A guy from another forum that I frequent took these pics What is this? It looks like the Starsky & Hutch car…..Looks like a Ford. This thing is F-ing SICK!!!!!! I LOVE IT!
The blue car is a '72-'73 Ford Torino. The Starsky & Hutch cars were '74 and later models. I've never big a big fan of the Torino's but that blue one does look pretty sweet.
I don't know........ I've never really even liked Torinos nor did I ever think they could look cool.... ......Until I saw this picture. As some of you may know I like cars that are different & this baby is different.
it's a 72. that was a one year only front end, thanks to the damn government and they're 5mph safety bumper BS Ford had to change the front end design in 73 to comply. suck too, because that was one of the best looking front ends on the torinos 68-69 would be the best and it's kind of a toss up for me whether or not the 70-71 or the 72 front end is better unless of course we're talking about the 70 torino King Cobra, then i'll pick that one and bump it into first place.
did Reactor get a new paint job? i thought it was different color green than that. also i don't care much for the orange one, they made it look too much like Reactor
Bryan, you nailed it on the '72 Gran Torino. Ford's designers were going for a copy of the earlier "bigmouth" Thunderbirds, but wanted to retain the (Fairlane) Torino's "identity". Personally, I'm not too impressed with the style; looks like "design by comittee" that never could reach a decision between "bigmouth T-Bird" and '59 Fairlane. I thought the '73 was a nice return to the "Muscle Fairlane" style. (But then again, I owned one; "park-bench" front bumper and all...) EDIT: To add pics: 1972 1973
I thought the orange one was a re-painted Reactor. How'd I guess there would be another flood of early fastbacks in SEMA this year? At least it gives me ideas.
Thanks for the correction, I thought Ford used that front end for two years. Back in the '80's a friend of mine had one in silver and it was a good looking car. The guy he bought it from put some Cobra emblems on it and he kept telling me it was a Cobra, of course it wasn't.
did they not make a 72 torino cobra? i was thinking they did for at least part of the year. they were available with the 351 cobra jet motor in 72 though.
In 1972 the Torino was available in the Gran Torino and Torino Sport, and like you said you get a Torino Sport with the 351CJ engine. What my friend had was a Gran Torino with 3 chrome cobra snake emblems on it and it had a 351 2V, bench seat and column shift. It was a good looking car with a nice rake to it, but it wasn't a Cobra or even equipped with a Cobra Jet Cleveland.
i had a porch bumper 73 randhero GT so i know where you're coming from. i remember ripping up pavement in that thing.... literally.... the front end was so worn out that any bump larger than a small pothole and the front crossmember would dig in and gouge up big chunks of asphalt
wow, the nemesis car look pretty alright. it's clean and tasteful which is a lot more than i can say about some of the mustangs at Sema this year, at least some of the ones i've seen anyway.
Been there! I got lucky; one of the parts houses that I frequented up in Tucson had a super-discount on some "oops!" springs. Guy wanted '68 T-bird springs; they ordered '78 T-Bird springs. OOOOPSSSSS! I wasn't looking for new front coils, but I couldn't pass them up for less than half-price; and they dropped right in! (As much as any spring "drops right in") Then it got expensive as I was looking for new rear springs so I could see over the front of the hood.
i got rid of it after just a few months. it had more problems than i was willing to fix at the time. mainly the 351m was pure crap, it had a bad cam or something, top speed was about 60 but it took about 5 minutes to get up to that. it banged out real bad but it idled pretty good, i think it had 2 or 3 lobes rounded on the cam and i'm pretty sure the timing had jumped too. the c6 never shifted right in the time i owned the thing and when i first bought it the thing actually ran ok, it was after i'd had it for about 3 weeks that it started having all the problems. i had bought the thing so i'd have something to drive while i worked on the mustang, yes the same mustang and this was back 1988. i spent all the money i had on the ranchero and didn't have enough to fix it and be able to do anything with the stang so i drove it as long as i could and got rid of it.
maybe i'm confusing it with an old toyota pickup i had. i had the toy right before i got the ranchero and one of them was a 73 and the other was 74. i can't remember which was which but i was pretty sure the 'chero was a 74. i'm also pretty sure that 73 was the first year for the 351m. the 400 came out late in 1970.
