Rarest Of The Rare! The Ford Torino King Cobra 

@Greg Ballard If I recall he used to write for automotive magazines. Between that and being in the used parts buisiness for classic Mopars, he's likely made quite a few connections over the years.

@Greg Ballard ,,,,In the world of racing and development,,,,,,Top Secret is the way of winning.........the edge on the rest....................

The hardest yet most effetive interview topic ever is to shut the #%^$ up and let the other person talk! Well done tony.

Yeah he's stood there with a half smile of child like wonder on his face most of the time. It must've been a good day.

Hi, Unk Tony..... Nice video of the long, lost wedge King Cobra. There's a BOSS 9 burnt orang powered King in South Carolina. Love the Ranchero. The el camino killer Nice BIG ford rumble beside the squeeky belt. Thanks, UNK T. Big how do to UNK C. GOD BLESS BRIAN.

Respect is golden...

I noticed that, too!!!! He's a wise man who knows what he knows and understands how much he doesn't! Dunning Kruger nailed it! This man could easily run his mouth and hog the camera time with solid facts and that rodder swagger, but he's no fool. Hell yeah! I'm here for it!!!!!

My first car was a 71 Ranchero with the 351 Cleveland and a 4-speed.ive had many torino and even a 70 1/2 falcon.great cars.

Cool story bro.

You were in class w my brother Dennis may. He worked for Steve forever and a day. They still keep in contact now. You’d be surprised at what Steve’s collection consists of now

Age is just a number. My 77yo father recently got a crotch rocket so we can go riding. And I don't have a prayer of keeping up, he's a retired flat track racer from the 60s. Ever see a guy drag his knee in a corner on a bike on the street? Yea my dad does that 😆

@@MrTheHillfolk Awesome!

@@rodciferri9626 Funny how when we were teens , we knew it all and couldn't wait to get outta the house. Give that 25yrs and pops is one of my best friends. A health scare will do that to ya. he's fine but it made me wake up and realize some stuff, to say the least.

@@MrTheHillfolk , I wonder if the teenagers thought that he was awesome when he had his muscle car out on the street or out on the track?

@@paxhumana2015 Ever heard of "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena"? There are TONS of us "oldster" men like that too! I expect to be cruisin' in some sort of a hot rod until well past 90.... Hot Rods and Rock & Roll forever!

This is the good stuff.

I didn’t realize Larry Shinoda was ever involved with Lincoln-Mercury. He was the Lead Designer for the C3 corvette before he left GM with Bunkie Knudsen.

Aa

Here here, I second that

Down the RU-vid rabbit hole and found this gem. Thanks for capturing this history from the man who lived it.

Still doing stuff is probably helping him stay sharp.

half the people you meet at 82 and think they have got old and lost it were that dumb at 22.

Being older it's still mesmerizing lol

Agreed, this is so cool

Hey if you guys have a local small airport , I'd recommend going and hanging out there. My dad's retired and got a hangar about 20yrs back , and we have a blast wrenching on stuff and talking with alot of older gents like this all the time. 'Ol Bob came back from ww2, and was bored so he went midget racing. He's got good stories. Some of his buddies were into hopping up flatties. Who knows , you could even get a free ride if you want to. These guys like to fly, but not alone. It's like riding a dirt bike all all alone , it's not that much fun.

I was so lucky just to hear and talk to Bud Moore and Cotton Owens about the old days. I love when you can talk to the actual people. God rest their souls.

I'm not that young anymore, 44, but I do love the stories. When I was younger and going out to bars and stuff, I'd always sit with the old guys and listen. You could usually tell if it was an exaggeration but it didn't really matter

Uncle Tony & others need to collect his life experiance before its his time to go home...

These docs of the guys in those early years are nearly more important then the cars themselves! Ultra cool! I wish my dad had more stories to share from his time with ford parts back then!

I can barely remember how to count and he can remember SO MUCH

Hi Tony In 1973 when I was twenty I bought a car from a guy that I worked for. He bought it brand new in 1970 and use to cruise up and down the main street with it. I always thought that was the nicest looking car around. It was a 1970 Ranchero GT with a 429 Cobra Jet, 4 speed with a Hurst shifter, shaker scoop and hideaway headlights. Makes me wish I still had that car today. The 429 Super Cobra Jet came with a Holley and the Cobra Jet came with a Rochester Quadrajet.

