man in the Native American headdress at 5:25.
He was active for years doing the official NHRA Anti-rain dance at NHRA events in the 1960's and 70's.
He also dragraced a Willy's for years named "The Canadian Indian".
Unfortunately we lost him in 2023.
Was a great man.
Oh wow! I've always seen photos of him, but never knew his name. I hate that he's gone...take good care of his car!
I like this 👌
Im 53 years old and my first vehicle was a 64 f100 i drove all through high school. Had a mild small block in it and was lots of fun. It had a big camshaft in it so it set off car alarms everywhere i went. One of these days I'll get me another one right now im enjoying the 88 mustang coupe I've built from the groung up every nut and bolt.
Oh wow that's cool! Luckily, there seems to be plenty of Ford trucks out there to build...I was amazed at the number of trucks on hand at the F100 show I attended back in the spring.
My buddy Dave Garber was also there when it was dug out of Bill's shed. the 2 photos you show of Bill in from of the truck and the one in the garage I have seen before, Dave had dozens of photos from that day. Dave passed away almost 4 years ago. I have his 63 uni and his 64 short bed. Slick60's!
The original Farm Truck !!!
Yes! During my research, I found some cool drag trucks from the '60s, but nothing can beat this original setup.
Yup
I had two '62 F-100's. A Longbed with a 312 4 Speed and a Shortbed with a 292 3 speed. This video is a welcome treat.
If this don't make ya feel tingly in your naughty parts, you must not be a Ford truck & racing fan. Love this!
I miss the days when 12 second quarter miles were all the rage. Not everyone can afford 800 plus horsepower vehicles.
I doubt many could even back in the day
@@Slowgroovin it could easily be argued that we're nuts for allowing 800 HP cars on public roads.
@@wsbill14224i swear. Me and my friend was just talking about this. No cage no special driving course. Its literally like handing anyone with the money a loaded gun.
@@wsbill14224You're Precious, you Really are.
@@AntiZOGZone precious for what?
My lord single circuit non power breaks. What a beast
Just when you think you had a handle on Ford's Drag Racing history, this awesome beast appears....Thanks, Hot Rod Hoarder !!
Im surprised that nobody has built a replica of this truck 😊
There are.
There are a couple replicas of it. I believe Bill built a replica of the truck, and someone else built a gasser replica a few years ago.
Ok thx 😊
Now you will
We have a replica of the same truck in Upstate New York.
Saw the real deal at a car show at the Dover Air Base once. Bill was a pleasure to meet and talk about the truck. I'll never forget the sound of that truck starting. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to it till it fired up.
That is the coolest truck ever!!! thank you for sharing all these great old cars with us.Really awesome backstory!!
Thanks for watching!
I'm a big Chevy/GM guy, but I love anything '60s NHRA & factory backed! Some of the best stories co.e from these cars...and trucks! Thank you for digging into the history of this truck!😎
In 67 my dad built a shortbox 57 full race big block, automatic street truck that was scary fast never lost a race. In 72 I built mine, a 55 shortbox with a 66 428 pi and automatic, 3500 pounds of street terror 😮 still have it today. Old ford trucks don’t die they just go faster.
I'd love to see a pic of your 55! what color I'd it?
What's awesome is, 60 years later guys are buying Ford F-150 XL pickups and running sub-10 second 1/4s with a few bolt-ons. What a cool coincidence.
I was thinking the same thing! The short bed 4wd on steelies with a blown 700 HP coyote and a warranty is crazy.
If you go real crazy and up the boost with a couple turbos, guys are making near 1700HP at the crank!
Bad ass sleeper.
In 1977 I had a SWB F100 with a 428 w dual quads and a four speed. The hardest part was getting it to hook up. But i was in high school and loved doing burnouts in it.
I grew up in this era. To this day I still own and build cars from time. I thought I knew a lot of history. This truck was unknown to me before your video. Outstanding as always. Thanks!
