The Holman Moody Thunderbirds that were built for Nascar in the late 50's were 430 powered, at least #64 was....

Johhny Beuchamp (sp?) was photo finish second place winner at the first Daytona 500 in 1959. T-bird 430 powered.

The winner of the 250 mile Daytona modified race in '59 was a '56 Ford powered by a stroked MEL.

And folks say the oiling is bad.

Here is a wonderful photo of the Holman Moody engine building shop around 1959. Long before the sanitized engine building facilities of today, this was the grunt and grind of race engine building. This was just before Ford poured a lot of money towards HM.

I know the photo is about 1959.... because if you notice the engine in the foreground...it's a 430

430 6V wrote:Johhny Beuchamp (sp?) was photo finish second place winner at the first Daytona 500 in 1959. T-bird 430 powered.

and folks say the oiling is bad.

I've heard those cars handled dreadfully with the heavy 430 up front, but the photo finish was so close, that it took three days to decide. Holman Moody stock with Ford went up exponentially after they almost won the biggest race with a HM prepared Ford car.

I've heard/read the handling thing too but I'm not sure I believe it.
One article really was by someone who obviously didn't speak MEL.

Plus I have a '59 J code project.

430 6V wrote:I've heard/read the handling thing too but I'm not sure I believe it...

The engine was supposedly much heavier than other engines of this displacement. The Rambler 327 was also heavier than contemporary engines, because it wasn't a thin-wall design. This might be the very reason for MEL's overweight