Posts Tagged: classic Ford
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 real 1967 Shelby GT500 sat gutted in a Nebraska barn for forty years before anyone dared touch it. Then a stranger spent $141,000 to bring it back — not to trailer it to shows, but to actually drive it, following a philosophy that’s since become the video’s most quoted line. Nearly 15 million viewers have watched the transformation unfold. What’s left is finding out exactly where all that money went.
A rumor claiming Ford is bringing back the Torino with 435 horsepower and rear-wheel drive has circulated across enthusiast forums, but there’s no official statement from Ford anywhere backing it up. The real story is better than the rumor: the original Torino Cobra packed a 428 Cobra Jet V8 and a genuine NASCAR pedigree. Read on to find out where this rumor actually came from.
Snowball Bishop’s old Ford coupe dirt-track racer sat behind his barn for decades, its Chrysler 440 V8 silent and its racing days seemingly over. Hagerty’s Redline Rebuild crew took on the full teardown-to-startup rebuild, hitting real delays along the way before finally getting the engine running and the car back on an actual dirt track after a fifty-year hiatus. It’s grassroots racing history, not a garage queen.
