1957 was Ford’s 25th anniversary, and for their Silver Anniversary Ford wanted to do something special. However, Ford was losing to GM in Sales and in NASCAR. Something had to be done, their plan: produce supercharged cars for NASCAR and the street. Ford hoped that by building cars that were faster than GMs they could win NASCAR races on Sunday and out sell GM on Monday.

Unlike today, in 1957 NASCAR had radically different rules. Cars were fuel injected, had large displacement engines and power adders were legal. For the 57 season GM produced a new fuel injected version of their 283 V8 for NASCAR. This engine produced a crazy 1 horsepower per cubic inch of displacement. To compete with this, Ford took their Thunderbird Special, a Y-Block 312 V8, and equipped it with a Paxton supercharger.

This centrifugal supercharger helped the 312 produce a whopping 345 HP, more power than most of today’s turbo production cars. The 312 was an available option for all 21 of Ford’s models, though only 50 supercharged cars were ever made.

This 1957 Ranchero, showcased by V8TV, is one of two supercharged Rancheros in existence. It’s exterior looks the same as a standard Ranchero, the interior is a two tone with red and white leather adding some luxury to this working man’s car. The supercharged Y-Block is well hidden beneath the stock hood, making this car the perfect sleeper.

V8TV believes this Ranchero must have been a moonshine runner, as the Ranchero was designed to be a farm truck no one would expect it to have any power under the hood. Whoever ordered this car back in 1957 was planning on doing some serious hauling. Who thinks we need more “sleeper trucks” like this Ranchero today: plenty of ponies under the unsuspecting hood of a basically stock looking base model truck?

The ultimate 1950’s sleeper.