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Posts Tagged: 429 Super Cobra Jet

Ford built only 73 examples of the 1970 Mercury Cyclone GT with the ultra-rare 429 Super Cobra Jet Drag Pak package, and this survivor still carries its original invoice, Marti Report, and numbers-matching drivetrain. Under deceptively quiet Competition Yellow paint sits one of Detroit’s most overlooked muscle car engines, now dyno-tested past 500 horsepower.

Ford’s 1970 Torino won Motor Trend’s Car of the Year award for its comfort and styling, but hidden in the order form was a solid-lifter 429 Super Cobra Jet built to run 13-second quarter miles. Only about 1,475 buyers ever combined the Drag Pack option with the Torino Cobra trim before Ford killed the combination for 1972. Here’s the story behind one of Ford’s rarest, most overlooked muscle cars.

A 1970 Ford Torino Cobra finished in Vermillion with satin black accents gets the spotlight in V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week series, powered by a factory-rated 375-horsepower 429 Super Cobra Jet V8. Owners in the comments dispute that number, with one claiming his SCJ Torino made closer to 540 horsepower once drag-pack options were factored in. Period magazine tests reportedly placed its quarter-mile times alongside a 435-horsepower Corvette, despite the Torino rarely getting the same collector respect today. One owner’s story about the car even ends with a deer strike on a Wyoming highway at 100 mph.

This 1970 Ford Torino Cobra hides a genuine 429 Super Cobra Jet under its shaker hood scoop — an engine one longtime dyno operator calls the most powerful he ever measured in his shop. Muscle Car Campy takes a close look at a survivor that commenters say routinely embarrassed 440 Mopars and 396 Chevelles back in the day. Watch the walkaround and startup in full.

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