Vintage Fords, Lincolns, and Mercurys!!

Just got a call from my buddy in Quebec that it will be the 40 th anniversary of the birth of the S&H Torinos at Carlisle this year .

Do you know Steve Bordi? He's in NJ and supplied a couple cars for the movie. This is my '74 actually in the street in front of his house.

My new engine is just finished. I don't know if I can make June 3, but it gives me something to shoot for...

http://www.carlisleevents.com/carli...isle-ford-nationals-detail.aspx?detailid=1158


Here's my babies, and yes it's still a 21-stud flathead, 3-speed on the floor. Mechanical brakes and all. The air filter is big enough for three of these engines ;-)

The little pick is terrible, but it's Ben Stiller running from my car.


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My trusty old Monchero ... cut the back down and jammed in a Subaru Brat pickup bed. If you're wondering about the flags on the push bar, that was at the dawn of the Japanese Invasion, and I was working for Ford at the time. <G>

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Loves me some '36 Tudor...I remember Fomoco actually took a cherry '36, & compared it to a '76 Fairmont. The Fairmont beat the '36 six ways to Sunday, only coming close in mileage, w/a 6 cyl version. The '76 is about the same age as the '36 was back then-in '76, but I think most of us would run over a clean '76 Fairmont to get to a clean '36..
 
Do you know Steve Bordi? He's in NJ and supplied a couple cars for the movie. This is my '74 actually in the street in front of his house.

My new engine is just finished. I don't know if I can make June 3, but it gives me something to shoot for...

http://www.carlisleevents.com/carli...isle-ford-nationals-detail.aspx?detailid=1158


Here's my babies, and yes it's still a 21-stud flathead, 3-speed on the floor. Mechanical brakes and all. The air filter is big enough for three of these engines ;-)

The little pick is terrible, but it's Ben Stiller running from my car.


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Yes , I have met Steve at Carlisle . Great guy . Nice car too . Have you been to Carlisle with your Starsky car ?
 
Yes , I have met Steve at Carlisle . Great guy . Nice car too . Have you been to Carlisle with your Starsky car ?
Never been there. I'm hoping to make it this year for the 40th.

Steve had three cars when I was there and he was planning a 460, 5-speed car. I just emailed him tonight to see if it's finished and which car, or cars, he's bringing to Carlisle.
 
Never been there. I'm hoping to make it this year for the 40th.

Steve had three cars when I was there and he was planning a 460, 5-speed car. I just emailed him tonight to see if it's finished and which car, or cars, he's bringing to Carlisle.

Well I have a hotel and the car is registered for the show, so I'm as committed as I can be. Now I need to make sure the car is finished in time. Lucky for me it's 90% done already. Just a motor swap, probably new exhaust to go with the new motor, and a little bit of interior work.

Steve is setting up the S&H displays in the main building this year. They are trying to get a few celebs since it's the 40th Anniversary. Considering everyone's age there may not be a 50th with any of the original cast.
 
My favorite ford, that I drove as a young man in San Jose California....

1950 Ford business coupe, swapped out the engine for the bigger Mercury V-8 with Offy accessories. Lowered it drastically, chopped the top five inches, shaved the door handles and the rest of the exterior trim and yes had it painted candy apple red then added chrome rims and baby moons.

Some of us are fanatically obsessive in every way....
 
Loved the looks of the torino,s .Too bad unless modded they were pretty gutless.But to be fair in the mid seventies gutless was Detroit's name up until not to long ago.In just a couple of years the big 460 lost over 100 hp ,I know I owned one !Im picking onall products from the mid seventies up with very few exceptions .I believe it took them quite a while to figure out emissions and performance .Look at cars today ,the avg v6 would smoke just about anything made back then and get great mileage doing it.
 
Well I have a hotel and the car is registered for the show, so I'm as committed as I can be. Now I need to make sure the car is finished in time. Lucky for me it's 90% done already. Just a motor swap, probably new exhaust to go with the new motor, and a little bit of interior work.

Steve is setting up the S&H displays in the main building this year. They are trying to get a few celebs since it's the 40th Anniversary. Considering everyone's age there may not be a 50th with any of the original cast.
I guess I better get off my a** and do the same .
 
