It's amazing what people buy on eBay. Broken bottles, rusty nails, a grilled-cheese sandwich with the image of a deity . any damn thing. Joe Germann bought a genuine piece of Canadian drag racing history. When Germann bid on an altered-wheelbase '65 Ford Falcon in May 2003, he recognized it as a car that had spent its entire life running on dragstrips in and around London, Ontario, Canada. It had changed hands a few times, but its pedigree as a genuine and period-correct A/FX racer was apparent, including the rare factory fiberglass front fenders, hood, and doors; a straight front axle; and a Holman Moody-built 427 SOHC engine. The Falcon had acquired a few extra paint jobs through the years, but despite being neglected, it was remarkably intact when Germann brought it home to Massachusetts after paying the not-inconsiderable sum of $27,000, a price that nonetheless seems like a bargain considering the value of a complete Cammer these days. He didn't know the car's whole story, but it was enough to take a chance on.

Armed with a few leads, Joe started digging up the Falcon's past and quickly learned it was built in Canada in 1965 as " one of only seven Falcons" equipped with Ford's 271hp Hi-Po 289, an engine that was not a regular production option for Falcons in Canada or stateside that year. The specially prepped cars were sold to drag racers through performance-oriented dealerships to promote the Ford brand. One such dealership was Rankin Ford in London, Ontario, which received the Falcon in May 1965 and enlisted local racers Ev Rowse and John McIntyre to campaign it. Rowse and McIntyre immediately prepped the 289 for racing by tearing down the engine and reassembling it with an Isky cam, Salih pistons, a Cobra intake with Weber carbs, and custom headers.

Running at Canadian strips like Cayuga, Grand Bend, Mohawk, and St. Thomas, Rankin's Wild Child piled up a string of victories in its successful debut in the NHRA's B/FX class in 1965, running in the 11.50s at about 120 mph. The following year, Rankin altered the wheelbase by pushing the front wheels forward 10 inches with an Econoline straight front axle and moving the rear axle forward 8 inches. With a Hilborn-injected 427 Hi-Riser running a combination of alcohol and nitro, the Wild Child ran the '66 season in B/Altered, but running Fuel proved to be a challenge and reliability issues put a damper on the season. The following year the Rankin team stepped all the way up to A/FX with a new Holman Moody SOHC 427, a combination that established it as a high-10-second Canadian A/FX recordholder during the '67 season.

At the end of the '67 season, the Wild Child was sold to a racer who repainted it gold metalflake and renamed it Golden Boy. Rowse and McIntyre dabbled briefly in the emerging Pro Stock class in the early '70s before moving on to other racing endeavors, including CASCAR, Canada's Stock Car racing series. Today Rowse runs an automotive repair business in London and remains friends with his old racing buddy McIntyre. In 1992, the Wild Child was sold to another London car dealer who painted it white and displayed it in his showroom before selling it in 1995. It sat in a garage until Germann bought it eight years later.