Today is 4/27, a number which resonates with the Ford and Chevy camps nicely. Ford’s 427 engines, a member of the FE family, is a bit of a misnomer…the displacement is actually 425ci…but make no mistake: it’s one of Ford’s most potent weapons fifty-something years on. The engine came in two main forms, “top-oiler” and “side-oiler”, and we can’t forget the SOHC “Cammer” side-oiler variation as well. Everything from Ford trucks to the GT-40 and Shelby Cobra got this stomper of an engine, but where it really shined was in NASCAR. The “Cammer” is still the only engine outright banned by the racing series, but the regular 427s found a great place to run.

We located some old footage of Junior Johnson wringing the hell out of  this 1964 Galaxie 427 out at Ascot Park, California. Ascot Park was a dirt track located near Los Angeles and compared to modern superspeedways looks more like a Friday Night Special track than it does a NASCAR circuit. Johnson, renowned as an excellent dirt-track racer, still appears to have his hands full with the big Ford. Anybody want to see Brad Keselowski hop out of his current ride and give this a shot?