This is an original Holman-Moody Ford 427 FE V8 that was built back in the late 1960s, then installed into a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500.
Interestingly, the engine was built by the legendary Jimmy Tucker at Holman-Moody in the late 1960s and then again by him, still at Holman-Moody in 2012. These engines are said to be capable of 425 bhp at 6,000 rpm and 480 lb ft of torque at 3,700 rpm depending on the state of tune, solid figures now but absolutely mind-bending numbers for the 1960s.
This Holman-Moody Ford 427 FE V8 crate engine was originally swapped into a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500. It remained in the car for 36 years before being rebuilt at Holman-Moody once again, and it’s now being offered for sale.
Holman-Moody: A History Speedrun
Holman-Moody is inarguably the most important Ford performance tuning company of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Many (if not most) Ford factory racing vehicles of the era were actually built by Holman-Moody
Holman-Moody was formed in 1957 by mechanic and engineer John Holman and race car driver Ralph Moody. The two men had been working at the Ford Motor Company when the American Manufacturers’ Association banned Ford’s factory participation in stock car racing in June of 1957 – this resulted in both Holman and Moody becoming suddenly unemployed.
They would form Holman-Moody almost overnight, with Moody borrowing against a plane he owned, and buying out Ford’s now defunct Charlotte-based racing facility. The men set to work developing one of the first “purpose-built” stock racing car chassis and their success would be almost immediate – with two race wins by the end of 1957.
The successes kept coming and soon, Ford was sending much of their motorsport-related work to Holman-Moody. This would continue for much of the rest of the 1950s, the 1960s, and well into the 1970s.
Today Holman-Moody remains in business based out of Charlotte, North Carolina and run by Lee Holman, son of co-founder John Holman. The company is building a very limited edition run of Ford GT40s which are based on original, unused chassis – so they’re not replicas. They also build a line of high-performance modern Mustangs.
The Holman-Moody Ford 427 FE V8 Shown Here
As noted higher up, this is an original Holman-Moody-built Ford 427 FE V8 featuring all the bells and whistles you’d expect. The engine is said to have been built by the late-great Jimmy Tucker at Holman-Moody, both in the late 1960s and once again in 2012.
Jimmy Tucker was the lead engine builder for the teams that won at Daytona, he was also the crew chief on the Holman-Moody Ford GT40s that raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966 and 1967.
Since Tucker rebuilt this engine more recently, it has remained unused and it’s now being offered for sale. The engine is built around a cast-iron block, it has C6AE-F medium-riser cylinder heads, a side-oiler forged steel crankshaft, an AA flat tappet camshaft, forged pistons, H-beam connecting rods, and Hooker Super Competition headers.
Up top you’ll find Cobra 427-branded finned valve covers, an aluminum sidewinder intake manifold, and a four-barrel Holley carburetor.
These engines are said to be capable of 425 bhp at 6,000 rpm and 480 lb ft of torque at 3,700 rpm depending on the state of tune.
This engine is said to have been installed into a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500 and both the car and engine were placed into storage for 36 years. The engine was then removed and rebuilt by Tucker, and it never went back in the car – exactly why isn’t mentioned.
The engine is now being offered for sale out of Oakwood, Georgia on Bring a Trailer with Holman-Moody documentation, and a black steel engine cradle with locking caster wheels. If you’d like to read more about it or place a bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