Loved the looks of the torino,s .Too bad unless modded they were pretty gutless.But to be fair in the mid seventies gutless was Detroit's name up until not to long ago.In just a couple of years the big 460 lost over 100 hp ,I know I owned one !Im picking onall products from the mid seventies up with very few exceptions .I believe it took them quite a while to figure out emissions and performance .Look at cars today ,the avg v6 would smoke just about anything made back then and get great mileage doing it.

Over 300 hp from a 3.5l V6 today is "normal"

The factory 351C is rated at 140hp in a '74 Torino. A wheezing boat anchor of its former glory days. Plus a loaded Torino is approaching 4500 lbs. curb weight. I'm targeting 400 hp/400 lb ft out of a Cleveland stroker for a daily driver.

Although many won't believe it, the new Mustang and Camaro would make the fabled '69' Z28 and legendary Boss Mustangs go looking for loose spark plug wires.
 
Mine was similar to the one below, but one shade darker (Mauve Metallic) and I had wider wheels on it. 4-speed 4BBL FE and posi. Who-Whee :D
 

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how about a dream ford.400,000 dollars, 600 plus hp and beautiful .taking applications now on the new ford gt.
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Well, over 1/2 way getting the new motor installed and on the street. I may make it to Carlisle, yet.

We took the time to run it on a test stand first. Good thing, we ran into several issues, thankfully nothing major.

Put a Coan converter in since we had the engine out, Should help get off the line with the new motor.

I won't bore you with full build details. It's a 408 Cleveland stroker, .588" lift roller, Aussie heads, and a few Ford Motorsports pieces. This is a street car that gets driven quite a bit so we kept the compression to right at 10:1

Hope to get it on a chassis dyno for some real tuning. It will have to be plug reading and SOTP for now...

FWIW - A Milodon deep sump winged pan doesn't fit in a Torino chassis without a minor "adjustment". Nothing major. Torch and ball-pein hammer fixed it up just fine.

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That will wake up the old torino .It will sure beat that old anemic stocker which im sure I out dragged with my 10 speed back in the day,lol.Any idea on power output?
 
That will wake up the old torino .It will sure beat that old anemic stocker which im sure I out dragged with my 10 speed back in the day,lol.Any idea on power output?

I'm hoping (was shooting for) 400 hp and 400 lb ft out of this thing. Shifting at around 5500 rpm. As heavy as the car is, it will still be slow, just not as slow as it used to be;)

That was the goal. The build is rather conservative as far as Cleveland's go. Hood clearance is really limited on the Torino and I couldn't go with a high-rise manifold. Just a good old Edelbrock Performer in there with a 670 cfm Street Avenger. The cam is the heart. It's a custom grind, dual-pattern, hopefully designed for this application (I'm really hoping the cam grinder got it right). I was kind of surprised when I saw it was .588" lift and questioned him about it and reminded him it was a street car, not a track vehicle. He assured me it was a high-torque, mid-rpm grind. We will see. I don't want to go over about 5800 rpm with the stroker. There's guys that can go sky high with the Cleveland. 6500-7000 rpm is nothing to those guys, but very few are running on the street, and they aren't stroked.

The factory 351 in '74 was rated at 140 hp...The car weighs 4500 lbs (A/C, C6, 9 inch, pw, pb, full interior, upgraded stereo, etc.) You can imagine what a pig it was to drive. I had a lightly modified LS1 WS6 Trans Am (all bolt ons and tune) at the same time (just sold it last fall). It ran very high 12s with the right tires and driver (not necessarily me...) 312 hp at the rear wheels and 3500 lbs. So I got my jollies in that until this motor was finished. You should see the faces on folks with new $40,000 Mustangs and Camaros when an $8000 car beats their pants. That car was really fun, but there's no way I could keep three toys on the road.
 
Not quite vintage but getting there fast: long throw headers, Flow Masters with cats removed ( great exhaust SQ ), Eibach, Dens Charger, etc.

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Not quite vintage but getting there fast: long throw headers, Flow Masters with cats removed ( great exhaust SQ ), Eibach, Dens Charger, etc.

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Where's the roll cage, and does it hook up? ;)

On a serious note. Didn't they come with a hoop right behind the front seats? My memory isn't as sharp as it once was.

Had a buddy who used to "borrow" his fathers '67 GT350 convertible back in high school, yes it was a 289, 4-speed . Even in 1976 it got tons of attention. Wonder what that car is worth today? It was a preserved car even then, only out on Friday nights and sunny weekends...
 
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