The Craziest Ford Car Collection in the World

Long story short, we arrived early on a Saturday morning and Webby being Webby (the charming fella he is) got us a quick private tour with one of the managers at GAS. The collection lived up to the hype, with 50-plus cars parked in an epic show hall, with everything from late model Fords, to original T Models, to some wild and wacky race cars and some hellish customs.

One of the immediate draw cards was the Galpin Ford ‘Back Up Pick Up’, a legendary exhibition race car from drag racing’s ‘golden age’. What was on display wasn’t the original, but a recreation of the original truck that was built back in 2013 for its unveil at SEMA that year. The back-to-front, wheel-standing pick-up is a Ford Econoline which now sports a mechanically fuel-injected 427 Ford FE engine that makes about 950hp - a touch more than the original Back Up Pick Up’s Ford donk which made around 500hp.

Now I don’t think there is a single person on the planet that could just walk past what was sitting next to the truck - Galpin Ford’s quad engine ‘MACH IV’ funny car. This was an incredible car back in the 60s, but of course no quad-motored car was legal for any NHRA class. The MACH IV did run down the strip plenty of times in exhibition runs and was a sure crowd favourite. It’s powered by four 351ci Ford Windsor engines, with aftermarket internals and Enderle tall-stack fuel injection - we were told it made quite the noise with 32 individual chromed zoomy pipes. 

If you’re scratching your head (much like I was when I saw it) and wondering how it even gets power to the ground, the car has a small network of driveshafts, u-joints and other bits of mechanical magic that runs the power through a single clutch and custom-built direct drive gearbox. It also runs full time all wheel drive, which resulted in “four turning and four burning”. It was incredible to see this thing just parked up on display.

Another absolute treat to see on display was a car that really started it all for Galpin Ford - Ron Hornaday’s number 97 1960 Ford Galaxie NASCAR. It’s impressive to see how much closer these old race cars were to actual road cars in comparison to competition cars today. 

Ron’s first race as part of the Galpin Ford family was at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in 1960, and the famed story behind that race was Ron’s reluctance to getting in and banging up his shiny new race car on the track. So in turn, Frank Galpin grabbed a hammer and dented every body panel, telling Ron to “get out there and race!”. As it currently sits, it’s as pristine as ever - and was just awesome to see in person.

Of course, no Ford Collection would be complete without a few iconic Mustangs and Ford GT40s. Again, there were plenty on display with new and old models mixing in with each other. All of these cars on display here have a story, whether it be an original unrestored car, a wild old-school racer, a Mustang owned by a previous United States President, a genuine Shelby, or a super limited rare model. You could spend literally hours learning about some of the cars on display.

If you ever get the chance and find yourself with a few hours to spare in LA, head on down to Galpin Ford. There’s plenty of awesome stuff on show and the staff are super friendly and happy to show you around. We reckon the only thing missing from the collection is a few mad Aussie Fords!

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