2 TONE OF FUN

Growing up in a Ford-obsessed family, there was no way Andrew Lougheed would ever escape owning a blue Oval- although no one could ever have guessed how tough his first car would become!

There’s starting young, and there’s starting young. Andrew Lougheed takes that term to a whole new level, having purchased this 1967 Ford Galaxie at the age of just 14! Sure, his parents may have helped him out, but he was every bit as invested in the vehicle from the outset as his family were, and the car was, and still is, his and his only. While at age 14 you’d expect the purchase to be a cheap paddock-basher soon destined for the scrapheap, that wasn’t the case; the car, which was found for sale in Australia, was a genuine low-mileage high-optioned XL model. A quick trip across to Sydney confirmed that the car was indeed as described, and, before long, Andrew was trying to work out where to store his large purchase — after all, at this size, it’s not the type of car you can fit in any old garage. The next 18 months saw the car complied and Andrew gain his learner’s licence and begin to clock up plenty of miles cruising the streets. Just for a laugh, the car was taken down the drag strip, where it reeled off a none-too-impressive 18-second pass. The following few years saw a freshen-up of the stock 390 big block and plenty more miles, but then disaster struck. A ball-joint failure caused a bit of damage, and, as we all know, just touching up the damaged area and leaving the rest of the paintwork tired is never an option. The team at Wakefield Panel and Paint were tasked with fixing the problem, removing the vinyl roof and respraying the whole exterior. The colour choice may upset the Ford die-hards, but Andrew couldn’t be happier with the Dodge SRT Red applied by the team.

Back on the road, Andrew continued to pour every cent he earned into the vehicle, tidying up the interior, adding a stereo, and continually topping up the tank and buying rear tyres. As he grew older, his desire for more horsepower also grew. As Andrew puts it, “The original plan was to keep the car a budget-oriented cruiser, but things got a bit out of hand when I got the drag racing bug! I dreamed of it being a tough street and strip weekend car, so it got 4.11 gears and an LSD head. The poor stock 390 only revved to five grand with a mere 230hp at the wheels, although a set of custom headers and full exhaust by Magnum Automotive let it breathe a bit.” After a few more mods, such as a B&M Quicksilver shifter and the relocation of the battery to the boot, the car ran mid-14-second passes. Of course, that was never going to be enough, but to get it to go quicker would take Andrew another few years of saving. Once funds had been accumulated, a chat between Andrew and Shane Johnson from Segedins resulted in Shane pulling an old relic 428 FE out of Segedins’ basement. The plan was to make some real horsepower with it. Despite being 50 years old, the motor turned out to be in surprisingly good nick when it was stripped down, enabling Marsh Motorsport to work some of its worldfamous magic on it. The bores were honed 20 thou over and the rest of the blocked prepped for some proper power. The Comp Cams XE 294 hydraulic roller cam that Andrew specced was a serious one, with 242/246-degree duration at 0.050-inch lift, which meant that a higher stall converter would be needed. While Auto Trans in central Auckland was sorting this, the Marsh team continued building the motor, which, thanks to a 4.25-inch Scat crank and 6.7-inch Eagle rods, was now displacing 462ci. An ARP stud kit was installed to help tie the top and

bottom together in preparation for the work that lay ahead. That top end was never just going to be a stock one, with Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminium heads the key component of the entirely new set-up. Within the heads lie 2.09- and 1.66-inch valves along with Comp Cams 1.76:1 roller rockers. Bolted between them now is a dual-plane Edelbrock Performer RPM manifold and 850cfm Quick Fuel carburettor. Having saved to make sure he didn’t have to cut any corners, Andrew didn’t leave a single component of the engine build untouched, including the oiling system — where a Moroso eight-quart pan was fitted along with an oil accumulator — and the ignition system, for which every possible MSD component was sourced. With the motor soon to be returned in a flawless state, Andrew called on Robbie at XR Automotive to ensure the engine bay would look just as good as the flawless motor. Many late nights were spent sanding and smoothing before fellow drag racer Patrick Heeney finally got to spray a coat of Mercedes Black on all the freshly smoothed surfaces. Andrew took the opportunity of having access to the bay to rebuild the suspension with allnew joints and bushes — after all, we know what happened earlier as a result of old components. As part of this front-end upgrade, a ‘bolt-on’ discbrake kit was purchased; however, it ended up being anything but a straightforward fit. Thankfully, the XR Automotive team knew how to make it all work and, before long, had it sorted.