1961 Ford Galaxie Club Sedan

This striking 1961 Ford Galaxie Club Sedan is not just another pristine showroom survivor. Built up in the spirit of the early NHRA drag racing wars and dressed in crisp white with that distinctive formal roofline and chrome accents, it carries the look of a full-size Ford taken off the street and prepped for quarter-mile glory.

From the back, the iconic “pie-plate” round taillamps sit atop subtle blade-like fins, while the wide honeycomb grille and dual headlights give it a purposeful, slightly menacing stare. The clean two-door Club Sedan body, rarer and more formal than the flashier hardtops or Starliners, hides a red-and-white interior that looks ready for both Sunday drives and runs down the strip. Under the hood sits Ford’s FE-series 390 cubic-inch V8, modified with triple two-barrel carburetors to around 401 horsepower.

For 1961, Ford freshened the Galaxie with smoother styling, toned-down fins, and a stronger emphasis on performance. Base models came with six-cylinder or smaller V8 power, but the real excitement came from the optional 390 FE V8. In high-output form, especially with the triple two-barrel setup, it could pump out up to 401 gross horsepower: serious motivation for a big, luxurious full-size sedan that weighed around 3,500 pounds in stock trim.

In the early 1960s, Ford pushed hard into the drags with Galaxies, running them alongside lighter “Lightweight” variants and eventually the radical Thunderbolt Fairlanes. These big Galaxies competed at iconic events like the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, where raw power, traction tricks, and driver skill decided the outcome against Mopars, Chevys, and other factory hot rods.

The original VIN decodes as follows. 1: the 1961 model year. F: Ford Motor Company. 51: Galaxie series, two-door Club Sedan, the formal-roof post sedan body. W: the 292 cubic-inch two-barrel V8 of 175 horsepower, which this car no longer carries. 299614: the sequential production number at Dearborn.

Thorough searches of auction records, classic car databases, drag racing archives, and NHRA results from the era turned up no documented evidence that this particular car competed in NHRA national events. It has been modified from its original factory specification.