In 1970, Ford briefly revived the Falcon name as the base trim of its mid-size Torino line, and buried inside its options list was a 429 Cobra Jet that could be built to Super Cobra Jet spec. Only about 90 Falcons were ordered with that Drag Pack option, backed by a Detroit Locker rear and rated at 375 horsepower, and just 38 of those came with an automatic transmission. Produced for less than six months, the combination makes this one of the rarest big-block Fords most muscle car fans have never heard of.
1970 Ford Falcon 429 CID Super Cobra Jet V8-4 speed close ratio shift
MCF thanks Gateway Classic Cars for the images displayed here.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
For six months in 1970, Ford resurrected a nameplate nobody expected to see again, and then buried it just as fast. The Falcon name, retired from compact-car duty and handed off to the new Maverick, got a strange second life as the base trim of the mid-size Torino line, complete with its own unique two-door body style found on no other Ford. Buried inside the options list was something almost nobody ordered: a 429-cubic-inch engine built for one purpose, wearing a designation that separated it from every other Cobra Jet on the lot. Ford built so few that most Falcon shoppers in 1970 never even knew the option existed. What was hiding under that hood turned a forgotten trim level into one of the rarest big-block Fords ever built.
A Nameplate Living on Borrowed Time
When Ford introduced the compact Maverick for 1970, it retired the long-running Falcon name from its original role, only to resurrect it midyear as the base model of the mid-size Torino lineup. The four-door and wagon versions were essentially rebadged Fairlanes, but the two-door Falcon carried its own distinct body, complete with a B-pillar behind the driver’s door glass that set it apart from every other Torino-based car that year. Ford built the model for less than six months before phasing it out entirely.
The Drag Pack Almost Nobody Ordered
Buried in that short production run was the 429 Cobra Jet, which could be upgraded to Super Cobra Jet spec through the Drag Pack option, a package that added staggered rear shocks, a heavy-duty cooling system, a 9-inch rear axle, and a Detroit Locker differential, all built to survive the 375 horsepower the Super Cobra Jet made on paper. Only about 90 Falcons were ordered with that Drag Pack, and of those, just 38 came paired with an automatic transmission rather than the 4-speed manual.
That combination, a body style unique to a six-month production window, mated to one of Ford’s rarest big-block options, is exactly why surviving examples like the one pictured here, sourced through Gateway Classic Cars, draw so much attention whenever one surfaces.
Most muscle car shoppers in 1970 were looking at Mustangs, Torino Cobras, or Mavericks, which means the 429-powered Falcon slipped past most buyers entirely, a footnote model hiding a genuine big-block special underneath a badge everyone assumed was gone for good.
Today, that obscurity works in its favor. With production numbers this low and a body style this specific to one short window, the 429 Super Cobra Jet Falcon has become one of the more compelling deep cuts in Ford’s muscle car catalog, proof that some of the rarest options never needed a famous name to back them up.
A Name Ford Wasn’t Done With Yet
The Falcon nameplate had spent a full decade as Ford’s compact car before the Maverick took over that role for 1970, and rather than retire the Falcon name entirely, Ford’s marketing team found it a strange second act as the entry-level trim of the mid-size Torino lineup. It was an unusual choice, attaching a name buyers associated with economy motoring to a car that, in this particular configuration, was anything but economical.
A Body Style Found Nowhere Else in the Lineup
The 1970 Falcon’s two-door body shared its basic structure with the Torino and Fairlane, but Ford gave it a unique roofline and greenhouse not offered on any other model in the range that year. That distinction meant a 1970 Falcon wasn’t simply a badge-engineered Torino; it was a genuinely different car underneath the shared platform, built for exactly one model year before Ford discontinued the entire concept.
Why a “Cheap” Trim Got the Big Engine
Putting the 429 Super Cobra Jet on the options list for Ford’s lowest-trim mid-size car wasn’t an accident. Drag racers had learned throughout the muscle car era that a lightweight, stripped-down body with a big engine option made for a devastating combination at the strip, and Ford’s own performance-parts catalog culture understood that a Falcon buyer willing to skip power windows and vinyl trim in favor of the Super Cobra Jet was building exactly the kind of sleeper that could embarrass more expensive muscle cars on a Saturday night.
The Cobra Jet Family, Explained
Ford’s Cobra Jet and Super Cobra Jet 429s occupied the top of the company’s muscle car engine hierarchy by 1970, developed initially to homologate engines for NASCAR and drag racing before trickling down into street-legal options across the Torino, Mustang, and, in this unusual case, the Falcon-badged trim level. The Super Cobra Jet variant added a stronger bottom end and different cylinder heads aimed squarely at drag strip durability rather than just outright horsepower numbers.
A Short Run Makes for a Rare Survivor Today
Because the 1970 Falcon existed for exactly one model year before Ford dropped the nameplate for good, genuine survivors, especially ones optioned with a big-block like the 429 Super Cobra Jet, are considerably rarer today than contemporary Torinos or Mustangs carrying similar engines. That scarcity has made the ’70 Falcon something of a cult favorite among Ford muscle car collectors specifically because so few people even remember it existed.
The End of an Eleven-Year Run
When Ford retired the Falcon name after 1970, it closed the book on a nameplate that had launched in 1960 as a straightforward, economical compact and spent its final season wearing a big-block engine option that would have seemed unthinkable to the car’s original target buyer a decade earlier. Few Ford nameplates traveled as far from their original mission as the Falcon did by the time it disappeared.
A Documentation Headache Collectors Still Deal With
Because the 1970 Falcon doesn’t fit neatly into either the compact Falcon’s decade-long production history or the Torino/Fairlane’s parts catalogs, owners and restorers still run into confusion tracking down correct trim and interior pieces today. Parts suppliers and reference guides built around the more common Torino and Fairlane often list the Falcon-badged variant as an afterthought, if they list it at all, making genuine documentation and correct restoration parts noticeably harder to source than for its better-known mid-size siblings.
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Republished by Blog Post Promoter