Very fascinating history! And then later, in the 90s we got the F150 Lightning (no, not the battery version, the REAL High performance version) and that one was definitely a ripper! It also ran on the 2000-2003 F150s as well. I think it made about 450 horsepower, which in a light pickup would definitely throw you back into the seat. Thanks for sharing!
Jack Whitby is my grandfather. He’s still alive and doing well. We’ve had a few conversations about this truck as well as the Thunderbolt. Let me know if you’d like to speak with him. Great video!
Oh wow! Yes I’d love to speak with him. I’m planning to do a video about his Thunderbolt at some point and would love to know how all that played out. My email is byrdrods@yahoo.com if you’d like to reach out. Thanks!
How lucky to have been alive at that time and have the means to do those things !
There's nothing to compare the 1950s and 60s to today.
It's like everyone at that time got to do all the wonderful things and when they were getting old decided they didn't want anyone else to have any of the fun and cool stuff they had.
I grew up in the 70s and when I was old enough to get my own new car the best I could do was a 1994 Toyota 4x4 (wish I had kept it) .
It was gutless and there's not too many mods for the 22R 4 cylinder to make it a fire breathing monster !
I wish those days would come again !
Have seen this truck at a few local Delaware shows.
There is a clone that was built when they were restoring it and it's local too , I won't say the guys name but he takes his to alot of local shows too
Another great bit of drag racing history ! Thanks for sharing this story !
I met Bill several times. What a great guy. He had the truck at the York US30 reunion. He did tell us about the cows but I don't remember how many there were. Now Bill did build a clone of the truck to drive on the street. It looked really close to the real truck.
1963 Ford pickup, it was one piece. It had no separation from the bed and cab. Any heavy load in the truck would bind the doors, making them stuck and hard to open. 1963 was the only year for a 1 piece truck.
I'm so lucky to own a 1965 Mercury Comet 404 that I have built for no prep and limited index racing. I have all of its early documentation and recently pulled the original block and transmission out that had been built a bit to sit unhurt until I'm done racing it. I managed to get a few rare, original 65 Comet Hipo parts and have tried to keep to beefed up original style suspension. It'll be a 331ci nitrous engine and full race C4 and a 9" out back for the fun times
Hands down the coolest F100 ever built
For this Genre, I agree 100%. In other Genres, there may be a few contenders....
I Never new about the this truck.or the history . I owned a 63 Unibody but it was nothing like this awesome truck . Thanks for all of your hard work .
The unibody design is one of my favorite Fords ever. I was shocked to see that this truck was the real deal and it was the only one built. Definitely a fun research project.
After seeing this, I wonder if Ford's racing bug had something to do with the design of the Unibody?
Its really cool that Bill brought her back on the road, he seemed really cool and kept the truck well
Awesome truck with a awesome story 👍🇺🇸Thank you
Thank you for watching!
Tommy Byrd here and Brian Lohnes are by far my favorite drag racing channels.
Thanks man, that means a lot!
My Dad had a 61 f-100 in the late 70s that had a 351 Cleveland , C6 and a 4;88 gears . Scary quick !!
It was rare just by being a unibody truck. Thanks for the story. Never heard about this truck. 👍
Awsome . Love the old days of racing .
I still drive a 460 / 5speed f250. Best damn truck ever made. 1997 obs.
The one year only Uni-body F-100!
I agree. When I ran many years ago. I ran F-Stock Automatic with a Ford Torino Cobra 428 CI. In early 70’s That pick up was sweet for 1963. Thanks for sharing! 💕💯👍
I had something similar to that. Mine was a 64, had a 390 block with the 428 cam,heads and intake. Had the 3 speed transmission and a low geared rearend. Truck would pull wheels off the ground easily.
Very interesting. I never realized Ford commissioned a drag truck from the factory in the early muscle car era.
