In 1969, NASCAR was experiencing rapid growth, and all of the credit could be focused on one person: Richard Petty. Petty had left Plymouth to drive for Ford that year after Chrysler suits told him to stay with Plymouth instead of giving him the Dodge Daytona he wanted. Ford had the Torino Talledega ready to go, and the King knew how to make a good choice for a race car. In 1970, caving in to the loss of a big name, Plymouth quite literally slapped together the Superbird package for the Roadrunner and before you knew it, Petty was back in a Mopar.
Ford certainly did not take that news lightly. Irritated about losing Petty and wanting to ramp up the stakes again, went to work on their new-for-1970 Torino. The car gained a new nose cone that almost always brings to mind “Datsun 240Z”, with the air inlet low to the ground. Scoops were made to cover the headlights for better aerodynamics. Unfortunately, during testing, it was found that the nose cone worked way too well and that the back end liked to get really loose. Not good when you’re pushing 200mph on a superspeedway.
The engine for the King Cobra project was destined to be a 429ci, but here’s where things get tricky: To the best of our research, there are two of these cars in existence, the orange car and the yellow car. The orange King Cobra is packing a Boss 429, the yellow car appears to be packing a 429-4V, more commonly found in the Thunderbird and the big cars. Additionally, there might possibly be a third King Cobra in white, a fourth in pale yellow, and a Mercury Cyclone version in a red or orange, with little details known about either of those three. Given that this project never fully got out of the prototype stage, there’s a good chance those two cars met the crusher.
All in all, the project was doomed to fail from the start. NASCAR was sick of complaints about the winged Mopars and feared for safety after a couple of good wrecks and Buddy Baker’s 200mph lap at Talledega, and started a crackdown on the aerodynamically modified cars, bumping the homologation number from 500 to 3,000 vehicles. Ford, already noticing issues with insurance companies and changing tastes in buyers, decided to not to go further with the King Cobra Torino.
The King Cobra was Designed by Larry Shinoda, who many feel was the premier designer during the muscle car era.
The Calypso Coral King Cobra not only is the only one with a Boss 429 but also a 4 speed trans. The other prototypes had a C6 automatic trans.
Yes, the Torino King Cobra has been forgotten by many, but most don’t even know the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II ever existed–another future BangShift feature???
Supposedly the Cyclone was way better with the new nose than the Torino. Unknown what happened to them all.
Does any body out there know if one of the exsisting cars is the rumored junkyard boss car ?
I was lucky enough to see the red one being worked on at xtreme restorations in rhode island. One of the coolest cars ive ever seen in person.