All in the Family

When a car has been in your household longer than you’ve been alive, it says a couple of things—both about the car, and about your household. It says that car means something to the owner. It means that memories were made in that car. It says that sentiment outweighs the inconvenience of moving a non-running hulk from place to place across the decades as it awaits its turn for rejuvenation. Such is the case with Randy Holmes’ award-winning Flame Red ’57 Ford Custom — one of 65 built with the Phase 1, McCullough-supercharged 312-cube V-8 below the hood.

You’d think that such a machine would have been spirited away to the parts department to have headers and gears installed, a dealer’s name painted on the doors, and sent off to the drags to promote the local Ford store. Somehow, this one wormed its way onto the lot, where it was spotted by Randy’s dad. “My dad John and his brothers were always into fast cars. They raced stock cars at the dirt tracks up around Niagara Falls and