Vehicle Owner

Member ID: GroceryKart

Location: raleigh, NC

Vehicle Info

1978 Ford Fairmont

Bragging Rights

  • 1/4 Mile0 sec @ -1 mph
  • 0-600sec
  • Top Speed-1mph
  • HP-1
  • Weight-1lbs

Major Upgrades

  • turbo
  • nitrous
  • bore increase
  • port and polish
  • supercharger
  • extrude honed
  • stroke increase
  • engine swap

Ratings

    • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
    • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.

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Last updated: Apr 06, 2009

Hits: 16,460

dave’s Ford Fairmont

  • Currently 3.7875 /5 Stars.
49 guestbook comments

Here is my GRM UTC entry:
Body: It's a 1985 LTD II that was a 6cyl, sold at auction state vehicle, that I got with a blown up V6 for 200 bucks. Its
got a Fairmont nose on it that's been dropped about an inch in
front with the fenders flared a couple of inches for tire clearance. Fiberglass hood and bumper, lightened doors with the impact beams cut out, and lexan windows. Color is Chrysler Prowler Orange. The front lower valence is a modifed bottom half
of a Honda Odyssey front bumper cover. The splitter is the top
half of a Volvo 850 front bumper. This stuff all still
needs to be painted. A 10 point cage, Sparco seat, and Mustang
dash fill the front half of the interior, while aluminum panels and an ATL 15 gallon cell fill up the back.

Suspension: Complete Griggs Racing GR40 A-Sedan package front and rear with Torque arm and Koni coil-overs. Rear is an 8.8 with an Auburn diff. The stock axle tube ends were cut off and replaced with 9 inch ends to eliminate the C-clips. Custom Moser 31 spline axles. Brakes are Baer Racing, 13' up front, 12" rear.

Engine: Balanced and blueprinted 347, 9.5:1 compression.
Ported TFS heads with a GT 40 intake. Full length headers, X pipe to Magnaflow mufflers. 5 speed World-Class T5 and aluminum flywheel, and a shortened Crown Vic aluminum Driveshaft.

The car was built to annoy Porsches and BMWs at open track events and NASAs American Iron series.
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont

I found some old pictures and thought I would update my page with a little history on the car. This started life as a repossesed 89 mustang LX that became the Snipes Ford/Team Highball IMSA Firehawk entry back in the early 90's. Team Highball closed their doors and I bought the car in 93? or thereabouts. At this point it was more or less a stock 5.0 with some decals on it and a bolt in Autopower rollcage. I drove it in it's Firehawk livery for a while and then painted it yellow. It slowly started getting modified as I autocrossed and tracked it every chance I got. I don't remember what year it was, but I crashed it pretty hard at turn 12 at Road Atlanta and had to replace just about every body panel on it. All my friends who had Mustangs chipped in and donated a body panel. Problem was every panel was a different color. I spent more money and time putting go fast stuff on it and never bothered painting it again. At this point I believe it was 8 different colors. I drove it like this for a few more years. I had finally replaced almost every part on it except the body which was pretty tired. I had welded cracks in the seat mounts, floor, strut towers, torque boxes, etc. The car was still really fast but butt ugly. The final straw came as I was sitting at a stoplight one day and the people in the car next to me were laughing at the bucket of bolts next to them. The time had come to replace the body too. I stripped the Mustang and put everything on the wagon over the course of about five or six years in my spare time at work. By the time it got to what you see here, I realized that after 14 years the only parts left from the original Mustang were the steering column and rack, the transmission, and gauge cluster. I basically threw away a perfectly good Mustang one piece at a time. No biggie I like the wagon better anyhow. I also forgot to mention in my original info that this is a street legal daily driver, although it's quite possibly the worlds worst street car.

Thanks to everyone who left comments, I appreciate it. See you at VIR!

GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont

Here's a quick update. I've been working on a bunch of little stuff to get ready for the GRMUTCC. My plan is to run the American Iron race with it also that weekend so I've been getting it compliant for those rules also.

GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont I didn't like all the wires in the engine compartment, so I moved the harnesses, coil, starter solenoid, MAP sensor, etc., to the otherside of the firewall.

GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont I made the bumper/splitter removeable for easy trailer loading/unloading. 4 nuts on the bumper face and some dzus fasteners and it comes right off.

GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont Window net and right side head restraint net.

GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont Here is the new rear wing with an adjustable wicker. I don't know how effective it will be, but it was fun to make. I also finally got around to making some exhaust tips.

Here are a few pics from last weekends UTCC.

GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont
GroceryKart's 1978 Ford Fairmont

Guestbook

Displaying entries 1-5 of 49

IceBlue06  

Posted by: IceBlue06

04/06/2009 05:45PM

that's wild..5 stars

bigbad4runner  

Posted by: bigbad4runner

03/13/2009 05:01PM

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN man i don't even have words to express how awesome the fairmont is man i love everything about it man keep up the fine work

E4drht  

Posted by: E4drht

11/01/2008 10:10AM

Great looking Mid-sized LTD wagon. BTW: Little correction for ya... there were no LTD II cars in 1985. ;) But, other than that... you did a great job on that wagon!

JRhapsody  

Posted by: JRhapsody

10/01/2008 08:21PM

Hey, I love the wagon. Its good they let you race and kinda funny seeing a wagon competing with more recongnizable sports cars. I found you through Foureyedpride.com home of pre87 Fox bodies. I love station wagons and this gives me some ideas.

BLUE00TTQuattro  

Posted by: BLUE00TTQuattro

10/01/2008 01:53PM

We saw and were blown away by your grocery getter sleeper at VIR this weekend. Took lots of pictures and were saddened by your spin (right in front of us!). Your car is awesome and we admire your courage and cleverness in building it. I suspect ALL those Porsche drivers behind you were cursing that damned station wagon and the Z06 Vette was worried about being passed by a station wagon! Keep it up!

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Vehicle Owner

Member ID: GroceryKart

Location: raleigh, NC