Posts Tagged: Torino Cobra
A rare 429-powered 1970 Ford Torino Cobra rolled into a vintage NMCA drag event on nothing but factory-width rubber — and dipped into the 12s anyway. Ford built barely two thousand of these with the big engine, and far fewer with the gearing to make a pass like this possible. Here’s the math behind one of the toughest quarter-miles in muscle car history.
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.
For 1970, Ford promoted Torino to the top of its mid-size lineup and spread it across seventeen different models, from a basic wagon to the 429-only Torino Cobra fastback. Coke-bottle styling, a new competition suspension package, and interior updates reshaped the range from top to bottom. Read on to find out what Motor Trend meant by calling the Cobra “completely different.”