The patriarch of the Tasca Family, the creator of both the Ford Thunderbolt, and Cobra Jet Mustang, the man who nearly single handedly brought John Force into the Ford fold, and the man who fostered one of the largest Ford dealerships in the country, Bob Tasca Sr. has died.

Tasca opened his first dealership in East Providence, Rhode Island, at the age of 27 and within a few years he was a regional volume leader providing customer service at a dealer level that had never been experienced before. As legend has it, Lee Iacocca, who was then the sales manager at Ford, personally contacted Tasca and asked that he open up a Lincoln and Mercury store in the same area. The tradition has carried on through the years and through the family, who still run the dealership which is now in an amazing Cranston, Rhode Island, location and lives by the words, “You WILL be satisfied.” Reportedly more than 95% of people who buy a car at Tasca, return to buy another in the future, and all of that stems from the work of Sr.

The man was also a hot rodder whose contempt of being beated by Chevrolet at the races and drive to provide customers a product that was capable of being competitive off the showroom floor led him to have dealer mechanics modify a Fairlane with a 406ci motor and take it racing. This car was seen and studied by Ford and they took its model and used it to built the 427ci Thunderbolts.

In 1968, while Ford Mustangs with 390ci engines were having their lunch eaten for them by Camaros, Tasca again pressed dealer machanics into action and began installing 428ci Police Interceptor engines in the cars which he called the Mustang KR8. Ford took this idea and built the mighty Cobra Jet drag and street cars.

All the while the dealership ran the “Mystery” series of Funny Cars piloted by Bill Lawton that went from modified door slammers to full on, nitro burning floppers and were highly successful (and always Ford powered). Today, Bob Tasca III carries on the tradition racing his modern nitro funny car on the NHRA trail.

We will keep you posted with the tributes and developments that are sure to come as this man was a genius in more ways than one in both the car business, performance business, and racing business.

If you listen hard enough, you’ll hear him chatting with Bill Lawton up in the great dragstrip in the sky. They’re ready to start picking off Chevys again.

Read much more about Tasca history and see the recent BangShift.com shop tour here.