In the 1960s, Ford and Chrysler were hell-bent on dominating each other on the oval tracks of the Southeast, and they were not pussyfooting around with the task. Chrysler brings out the 426 Hemi, Ford goes nuts, NASCAR bars the engine because it technically wasn’t homologated for street use. Ford whips up the 427 SOHC “Cammer” engine and Chrysler goes nuts, lobbies their asses off and gets the Cammer outright banned from NASCAR. Petty takes 27 out of 48 races in 1967, and Ford sees something they want all of a sudden. Ford gets to work in the wind tunnel and whips up the first of the Aero Warriors, the Torino Talladega/Cyclone Spoiler II. Petty jumps ship in 1969 when Chrysler refuses to let him drive a Dodge Daytona. Plymouth gets the Superbird for 1970, Petty returns, and NASCAR puts an end to the major combat by choking the life out of the Aero Wars for 1971. After that, fuel crisis after fuel crisis defuse the situation. In a nutshell, that’s part of the story on why the Musclecar Era actually had teeth. It wasn’t all about youth and hot rods and drag racing for the everyman. That helped, yes, but a lot of what really went on was that kind of corporate warfare. “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” was a real thing and every OEM took that seriously.

With that history lesson complete, here’s another one for you: Steve Strope and Pure Vision. The cars that Pure Vision has cranked out over the years have been pure gearhead pornography: Challenger X, the Z/28 Nova, the Hammer Road Runner, and the Martini T-5R Mustang are all builds that need no introduction. Several of his cars have made it onto the big screen, with the Hammer ‘Runner, the Anvil Mustang, and a take on a 1972 Ford Torino he built…best not to ask too much about that one. What you are looking at here is the “Black Ops” Fairlane. Strope likes to give these big builds like the Martini car a backstory to go along with the modifications and that’s actually a really cool way to approach the start of a project this in-depth…it gives focus to the overall build.

If that’s too much detail for you, there’s a simpler reason to like this car. That mill that NASCAR banned? Yup, it’s in there.