This car was purchased used by my father in 1976. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1978, before I was even old enough to drive!

I have driven this car through high school, college, graduate school, and years of work. It was my everyday driver for 27 years! I finally broke down and bought an Acura RSX, but I sure miss pulling into the underground garage at work and listening to that mean, deep, throbbing V-8 sound.

It has a 351W engine, rebuilt once. It's pretty far from stock now. It presently has an Edelbrock Performer 600 cfm 4bbl carb sitting on top of a Edelbrock Streetmaster manifold. I also added a Comp Cams High Energy Cam, which made it hard as hell to get a decent low speed idle. The engine is also about 4 cubic inches of displacement larger than stock due to its being bored 0.03" over.

Hedman headers hook up to 2 1/4" dual exhausts. The bright red box in the foreground is the MSD ignition unit. You can clearly see the Accel Kool Blue air cleaner which I replaced my old K&N unit with - the cotton started to discintigrate after about 20 years!. I have a 3 row Modine radiator to keeps everything nice and cool as I sit parked in one of Southern California's many traffic jams - the stock radiator was totally inadequate, the engine was always redline at hot even when it was cold out.


I also added an auxiliary transmission cooler to help keep my transmission fluid cool, and a flex fan to pick up a few extra horses. You'll notice I mounted the tranny cooler away from the main radiator in an effort not to transfer heat from one cooler to the other. Probably not worth the extra effort; I've never seen another car with this arrangement. I also added a Transgo shift kit for firmer, snappier shifts.

I also installed an Edelbrock water injection system because I was afraid of detonation problems due to the 10.5:1 compression ratio and crap 91 nonleaded pump gas. When I did the rebuild I noticed the timing chain was stretched, so I replaced it with a Cloyes True roller timing chain. Of course you can't see it, but I also added a windage tray to pick up a few more free horsepower.

Here you can see the MSD distributor and 9mm Ford racing wires. When I rebuilt it I also added a Milodon high volume oil pump. I still get over 70 psi of oil pressure at 3000 rpm! I also replaced the stock fuel pump with a Carter mechanical unit, and the stock starter with a Hitachi unit, which made a HUGE difference in starting the car up!

Handling is improved with 14"x7" P245R60's - I should of went with 15"x8"s, but I was 17 at the time and didn't know any better. You can see I also installed front and rear Addco sway bars. The rear is 7/8", while the front is a huge 1 1/8"! I replaced the stock rubber bushings, which were dried out and cracked with age, with urethane ones. I also added heavy duty Moog springs, and KYB gas shocks front and rear. This car barely leans at all during hard turns, and actually handles surprisingly well for a heavy 1970 era musclecar.

Inside I added an Autometer tach, and Stewart Warner ampmeter and mechanical oil pressure gauges.


The stock Ford seats sucked, so I adapted Recaro bucket seats I pulled from a Porsche 911! Fitting metric seats to this car required a lot of fabrication!

Here is one of the more trick things about the interior. To deter thieves, I added a Grant Steering Wheel anti-theft device. Here you can see the steering wheel locked onto the column, and it removed with the security plate locked on. Pretty neat, huh?

Here are some detail shots of the Cobra Jet hood scoop. This is the real deal from Ford with the funky turn signal indicators in the back, not some fiberglass repo by the way.

Here's what the car looked like from a previous paint job. Like the girl?

Significant race victories include a Mercedes Benz AMG Hammer which I totally smoked shortly after my rebuild - the guy who built my motor really went for brute power, totally sacrificing driveability. The car would not idle under 1,000 RPM, and at stops the car would creep forward constantly. I also beat my friend's 1966 Chevelle 396, and another friend's Challenger with a 440 Six-Pack! The Challenger should have beat me, but my friend can't set-up a car worth s#%t!