1964 Ford Galaxie 500 Hard Top

My 9-year-old son was very agitated as I loaded the car. He said “Dad, you can replace any one of the others—this is unique”

by B. Mitchell Carlson

Built by tobacco heir Zachary Reynolds, the “Tobacco King” 1964 Ford Galaxie was as wild an example of a Rocket Drag Axle-equipped car as one could ask for.

Playboy, pilot, ham radio enthusiast, and all-around enfant terrible, Reynolds wanted a car that would terrorize everyone with its appearance, before slamming their senses with a prodigious detonation of Rocket Axle power. The “Tobacco King” certainly fulfilled that mission.

Documented in the 1967 Turbonique product catalog, the Raven Black Galaxie’s original 390 V8 engine was replaced with a 425-horsepower 427 Ford big-block fitted with a rare Latham axial flow supercharger fed by four Carter one-barrel side-draft carburetors. That alone would have been enough for most street racers, but not for Reynolds, who had the differential replaced with an 850-horsepower Turbonique turbine Rocket Drag Axle.

The rest of the car was modified to handle the colossal acceleration, with the frame...