Ford Cammer:
Inside Larry Gould’s 427

text and photos by Jeff Burk

Larry Gould has been racing Ford 427 cammers as long or longer than anyone in the history of drag racing. In 1974 he ran a best of 6.66 which tied Tommy Grove for the quickest elapsed times ever recorded for a Funny car using a 427 Ford cammer for power. Even though Gould eventually switched over to Hemi power in his Ford bodied floppers, he never gave up his Cammer parts or his love of the engine.

Fast forward if you will to 1999 and the sudden nationwide interest in Nostalgia front motored fuel cars. Fred Bach (left), reformed alcohol dragster pilot, decides to go nostalgia racing; wants to get back in the seat and has legendary St. Louis chassis builder “Decent” Dawson build him a chassis. His long-time friend and fellow racer Larry Gould has a storage shed in a remote location filled with blown cammer parts and a desire to build and tune a nitro burning cammer again.

Now Larry (left) always was serious about his Fords and before he retired his cammer after the 1976 season he even had some aluminum 427 cammer blocks cast.

“I knew that the cast iron blocks that Ford made needed some improvements so I had some blocks cast up back in the early ‘70’s,” Gould said. “The foundry that cast them for me did a really bad job and besides I was making the switch to the hemi so I just put them away.”

When Larry realized how serious nostalgia fuel racing had become he decided that if he wanted to be competitive he would have to try and manufacturer an aluminum cammer block again.

“I had the molds that I had made twenty-five years ago so I found myself a foundry that would pour them for me. When the foundry was done I got in contact with Nick Arias Jr. and asked if he could machine them for me. He did, and now I’ve got four, brand new, re-designed, Ford Cammer blocks for my hot rod.”

As reported elsewhere in this magazine the front-motored dragster has gone as quick a 6.59 / 226.34 on only the eighth pass on the car. Don’t bet against this car going into the fives at around 250.

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