1969 Ford Torino For Sale
1969 Ford Torino
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The 1969 TorinoTalladega was based on the Fairlane Cobra \"Sportsroof\" (Ford\'s tradename for a fastback) 2-door hardtop. To make the car more aerodynamic at highspeeds, a sleeker front section (whose design and construction is oftenattributed to the Holman-Moody race team\'s shop) was added. Regular productionFairlanes and Torino’s had a then-fashionable inset grille and headlights,which fared poorly in the wind tunnel. The Torino Talladega replaced this nosewith one that extended the car\'s length by about six inches, with aflush-mounted grille on a more aerodynamic front end. The close-fitting bumperwas actually a rear bumper that had been cut, narrowed, V\'ed in the center, andfilled on the ends to create a crude air dam, further improving theaerodynamics of the car at high speeds.
Allproduction examples were constructed during January and February 1969 at Ford\'sAtlanta Assemblyplant in Atlanta, Georgia,and all homologation cars between January 21 and February 28. (According to theTalladega/Spoiler Registry\'s records, Talladega number 502 was actuallycompleted on January 31, and then the last 247 homologation cars were builtbetween February 14 and February 28, following a 2-week break in production.)It is unknown as to why Ford built an \"extra\" 247 homologation cars,once the homologation requirements had been met during the initial run, as itis thought that Ford lost several thousand dollars on every Talladega that wasbuilt.
Theonly options offered on the production vehicles (besides the three color choices,including Wimbledon White (286 built), Royal Maroon (258 built) or PresidentialBlue (199 built)) were power steering, power brakes, color keyed racingmirrors, AM radio and argent styled steel wheels with F70 X 14 wide oval tires.All production Talladega’s received the same options with no substitutionsincluding the C6 automatic transmission and Code 9 3.25 ratio conventional rearaxle.
1969was Ford\'s last year of factory involvement in racing of any kind for severalyears. Following Congressional hearings in which they were questioned about theR&D costs of racing vs. improving fuel economy and safety, Ford completelyabandoned all of their racing programs, starting with the 1970 season.Subsequently, most of the NASCAR and ARCA race teams that were running Fordscontinued to run their 1969 Talladega’s in 1970 without any factory support,when it became apparent that their Talladegas were aerodynamically superior tothe 1970 Torino’s Ford had intended to be the Talladega\'s replacement. Afterthe 1970 season, NASCAR effectively banned the \"aero cars\" by restricting all fiveof these \"production\" cars to having to compete with engines nolarger than 305 cubic inches of displacement (vs. the 426, 427, & 429 cubicinches other cars could use), and the competitive history of the Talladega (andits aerodynamically-developed rivals) was essentially over.
Although most peoplewould think that Mopar with their far-fetched rear wings or dramatic front endsdominated the NASCAR tracks back in the late 60\'s but that was not the case.The (very humble by visual comparison) Ford Torino Talladega actually owned theNASCAR Manufacturer\'s Championship. This car lead to Ford\'s most successful racing season and the only year Richard Petty drove a NON-Mopar with him finishing 2nd in the standings behind the winner David Pearson! With only 751 Talladega\'s produced in totalthe 300 that were available for resale are very rare today!! The body isstraight and lines up well and I don\'t see any signs of rust in thepanels. Again, the panels line up well, the doors shut nicely and visiblyit is not obvious the car isn\'t all original. The correct brackets, panels,bumpers, grill, are all there for the Aero Nose. These are extremely hard tofind parts and are a cornerstone of the value of this car.
THE CAR IS ALSO FOR SALE LOCALLY AND SELLER RESERVES THE RIGHT TO END AUCTION AT ANYTIME
CAR WILL NOT BE RELEASED UNTIL 10 DAYS AFTER FULL PAYMENT RECEIVED TO ENSURE VALID SALES PROCEEDS