I have had 61 two 63s and a 64 all big block trucks one of my 63s had a 429 SCJ and the other trucks all 460 based engines I still have one of my 63s with a 460 great trucks fun to drive
What a story. I was at indy in '63' but don't remember seeing this truck. Beer was cheap then.😢
Amazing I never heard of this truck another great video with great in-depth info
Thank you for watching, it was a fun research project for sure!
What a great story. It is still in an unreal original condition. It would be such fun to drive. I would want disc breaks for serious street use though.
It's crazy how well preserved it is. The engine was out of it when it came out of Bill's barn...but they put it back together as correctly as possible and made it functional. Would love to hear it run!
That’s awesome. I’ve owned a few of the unibody fords. I appreciate the work you do and enjoy they great history you provide.
Great video. Always happy to see a piece of drag race history preserved.
Excellent research, old photos, and narration! Really enjoyed this well produced piece on a fabulous truck!
He said the weight was 3800 lbs? That seems pretty high, to me. Was that typical weight of the production model? There was no effort to lighten it for racing? Loved that ad from Friendly Ford saying you can order one. Do you folks remember when dealerships did that sort of thing?
Cool truck and cool story! Thank you.
There’s a local single cab shortbox 69 f100 with a boss 429. Looks like a riot to drive
What a cool truck! Vinyl top and all, that is awesome...I can only imagine trying to launch that! Excellent research and video work! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for watching!
Man. What a great story
Thank you, I enjoyed putting this one together!
Bill Naudain - He was a friend of ours. We saw him build his modified pulling tractor (Case/Ford). Went with him to pulls.
He had polio when in teens.
Interesting story.
Love.
The story on the Ford Pickup 😮
Thank you for watching!
You will note that F-100 is one of the few built with the "Unibody", where the bed was an integral part of the cab, rather than being separate assemblies.
Bill came to our farm many times in his clone truck, it was the right color but didn’t have all the lettering. I heard him tell stories about that truck to many eager listeners
Love all factory race cars, but especially experimental stuff lol All of em' up to new stuff. It's fun when the engineers are let loose. It's amazing when they are told to have fun. That stuff gets nuts lol Those guys are the real drivers. Knew some chassis engineers that did autocross. They get it 95% of the way the way there, then use the drivers preferences to make it perfect for them lol You can thank the Focus RS team for a group of those guys.
Ladder bars stopped at the door hinges!!
Love it...😎
I saw this truck when it was first rediscovered. Even sat it it!
I guess you were there with Dave Garber then.
This video is what sets your channel apart from others. That and your youngsters & your dads cool stuff 😎👋
Thanks Steve, I appreciate the support!
Thank you for your super uploads, never knew about these trucks, after 45 years I restarted model making in single colours similar to 'Dealer Promo models' from the old days, I enjoy brush painting them, it's fun and I fancy making a model of a pick up in this style.
Best wishes to yourself,loved ones and fellow viewers.
What a great story about a super unique truck. Thanks for all your effort to put this story together to share with us!
Awesome to see it on RUclips, I know John through a mutual friend who happened to be the guy who helped him with the drivetrain restoration, I've actually touched the truck and watched the engine restoration , very cool stuff
Saw either this truck or a darn accurate clone at Lebanon Valley NY. 🏁👍
Thank you for bringing us this . A much needed positive in a world so full of negative . At 77 now I'm surprised it's the first I knew of this truck . Way cool .
You got that right....too much crazy stuff going on in the world, so I always resort to good ol' drag racing to lighten the mood. Thanks for tuning in.
79 also thought I knew the oddballs till this came along
Our small town dealer had 59 T-Bird, 352 ci,3 in tree over drive , @ 16 I drooled for that car. But got a 59 BelAir 348ci tripower 3 speed!!
I saw one picture of it years ago, didn't know it was still around 👍
Three cheers for researchers! Only a fellow researcher can really appreciate your work.
Thats my dream truck, just Awesome!👍
I had no idea! Thanks for the history lesson. 👍
Great video... What an awesome pickup. I had never heard about it before.
