West coast Ford drag racer Jim Demmitt Sr. had quite a history of cool Ford drag cars. Jim passed away in 2003, and his son, Jim Jr. is carrying on the Ford tradition for him. Over the years Jim Sr. raced a '57 427 T-Bird, a Thunderbolt, a HMS-built 65 A/FX Mustang, and a SOHC Maverick. The 64 Thunderbolt was his winningest car of the bunch. The T-Bird is still in the family, it is now powered by a alcohol gulping blown Boss 429! The A/FX Mustang was 427 Hi-Riser equipped, it was built in the Holman & Moody-Stroppe shop. Jim Sr. bought it off the showroom floor at Broadway Ford in 1965. The Mustang came with the headers in the trunk, Dick Wood of Ford Drag Team fame installed them for him. He drag raced it frequently at Fremont and Vaca Valley Dragways in Northern California, winning the A/FX championship in NDRA back to back three years in a row and one championship in ANDRA It was capable of 9.60's at over 140 mph with Hilborn Injectors. The car was featured in Popular Hot Rodding magazine in November 1979, and in Popular Cars July 1988. The Mustang, along with the Boss Bird, were also was featured on the American Hot Rodder TV show on Speed Vision in 1997. Jim's Pro Stock '72 SOHC 427 Maverick was built by Tommy Grove at HMS shop, he raced for 3 years in Pro Stock with backing from Hayward Ford. Jim Jr. currently has the '57 T-bird, a '63 427 Galaxie, and a 2000 Mustang Cobra R. Find out more about the Demmit Thunderbolt on the Thunderbolt page.