After many years of bracket racing a variety of fast Fords, Michael Tagg wanted a change. He’s a veteran racer who moved from western Pennsylvania to Florida, and while attending an NMCA event he saw the wild cars that run in the Nostalgia Super Stock and Nostalgia Muscle Car classes. Michael thought about jumping in the mix, so he went on the hunt for one of his favorite body styles, a 1967 Ford Fairlane.

In 2011 Michael located a clean ’67 Fairlane 500 shell in St. Petersburg, just a few hours north of his Naples, Florida home, and made a deal to take it home. He slipped in a mild 428 and his plan, at first, was to have a clean street/strip Ford that he could drag race and use for cruising.

“I had a 428 block sitting in the garage, so we stroked it out to 462, put a roller cam in there an built it for the street and some track use, too,” he told us. “I drove it about 500 miles and was like, 'this isn’t fun,'” he said with a smile. “I had a ’67 Mustang that I bracket raced at the time, so I sold that to focus on the Fairlane. We go to NMCA as spectators all the time and I decided I could do that with the Fairlane. We converted it over, I had the cage put in along with the Jerico 4-speed and here we are,” he told us.

Michael didn’t hold back either. To step up for NMCA competition he went with an aluminum 427 block that was stretched to 482 cubes, and inside went a big Bullet roller cam with a rock-solid rotating assembly. Up top are Edelbrock aluminum heads and a high-flowing Holley Dominator with an Edelbrock Victor 427 intake. Fillmore Machine in Naples, Florida built the engine. The bay it resides in is meticulously prepared in show fashion with lots of detail. He even kept it old school with a mechanical water pump and fan.

“It runs cool and runs strong,” Michael told us. The quickest the Fairlane has gone is 9.94 in the quarter and we saw him bust off a series of low 10-second runs at the NMCA Muscle Car Mayhem event in Bradenton, Florida a few weeks ago, with the best being a 10.00 at 132 mph. The Jerico manual transmission is backed by a clutch from Rob Youngblood, sending the 482's tidal wave of power out back to a Ford 9-inch packing 4.56 gears. Caltracs are bolted on to help it hook. Michael launches the beast at 3,800 rpm and pulls the lever at 6,500 pm.

We were attracted to the flawless Lime Gold paint and the combination of Torque Thrust front wheel with painted “steelies” out back. It gives the two-door sedan that period-correct look, but with incredible power. The 427 “scooped” hood completes the look and lets you know there’s no 289 under that expansive hood.

Michael continued the basic theme with a bench seat and only the bare minimum in the interior. There’s a modern air/fuel gauge and a shift light for the sake of the engine, but the rest of the Ford’s office remains stock looking. Future plans call for some clutch and chassis refinements, followed by endless trips down the quarter-mile and endless fun for Michael Tagg.