He is a living Icon , man i would love to sit and chat with him i mean really , what an incredible trip that would be...Tony Rules, where else can we get this Gold?..Peace...

@@thewrench324 zA

8

WOW! What a buzz! do you know if the Gentleman you visited is still alive and/or what happened to the 300 that Smokey raced, is it still in Oz? what happened to it?

@@Leosarebetter yes he is still around and it is still in his shed, very very interesting life he had, he knew smokey personally and also worked for Buick and Leyland as he was originally from the UK when he started in the car industry

@@Hitman-ds1ei Thanks for the reply Trevor, appreciate it :) he worked for Leyland as well? wonder if he had anything to do with the P76? (a brilliant car well ahead of its time)

@@Leosarebetter yes he was on loan from Buick for the v8 as chief engineer then ended up back with Chrysler Australia

Australia has awesone classic and monster quarter-mile cars and incredible mechanics.

.......The Era of American greatness,,,when all made was inside the states.............The Era of the big three OEM.............screw imports and the new cell phone generation....I'm 72,,,I've lived to long to see my passions eclipsed by new change.....Alien beings,,,all of em,,,,,F this W ......

Yea. A real pain in the ass. NASCAR is the reason Ford pulled out of racing not too long after the Aero Warriors, because of all the rules, burdening rules. This minimum 500 cars built for the general public was a disaster. Ford lost money on very single Talladega built. Infact, Dealers had trouble moving Talladegas off their lots because of NASCAR rules. 69 Talladegas were sitting on dealer lots, some till 1971.

@@styldsteel1 Same with the MOPAR wing cars. Nobody wanted them.

@@TheFirstStater not surprising. Imagine " Joe and Mary Walsh" going to a dodge dealership in 1969 and seeing this thing next to ????. Call me crazy. I'd oooh and ahhh too. But I'd also walk on by.

@@TheFirstStater THEY SURE WANT THEM NOW!!!

Some of the American "road class" cars at Le Mans put on a real show, along with the Germans, naturally. Vipers and Corvettes flat out for 24hrs. is an achievement. I think this race should revert to it's roots. (UK)

Much like six degrees to Kevin Bacon, there are six degrees to this guy for anything or anyone automotive.

I turned 60 on Sept 6th. I love Ford's. I could listen to old guys talk cars forever. Really miss the old timers. Wish they would talk to Cale and his brother about the "King Cobra" and its time on the track. What a story! Shawn.

"You don't get old and stop doing things, you stop doing things and get old." - George Burns

My jaw hit the floor as well. But what I keep forgetting is that back then it was"just a used car". I know I know, it almost sounds cringy but at the time, that's what they were, essentially. They're certainly a bit more than "just a used car" now!!

A sweet ride doesn’t even grasp the severity of this vehicle. This is one of the most rarest cars on the entire planet. And I’m a Chevy man This ford is serious business!

@@77yogurt He still cruises in it regularly. So at least we know there is no carbon buildup going on inside... Hope he keeps blowing the soot out of them for a long time to come...

@@77yogurt Haha I can't see anyone creaming their jeans in 2050 when they discover a barn find 2011 Ford Taurus.

@@MrTheHillfolk LMFAO I would have to agree!!

@Tim Cantrell Well he would be the Unicorn of gay car dudes😂

Some guys who appendix carry their pistol (12:00) will move the buckle off to the side.

Also guitar players... buckles are HELL on the backside of guitars.

nobody did there was only 3.I went to high school with a girl that had a regular Torino

I think he said they only made 8-9 before France said nono

@@edwardgensheimer6640 They did make the cover of Motor Trend in 1970, shortly after the program had ended. There were supposed to be 7 of them, 5 Ford and 2 Mercury. Now someone will have to correct me but Steve has the other Mercury as mentioned and it was possibly the ONLY Mercury version completed. The other Merc was scrapped as it was the #2 car, and only half finished when the program shut down. The Ford's on the other hand, counting Steve's, 3 others are known to exist. REAL ones. There are a few clones out there that people have made by taking casts of existing cars and making their own hoods and fenders out of fibreglass.

