Ralph Moody Black Ford Talladega Prototype

The following information was provided by Ralph Moody

The Black Talladega was my Dad’s personal car, which he kept after leaving Holman Moody in 1972.

Lee Holman (John Holman’s son) still runs Holman-Moody which is a trademarked company name.

The black car stayed in the family and we started to restore the car before my dad died, which had sat in my Dad’s carport for many years.
I had a good friend doing some of the restoration and he closed his company, so I retrieved the car and have been a little slow with progress since I’ve not had the time to devote to the project over the past few years.

Attached are two photos of the car, which has been stripped, blasted, and primed. Bracing was installed to allow removal of the floor pan on the passenger side. There was some rust (heater core leak), but this has been cut out and replaced, and the body is going onto a rotisserie for final welds on the bottom side before heading out for paint sometime in 2011.

I just got the engine back this summer and have run it on a test stand  this fall with all the hardware back on the engine. It’s the original block, heads, and rotating assembly, albeit with 0.030” over pistons.

It is an “R” code car with the Ram air system, PS/PB/AC.  It has the standard  black interior (bench front and back), C6 automatic, and all Black exterior. (hood color matches body).

The car was partially assembled at Holman Moody, and it’s still visible to see pop rivets and cut/weld marks where the rockers were removed/replaced on this car.  My dad had indicated the body sat on a surface plate at HM for some time as a template car, and then was assembled/reassembled into a street car.  Some of the parts needed came thru Don Sullivan at Ford, who he had known for years.

Hope this helps with some info on the car. Will try to be ready for next fall, but will see how much time/effort I can devote this coming year! Hearing the engine running again has inspired some new goals.