How this car came to join my fleet is a bit of a messed up story: I bought it partially because I only had one ’64 Thunderbolt in my collection and needed another, but I also chose this one specifically because I found it at decent price and because it came on a white chassis. I really would have preferred one of the earlier releases in bright red or light blue, but as I’ve mentioned, those earlier AW releases are getting hard to come by and very expensive. More to the point, I was looking for a white chassis…for another car! Thus I decided to split the difference and buy this one to cannibalize it, planning to fit it on a standard black chassis while I used the white one elsewhere.
That might have been a good plan until I realized how incredibly cool this body was! I proceeded anyway, since I thought the black chassis looked even better on the white car than the white chassis did, and I fitted it with a set of Vincent “ARE”-style wheels and big silicone meats which I think look awesome. The only bad thing: this is one of my recently purchased Ultra G chassis which is pig-slow, a trend you saw me complain about bitterly in a previous post. Thus, this car looks cooler than I ever dreamed it would, but its performance doesn’t match its looks. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about that, other than trying to acquire an older, low mileage T-Jet on ePay with a “pre-scamdemic” chassis, but I may be able to punch it up with a field magnet and/or brush change. Some in-shop tuning will still have to be done before she’s ready for the track.
But man, does she ever look ready! with only 100 cars ever built-the minimum required to win the 1964 NHRA Super Stock championship for Ford-the Thunderbolt is not just one of the rarest muscle cars in the world, but packed with a 427 R-code dual 4-barrel Holley equipped full race big block, it is also one of the fastest. While the earlier cars were painted “Vintage Burgundy,” the majority were were “Wimbledon White” just like this one belonging to Pete “Polar Bear” Paxton, a native of the snowy plains of Alamosa, Colorado, who’s nickname comes partly from his history as a skier but also from a streak of white in his otherwise dark brown hair that he swears he’s had since his teenage years. This genetic anomaly also extends to his beard (and one can’t help but wonder where else), but as Paxton is only 38 years old, the contrast is somewhat jarring…a lot like the nearly 500 horsepower put out by the insane 427 that lives under the hood of this beast. Connected to a strengthened Borg Warner 4-speed manual to a locked rear axle that originally housed 4.56 gears for dragging, Paxton replaced the 3rd member with a more trackable 3.91 and went to great lengths to custom fabricate a full 4-wheel disc brake system, making this probably the only ’64 Thunderbolt in the world so equipped. Its stripped gold interior looks stock at a glance but is devoid of anything that would add to weight, so this is definitely a track-only car that is trailered to Drag City for events.
As for her name: Paxton christened his rare piece of history “White Out”, which is why he’ll tell you that if you could see the color of thunder, it would be white! “White Out” was the last purchase of the early 2023 “Build Storm” being profiled here, and while there’s more to come for the blog, the entries for the 1985 racing season, as belated as it is getting started, are now closed. Paxton has some additional tuning to do before racing starts since his time trial results didn’t match expectations, but the Coloradan had better get it in gear if he wants to be competitive, since the opening day for Group A is just around the bend!
I always love your driver bio’s and what it adds to the cars and the races. This car is way cool and I’m sure if it can be tuned to perfection for racing, you can do it!