saw this on another site. Mike edwards used to race a maverick. heres a link to it http://www.competitionplus.com/inde...5228-encore-mike-edwards-his-place-in-history
This was one of the featured articles in the newest National Dragster, called Memories of Modified (Modified Eliminator). I have particular interest as my Maverick was born in 1979 and raced competitively through 1981 when the SM class was closed. The Modified class actually started at the Springnationals in 1967 and some of the drivers such as "Dyno Don" Nicholson, Dick Landy, Herb McCandless, Bruce Allen, Lee Shepard, Warren Johnson and Mike Edwards cut their teeth on this class. It is interesting that most of the SM cars were stick/clutch cars as the clutchless transmissions were not allowed, meaning these guys really had to know how to DRIVE. My car started out as a 302 with Boss 302 Heads, and used a "crash box" of which I still have..................made from a "Top Loader". I am sure most of you have seen pictures of my car back then and now but I will post it again. My car was owned by Greg Nichols and ran in the low 10.3's at over 133mph.................it used drum brakes all around (of which I still have until next race season) and 100+lbs of lead in the rear crossmember under the rear valance (which was illegal but hard to find) and ran on 10.5" tires. If you get a chance to look at the newest copy of National Dragster, they have a picture of Mike Edwards Maverick...................I would certainly like to see this class return to racing................................ Here is a picture taken at the Fremont Dragstrip in 1979/80 and also one of how the car looks today..................although I am putting the same graphics back on the car. Surprisingly the sponsers, Herold & Mielenz and Bell and Gaines are still in business.
Thanks Streetdecon, The car is a lot of fun although I haven't been out with it as much as I'd hoped. The motor and trans are not the oriignal, but with the 408 and Powerglide it does get down the track a little faster than the B/SM days. She's a sweet little car; hooks good and goes as straight as an arrow.
. go to this link http://www.oldhippie.com/forums/ford-mercury-lincoln-forum/97-early-pro-stock-fomoco.html go to this link if you want to see some surpriseing names driving mavericks and fords in the good ole days its about 42 pages of pure ford power.
Nice car man, although I'm not 100% sure of its history, my car was a B/SM class car, it meets all the regulations and it had a Boss 302 in it with a 4-speed, the 13.5" tires on the back are explained by the fact that the IHRA version of the super modified class didn't have a limit on tire width, Once we get it running with the 347 stroker we have (only because the boss 302 isn't exactly a cheap motor to mess with, especially one that turns about 8,000 rpms) we wanted to take some of the paint off and try to uncover some names and etc...
I would love to see more pictures of your car, interior, underhood and any suspension pictures of the rear setup................etc. I would love to compare cars. I sanded the car down with 2000wet/dry paper to find the faint outlines of the words painted underneath......................they looked up the sponsors and gave them a call.................they got in touch with the original owner, Greg Nichols................and he called me. He lives about 3 hours away from me. I wish I had the original engine like do, the motor that is currently in the car is CHP 351w stroked to 408. It is a pretty radical motor with a 707/708 Crower cam and a set of NASCAR Roush/Yates Trick Flow heads. It has equal length headers made by Dawson in SoCal and they go over the front frame rails............they are 3 piece headers and it takes about an hour to remove all of the plugs even though the shock towers are cut. The tranmission is a 2sp Powerglide by Mike's Tranmission in SoCal. The interior is pretty much the same as it was when the car was built. When the car was retired from B/SM and sold, it was retrofitted by Doug Cook Motorsports (of the old Stone/Woods/Cook) and the cage was upgraded along with some other small things to compete in bracket racing. The motor was put together at CHP, that was some 10+ years ago. So this winter the motor and trans comes out to get some refreshening. Send more pictures when you get a chance. Thanks
Wow, that's really cool, I'll take some more pics some time soon, but I'm sure our cars are really similar, I wish my car had it's original Boss 302/4 speed set up but to restore to that way would take alot of money, the towers weren't cut on my car though so it was a really tight squeeze, holes were cut towards the back of the engine bay for headers to run through though, it's got an N-case, leaf-springs and ladder bars rear setup, steel tubs, travel limiters on the front, and the interior has bucket seats from a maverick, the original dash, headliner, door trim, and even the sun visors. (even though you can use them because the cage is in the way) It would be really cool to compare our cars, and I'd love to sand down my car sometime soon, and maybe someday have it looking somewhat like it did back in the B/SM days, btw I have the Super Stock magazine Mike Edwards Maverick was in back when it was the SuperStock magazine project car, turns out it was built in Flatrock MI, close to where I live...
When I talked with the original owner, he used a standard 302 block and 351C heads.............I think they were 351C heads, but he used the top loader Ford 4spd (of which I still have one of the crash box's.....he had always came with a spare) and the aluminum flywheel and clutch/pressure plate setup. As I said the motor currently is a 408 stroker with 2sp Powerglide. In talking with him he said he came off the line about 6500/7000rpm and spun the motor over 8500rpm....................that must have been some ride. Also, he did mention that when the car was put together it was more than the 50/50 weight distribution, so they added a 100lb hunk of lead to the rear crossmember...................and no NHRA Tech inspector ever found it..................the games we used to play! Talking about building a "Clevor" motor, I'm not sure it would any more expensive than building a high HP W motor. The real cost is building a good Ford is in the heads/cam/intake setup................and a good set of "R" race only heads are not cheap. You mentioned that you towers are not cut...............mine are and it still takes me almost an hour to change plugs.............there is no room on cylinders 2/3 and 6/7 because of the big tube headers..............and my towers are cut! The tubbing on my car is sheetmetal also.............no aluminum in the car anywhere, and the interior is still carpeted the way it was back in the 70's along with the stock dash............although I don't have the sun visors and my windows will not roll down as the regulators have been taken out. Anyway, when you get time send some pictures...............I would love to compare
Will do, we just got a DA sander today, so we can start uncovering stuff soon, we're probably gonna try to get it running first though, and yeah the Cleveland heads would probably just be a real pain we're just gonna use this 347 we got and get some good aftermarket heads (If they're aluminum we're gonna paint them to match the block) 1.6 roller rockers, Crower .531 lift hydraulic cam, with an Edelbrock dual plain air gap endurashine manifold, which I eventually want to make a little sealed airbox for (like the one used on some of the cars originally), Forged pistons, cast crank (we're only gonna be reving up to 6,500 or so) we're gonna make it a street car, but eventually I might want it running in the 10's on the track (with some changes made to the engine...) but just gimme an idea of where u wanna compare the cars, (camera angles, certain areas, etc... and I'll get out the old camera and get some shots for ya)
It doesn't really mater what motor goes in the car, it's the pedigree of the car........................... I would love to see pictures of the engine bay, rear axle and how the ladder bars are attached to housing and to the subframe, interior pictures of the "office", dash.............and front restraint system for the "A" arms. I am assuming it still has a cage?, and does it use the stock fuel tank? I will do the same if you want. Talking about the fuel tank, the 70 Maverick came with a fuel tank in trunk I think..............when the original owner built my car they cut out the internal trunk and welded a complete trunk floor from a 71 or 72 that had the tank mounted underneath..............a lot of work just to get a tank underneath. Mine no longer has a tank, just a 5gal fuel cell mounted between the rear cage rails in the trunk. Thanks John
Sure, I could get some pics of that stuff, and yeah it's got the cage in it, and the fuel tank is the stock one but it's been modified so it's smaller, probably holds 15 gallons or less... but it's under the trunk, but the way it's setup you have to open the trunk to put gas in it, the original gas cap is just there for show...