The Galaxie interior is really nice. Gotta love the old school thick plastic covers
that they put on the seats. My dad inherited his uncles 62 Pontiac that he ordered new,
and it still had the original thick clear plastic seat covers on the front and rear seats
that his uncle had put on before he picked it up...
Excellent job. Never knew.
About this vstill, thanks for the help on the Kellison.I'm trying to get the photo released
Really cool truck love that motor 👌
It's a great combo...Ford had a good thing going with the 427/425hp setup.
Back in the day, 68 F150 351 Police interceptor, with overdrive, C6 trans reworked valve body, would go around you on top end. Great story
My first car was a 63 unibody shortbed. I was 14 and had to rebuild the engine. ( 50 years ago)I'd give quite a bit to have it back..
OMG it's the Unicorn. Thank you so much for this video. I had often heard of it but never knew it was real.
Amazing truck, l love these factory race vehicles but this one is special.
Great story! Thank you!
Excellent story. A picture of the Cammer in it would be cool. Thank you very much.
Great history guy your the best ,I look forward to see when you put up new vids!
The Brothers collection in Salem Oregon has a similar (factory 427) truck. If I remember correctly it was built special order by the Kansas Highway Patrol.
Very cool, I need to check into that collection. I've heard about it but never been there.
I think the truck has a 428, not a 427
I have a 64 ford one ton flat bed, 292 4 speed, 3/4 restored, nice old truck.
That’s awesome! Great story
That’s one special truck
Great story! I like the double stack air filters as I hadn’t seen that before on any vintage race car. Double trailer hitches on the front are different and glad that never caught on as an option…
I hung around some drag strips , early 70s . Usually saw custom chrome single filters or no filter at all . But lots of farm boys in my area , and their first vehicle was often dads old half ton , which had more hood clearance than cars , and often had double stack filters
I had the 61 F-100 Ranger 4x4.Tough old tank👍😆
and I thought I was being smart back in 78 when I stuffed a 460 with a tunnel ram and a set of headers in my 65 F100 with a 300 rear diff .
So, Dodge retaliated by making the 426 Wedge available in the Custom Sport HPP option. They didn't sell very many because traction wasn't very good.
Wonderful video about an iconic machine from an iconic time. Thanks!
Excellent story. That time period was when I was racing on the west coast. We never knew about this... It was never shown out west. We were running a 1962 406 4-speed Galaxie out of Paul Swanson Ford in the south SF Bay Area. Our best was 12.99 for a mostly un-streetable car. The big FE's made some serious grunt if you could figure out the oiling system mods and keep them alive 😁
It was a wild world back then...wish I could've experienced it first hand, but I certainly enjoy going back in time with these drag car research projects.
That was a really good story. Thanks for sharing.
Glad to see many photos of vehicles of Dearborn area Ford dealerships and Detroit area racing drivers. Shades of Detroit Dragway (Sunday Sunday) located at Sibley and Dix. A Ford co-worker named Tom Vargo was the guy on the radio who yelled out the words "Sunday Sunday " announcing the weekends Detroit Dragway racing lineup. True racing memories of Detroit high speed excitement.
you sure did your homework on this one for sure,as always,thanks for sharing
Really cool story, and history champion 👍🇦🇺
Stu Wilson was most likely the original dealer for that truck since it was near the steel tubing business.
There was no original dealer for this truck. It was custom built for FoMoCo. It had no VIN number and was not for sale to the public.
just found you.... subbed while here, thanks for the history
I believe they put a 426 max wedge in a 63 or 64 dodge half ton long wide bed pickup, i think it ran low 13's
I loved these and the dodge one couple of my favorites.
Luv this truck
..i had a model of the thunderbolt ..one of my dream cars ..never see one i live in New Zealand 🇳🇿
I saw this truck many years ago at an antique tractor show. I talked with the owner for quite a while. He told me the entire story from its beginning. Feel free to contact me for the pics I have and more info on the truck.