Details on Ford's SOHC efforts of yore: Tom of Holman/Moody/Stroppe fame

[machoneman]

I just had to copy Tom's long post over here since I'm not sure he'd do so on his own. Enjoy! 

http://www.network54.com/Forum/74182/thread/1426653102/The+HOT+ROD+SOHC+article

[lovehamr]

Thanks for putting it here.  Great read and I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

[gdaddy01]

what ?

[e philpott]

first and last post Frank ?

[jayb]

Thanks to the members who pointed out the spam message, the message has been deleted and the poster banned.

[Drew Pojedinec]

All this did was bring up a pet peeve.... why does someone quote tom’s 80 pages of stuff just to respond: “cool dude.”

[turbohunter]

The things you miss when you take the dog out for a walk.

[C8OZ]

Edit: Holy thread resurrection.

[machoneman]

The things you miss when you take the dog out for a walk.

Hah! A long walk, eh?  LOL

Yeah, I posted that way back in 2015 before we learned 'Tom' was a kid in that era. His stories as they say got older and bolder over time, until this and the old FE Forum kicked him out. Interesting though is that some of what he wrote must have come from old timers who did know a lot about SOHC's on nitro.   

[KMcCullah]

He had me buffalo'd for a while too. His stories of the Super Snake were incredible. Until the whole age thing surfaced. If bullshit was music, he would've been a brass band.

[gdaddy01]

yall got some funny stuff , thanks for the laugh

[Katz427]

I read the old FE forum but never posted. Tom is about 7 years younger than me. I knew he was relating stories told to him, so I kind of enjoyed the read. He was , and probably still is friendly with Bill Stroppe's son. Tom is a great "talker", but also a good "listener", with a pretty good memory. His father was the long time city engineer for Long Beach, so he got around and met people, and he could talk. So the stories were related to him and he passed them on. Unfortunately he tried to make it seem he was "there" and lived those moments as an employee of Stroppe's, which was not true. It got ugly when he got defensive about the Joe Weatherly accident at Riverside, Joe driving a Stroppe Mercury was killed. Doctor Craft got into a spat with Tom , then it got ugly. However I do believe, that Tom related the stories, well ,and they are pretty much what he was told, minus the embellishments of him actually being there as an employee during that time. I also have to say he was always friendly when you met him, and yes, he could talk.

[gt350hr]

  I admit to jumping all over him on the FE forum. I had to because he was FULL of BS.  I "hit" him with MANY "easy to know IF you were there" questions and names which he NEVER responded too. He spoke of his prowess at lightening "thousands" of TRW pistons. He didn't know ANY of the behind the scenes guys I knew that worked there and NONE of them knew HIM.
    He is a legend in his own mind and as mentioned , regurgitates snipits of information he's read or heard of. BTW Keith Black NEVER built a SOHC Ford!!!!!!
   Randy

[Katz427]

I am not acquainted with you Randy, but someone , had to call him on it. You happened to be the person with the background , and connections to do it.

[gt350hr]

   I have a real background with the guys he mentioned. I was long time friends with Dyno Don rip, Earl Wade, rip Wally Cartwright rip, Dave Lameraux , Tommy and Carol Grove, Bud Gilbert rip, Mike Kuhl, Fritz Voight rip , MT himself rip , John House ,  and a host of others from the day. Despite going to HMS with Earl Wade several times "I" was not allowed to go "behind the gate" because of insurance stipulations until I was 16 which was 1968. Tom is a few years younger than I am and there is NO WAY he was employed there at that time. If you look carefully at his dribble , he is very vague as far as anything technical. For example the "special chains" came from England and Germany and not made until the early '70's.
   'Nuf  said,
     Randy