The other night I got to do a rare thing: interact with a reader not through the forum, or Facebook, or in person…but rather as we were being shot at mercilessly by a ten year old with a major vendetta against us. “Eliteman76”, BangShift’s resident Torino worshipper, and I were playing Grand Theft Auto Online and in between random expletives whenever we’d wind up shot (again…and again) the discussion turned to cars…which, for him, roots to one particular model. He’s the Ford answer to what I’m like with strange Mopars, and I mean that in a positive way. He’s all about Ford’s midsize machine, a car that was just as potent as anything else out there during the musclecar’s heyday, but somehow seems left out in the cold unless it’s a one-of-five with a Marti Report and proof that Bob Glidden sat on the hood one time in 1985. Or a Starsky clone.
I actually really dig Torinos, though my cutoff year is 1973. I like the open-mouthed 1972 and the 1968-69 versions, which had the semi-squared off, ready to fight look that AMC, Chrysler, and Chevrolet all had. Not every car was a 400 horsepower monster, but when even the sedans looked capable of surprising you, that was a good day. So I went digging, and went straight to one of my favorite hot spots…Scott Liggett’s backyard in Nebraska. That’s where I found this 351-powered 1969 Torino GT, a car that just looks right. It’s not visually done, but the Torino says “drive me, don’t be scared”. And that’s exactly what you should do. This was a driver’s car: four big gauge pods on an otherwise blank slate of a dash told you everything you needed to know. The engine encourages you to dig deeper, and the whole muscle-beater vibe works. You could paint the car, sure…but it might lose something in the end.
And it’s affordable! Right now, you’d have enough money to pick up the car and handle the paperwork fees if you didn’t haggle with your five thousand dollar budget. Affordable cars are still out there…and they don’t all look like fifteen-year-old Toyota Corollas.
Craigslist Link: 1969 Ford Torino GT
