1964 FORD GALAXIE 500 “TOBACCO KING” ROCKET CAR. Most of us who can recall the sixties revere this time as the Golden Age of Motorsports, where Hot Rod pioneers created new, more powerful ways to propel their beastly creations thru the quarter mile. Without a doubt, the most outrageous of these creative maverick enterprises was the Turbonique Company of Orlando, Florida. Aimed at the drag racing market, their most outlandish device was the Rocket Drag Axle, which connected mechanically to a reinforced differential and launched the vehicle forward at an astonishing rate of acceleration. The infamous Black Widow Volkswagen Beetle, a basically stock Bug fitted with a Turbonique Rocket Drag Axle, became an instant drag racing legend by leaving Tommy Ivo’s four-engine Showboat dragster in its dust with a 9.36 elapsed time at 168 mph on Sept.19, 1966, at Tampa Dragway. Built by tobacco magnate Zachary “Zach” Reynolds of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the “Tobacco King” 1964 Ford Galaxie was as wild an example of a Rocket Drag Axle-equipped car as one could ask for, and certainly reflected Reynolds’ daredevil personality. Playboy, pilot, Ham Radio enthusiast and allaround “enfant terrible”, Reynolds wanted a car that would terrorize everyone with its appearance alone, just before slamming their senses with a prodigious detonation of Rocket Axle power. The “Tobacco King” certainly fulfilled that mission. Documented in the 1967 Turbonique product catalog, the Raven Black Galaxie’s original 390 V8 engine was replaced with a 425 horsepower 427 Ford big block fitted with a rare Latham axial flow supercharger fed by four Carter sidedraft carburetors. That alone would have been enough for most street racers, but not for the young Reynolds, who took the whole project the extra distance by having the differential replaced with an 850 horsepower Turbonique turbine Rocket Drag Axle. The car’s visual effect is stunning to say the very least. From the front it looks every bit the mid-sixties A/FX racer of the Thunderbolt variety, with dropped suspension, dump tubes and magnesium American Torque Thrust wheels. The picture is only completed by approaching the thing, if you dare, from behind, where the black Deist chutepack draws the eyes down to that alien-looking rocket exhaust pod. Inside, the Galaxie’s stock instrument panel is augmented by a set of gauges to monitor engine RPM, supercharger boost and the space-age bomb lurking out back. This was as crazy as crazy got in 1967, and is no less so for the years that have passed. “Zach” Reynolds put a total of only 3,611 miles on the car before his untimely death in a 1979 plane crash in North Carolina, after which the car was placed in careful storage until recently. Unrestored and original, it is in superb condition inside and out, a delightfully shocking artifact that speaks to a period during which daredevils and adventurers were given full sway to express the forces that drove them. The “Tobacco King” will be offered FOR SALE to the public for the FIRST TIME EVER at the MECUM Spring Classic Auction to be held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds May 17th, 2008. Call MECUM Auctions at (815) 568-8888 www.mecum.com or call (336) 202-8762.
226 COLLECTIBLES
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JUNE 2008