Mercury Comet 427 Dominates in 64 NHRA

Ken ‘Big Stick’ Godsey’s 1964 Mercury Comet tribute to drag racing legend Ronnie Sox made its first nine-second pass at the NHRA Holley Hot Rod Reunion — a wheels-up, bouncing four-speed launch that still gets commenters talking about clutch adjustment and crash-box durability years later. Barely a minute long and almost entirely without narration, the clip lets the launch speak for itself. Watch to see the pass that earned it.

Some cars exist purely to chase a number, and for one 1964 Mercury Comet, that number is 9.98 seconds. At the NHRA Holley Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, driver Ken “Big Stick” Godsey made his first nine-second pass in a car built as a tribute to one of drag racing’s most legendary partnerships — Ronnie Sox behind the wheel, Buddy Martin on the tune — and the wheels-up launch that follows is the kind of moment that makes even seasoned mechanics in the comments stop and rewatch.

Who Ronnie Sox Actually Was

Ronnie Sox, paired with tuner Buddy Martin as Sox & Martin, became one of the defining names in factory experimental and Pro Stock drag racing through the 1960s and 70s, driving Mopar and, earlier in his career, Mercury products to national event wins. A tribute car built in his honor carries real weight in the drag racing community, which is exactly why one commenter simply writes that they want a Ronnie Sox Comet of their own, decades after the fact.

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What A/FX Actually Meant

A/FX — Factory Experimental — was NHRA’s mid-1960s catch-all class for manufacturer-backed cars pushing the limits of what a production-based drag car could legally run: lightweight body panels, altered wheelbases, and engines well beyond anything a showroom car offered. The Comet’s entry into that class reflects Mercury’s brief but serious push into factory-backed drag racing before the muscle car wars shifted most of the spotlight to Detroit’s bigger names.

The 427 Under the Hood

This Comet runs Ford’s 427 cubic-inch FE-series big block, the same family of engine that powered Ford’s NASCAR and Le Mans efforts through the mid-1960s, built here specifically for straight-line acceleration rather than sustained high-speed racing. Getting a car this size into the nine-second range on a quarter mile with a period-correct engine combination, rather than a modern crate motor, is what makes Godsey’s pass genuinely notable rather than a modern restomod flex.

The Launch That Gets Replayed

Multiple commenters zero in on the exact same moment: a bouncing, wheels-up four-speed launch that one viewer calls “FE FTW” — shorthand approval for the Ford FE engine family’s reputation. A second commenter, who says he personally rebuilt thousands of Muncie four-speed transmissions, notes that as long as the clutch pedal is adjusted correctly, even a heavily abused “crash box” four-speed can survive that kind of launch repeatedly.

Why Reunion Events Matter for Cars Like This

The NHRA Holley Hot Rod Reunion exists specifically to bring period-correct cars and the people who raced them back onto a real track, rather than letting them sit as static museum pieces. A tribute car built around a real driver’s legacy, running in front of people who watched the originals race decades earlier, is the entire point of an event like this.

A Small Footnote With Outsized Meaning

At barely over a minute long, this video carries almost no narration and relies entirely on the sound and sight of the launch to do the work — no interview, no backstory delivered on camera, just a driver, a car, and a timeslip. That minimalism is part of why the comment section fills in so much of the historical context itself.

The Legacy This Pass Extends

Sox & Martin’s dominance in factory experimental and early Pro Stock racing helped cement the idea that a genuinely fast car didn’t need custom fabrication to embarrass the competition — just the right factory parts, tuned correctly. A modern nine-second pass in a tribute car built to honor that legacy is a direct continuation of the exact philosophy that made Ronnie Sox famous in the first place.

How Mercury’s Drag Racing Push Compared to Ford’s

Mercury’s factory-backed drag program often gets overshadowed by Ford’s more heavily publicized efforts with the same corporate engines, even though cars like this Comet ran essentially identical FE-series big blocks and posted competitive results against their Blue Oval siblings. That imbalance in recognition is part of why tribute builds like this one matter — they keep Mercury’s specific chapter of the factory experimental era from disappearing entirely from enthusiast memory.

What It Takes to Keep a Period Drag Car Race-Ready

Maintaining a car built to 1960s factory experimental specifications for modern reunion racing means balancing period-correct authenticity against the practical wear of repeated quarter-mile passes, and teams campaigning tribute cars like this Comet typically rebuild critical components — the transmission, rear end, and top end of the engine — on a schedule far more aggressive than a static show car would ever need.

Why Reunion Racing Keeps This History Alive

Events built specifically around period-correct cars and the drivers who raced the originals exist precisely because static museum displays can’t replicate the sound, smell, and violence of an actual pass down the strip, and a nine-second run from a car built to honor Ronnie Sox does more to keep his legacy present for new fans than any plaque ever could.

Why Tribute Cars Draw Scrutiny From Purists

Building a tribute to a specific driver and tuner combination like Sox & Martin invites a level of scrutiny from purists that an anonymous vintage drag car never faces, since fans familiar with the original car’s exact paint scheme, lettering, and mechanical specification will notice any deviation immediately. A tribute car that earns approval from that audience — rather than criticism for getting a detail wrong — has to match far more than just the general shape and color of the original, extending down to period-correct wheel and tire combinations, decal placement, and even the specific style of roll cage a car from this era would have run. Godsey’s Comet clearing that bar and still posting a genuine nine-second pass suggests the build prioritized both historical accuracy and real performance, rather than treating the tribute angle as a purely cosmetic exercise. Mercury’s Comet nameplate itself never achieved the same lasting muscle car recognition as its Cyclone sibling, despite running comparable big-block options and posting real results in period competition, which makes tribute builds and reunion appearances like this one one of the few remaining ways the nameplate’s genuine performance history gets in front of a modern audience at all.

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