Maxx Levell 1971 Maverick

This is my 1971 Maverick bracket car. I originally thought I'd drive it on the street some and also race it...that plan went by the wayside, and now it's just a fun car at the track.

This was a car that I bought from "Old Guy", a member on here who goes way back on this site. It originally had a straight 6 and 4 lugs and drum brakes all around. When the car became available, my then wife, and my daughters, were in Florida for Spring Break. I hooked up my trailer, and loaded up my rat terrier Rascal, and we made the 450 mile trip to Conway AR to get the car. When we arrived, I had to smuggle the dog into the hotel under my sweatshirt because the only place that had a room didn't allow pets lol.

I had a plan for the car all along that included leaving the body pretty much the way it looked. This was done mostly because my Dad and I just thought it would be fun. I was wanting a sleeper, and this seemed like a good plan. The addition of the Billet Specialties wheels kind of took away from that look...but the car is still a lot quicker than people think when they first see it. My Dad passed away a couple of years ago, and I've been resistant to change it. Toying with the idea of doing something different with the body though. Since the car is only raced at this point, I'm thinking about going flat black...just because it makes the car harder to see on the top end at the stripe...and I'm a fan of the flat black. I actually have some of the Blitz Black for the car that I've had for over a year...but I just haven't been able to pull the trigger on making the change yet.

I immediately pulled the engine and trans when I got the car home from AR, and then stopped working on the car while I went through a divorce a few months later. I was able to start working on it again about a year later...albeit with fewer dollars available lol.

I originally dropped in a 302 I had sitting in the corner from a 72 Maverick that I also owned. The C-4 transmission and 8" rear also got swapped. The rear had a 3.55 limited slip unit from a Mustang II, and had about a zillion runs on it dating from the early 90's. An acquaintance who owns a salvage yard hooked me up with a pair of Fairmont 5-lug discs. I now had a roller! I had a pair of Eagle Premier bucket seats sitting in another corner of the shop (no idea why), and they sort of fit. I placed a Jegs order for a Pertronix Ignitor 2, and a B&M floor shifter. I also ordered a cowl induction hood, and got in the truck and drove to AFCO and picked up one of their aluminum radiators.

That was the configuration I ran the car in for a season or two while I pieced together parts to, of course, go faster. I was running high 8's in the 1/8th mile, and was going a lot of rounds pretty regularly. I also retired from being a firefighter around this time, spent one week being retired, and promptly started a new career as the Emergency Response Manager for a HazMat company, which has nothing to do with anything, except for the fact that I was now travelling all over the country, and didn't have nearly as much time to fool with the car as I would like.

Over that season, I took money I won racing and bought a 347 stroker kit from CHP. I also bought a TCI transmission and Coan torque converter from Wilbur Green, another longtime member on this site, when I was working on a project near them in Ohio. On a side note, Wilbur and his wife are fantastic folks, and are die-hard Maverick/Ford people! If you can't get along with them...it's probably you .

I got a roller block 302 from my son in laws dad, and put the 347 together over the winter. I also took a 9" from a 77 Thunderbird that I had acquired and dropped it off at a buddy who owns a chassis shop, and had him narrow it to the same size as the factory 8". He welded on new spring perches, and called Moser for some 33 spline axles, and a set of 3.89 gears. I priced new drums for the rear, and decided it wouldn't be too much more for rear discs...so I had him order a set of Aerospace Components rear discs also. While he was doing all of that, I parked myself in front of the computer and designed myself a set of "caltrac" style bars in AutoCad and got busy fabbing them up. I used a set of modified factory style spring plates for mine so I could use factory style rear shocks.

After talking to a few folks, I went ahead and ordered a set of AFR 185's, along with a Comp Cams solid roller cam and lifters for the 347. I also had a Demon 850 for the combo.

I was immediately rewarded with low 7's in the 1/8th mile...but the POS Demon carb was never right. I called Quick Fuel and decided to bite the bullet and just swap over to E85. A new fuel pump and line later, and the QFT E85 carb was running flawlessly! And it was running 7.0's .

Towards the end of the season, the pin that goes through the timing gear into the camshaft sheared off and promptly allowed all of the exhaust valves to consumate their relationship with the pistons, which resulted in really ugly results, although I'm told that the fireball that came from the headers and carb were pretty impressive. One of the exhaust valve heads rolled out of a header onto the track surface, and the combustion chambers of the aluminum heads were going to require some welding and machining. That season came to a premature end...and while the block was at the machine shop, it was discovered that 2 of the main webs had cracks. I was now the proud owner of a very heavy boat anchor.

Since I was travelling everywhere and didn't really have the time to be wrenching on the car all of the time, I decided to just get a Man O War block and be done with it. Over that winter I ordered new pistons to replace the ones that had been slapped into submission by the valves, and decided to up the compression at the same time.

I was rewarded with my first 6 second time slips with those changes, and nothing else. I fine tuned the combination and was able to run consistent 6.6x's with it in the heat. It was at this time that I got tired of having the C4's rebuilt all of the time, and swapped in a PG and new FTI converter. I also removed the shock towers and installed the RC107 M2 kit. I ran in that configuration for a couple of seasons until a rod broke at the top end of the track and wreaked all kinds of havoc. It was bad enough to pretty much destroy a couple of the cylinders of the MOW Block...which prompted a move to a 351 based combo. I bought a 408 short block, dropped in my cam, intake & heads, and was running 6.5x's. I finished out the season, and knew i wanted to go with a different combo for the next season (2016). I ordered a Scat 421" kit and put it together over the winter.

So far, this combo has run a best of 6.34 @ 107 mph, although I couldn't find the timeslip lol. I found a 6.37 one, so that's what I put in the database.

We'll see what this winter brings...stay tuned

The pictures don't really do it justice...it looks worse in person

This is also the car that holds the unofficial "highest parking ticket ever received at a Roundup" honor ...