@@That_AMC_Guy These cars are some real treasures, I was only four in 1970 but my dad worked at a junk yard and raced at the local track back then so I have always had a love for racing and the cars of back then, love hearing the old car stories of back in the day how they worked it, the old NASCAR stories are so interesting could hear those for hours

I bought a '71 Torino GT in 1985 at 17 years old for $450. It originally came with a 351C 4v, but that engine had been removed for some reason, and replaced with a 302 and a C4. It was bright red, probably not the original paint. I naively bought it off a used car lot, and learned that it had some sketchy front end issues, and the ring gear on it's flywheel was kinda chewed up with some missing teeth. So it wasn't long til it chewed up the gears on its starter. At that age I had very little auto mechanic skills, and we lived in an apartment complex, so I didn't have access to a garage. There's no way I would've been able to drop the transmission, pull the converter and replace the flywheel anyway, so I drove it as long as I could, then got a different car.

My dad's retired and built a hangar on some land the local airport was selling off for that purpose. It's been an awesome 15yrs since then , we've got a bunch of older gents around (rare to see someone under 50) who have many tales of past shenanigans. like 'ol Bob coming back from ww2 bored as hell , so he went to go race midgets! He's lucky to be here to tell the tale , all of his friends who did it perished.

WELL SAID Bet he could do a book on racing stores / racing History and it would be reading Skunk Works by Tom Clancy only with stores like saving a two speed rear-end from the dumpster or Exp pistons from those teams. he seems like he should be on NPR each week telling racing stores AS so many have said thanks for having on the show and thank him for letting us in to his life and seeing those classic cars still running and unlike the cars of to day with fancy electronics to me they don't come close to those peace's of art and raw power

Jay leno , lol. Jk

who the hell still comments on "who disliked this video!" there must be millions of these pointless comments on your tube now and now here I am wasting my time too!

@@krusher74 who disliked this video

It’s just another example of the type of stuff Ford would show up at races with trying to pass off built just for racing as production products. Unless you’re a Ford nut and even then most still could not tell you what it is by looking at it straight on or quartering from the from though the Torino stripes might give it away. One of six bodies that even then it’s still two different body styles cobbled together. The engine is a 429 block with 460 crank, 1 of 3 intake manifolds made, way bigger than stock tri-power carbs, the heads were made by Holman and Moody that has those huge intake ports closed down to finally get air flow out of them. Mercury’s version didn’t even make the required 500 cars they just offered the slope nose as a factory add on that you had to install. But it goes hand in hand with Ford trying to call the SOHC 427 a “stock” engine when not even one was EVER installed in a car on the factory line. They would sell crate motors to some of the dealerships that were really into racing and they would install the engine and then try to pass them off as factory items. Then the ford fans whine and come up with their conspiracy theories of how NASCAR, NHRA and IHRA banned these creations when they show up at the track to race in one of the stock, super/stock or pro/stock classes. They were never produced by the factory so how can expect them to get to race in stock classes? FYI that yellow car is butt ugly with that nose, it looks like something you could order from J.C. Whitney in the early 70’s as a styled aero front end with a little drawing showing the lines from the wind flowing smoothly over the car as opposed to the swirling circles from a stock nose.

My gma had a 70 Fairlane. every time I see the back end of one it reminds me of her. Haha that sounds real respectful, but the mind is a screwed up place 😆😆

@@MrTheHillfolk Yes, my grandmother had a new '68 satellite four door. I was nine years old when she got it. The association is burned in my memory forever!!

@@ThomasJones-sz3sx Ahahaha I remember a time when I was a wee lad ,maybe 5-6-7 and you knew the sound of a Chrysler starter as mom's dragging you across the parking lot of the strip mall for back to school clothes 😆 Haha when the places were busy you'd hear one at least every minute 😂 Alas, as the 80s wore on into the 90s , those sounds faded more and more😕 Still good times , takes ya back when ya hear one.

Yeah he can't wipe the smile off his face the whole video. That ranchero was sweet. I used to have a 66 ranchero and the kid I sold it to, wrecked it 2 weeks later. Still kicking myself for selling it.

Randy WL more like Wonka’s Chocolate Factory! All the stuff about Holman and Moody was pretty cool, too... One of the best videos I watched about the history of Ford muscle was an episode of Victory by Design hosted by Alain de Cadenet. They started with the Lincolns taken down to the Carrera Panamericana, all the way through to the Ford GT of the mid=2000s. It also covered the history of the AC Cobra and its development by Carroll Shelby & company all the way to the Daytona Coupe and his work on the GT40 in the mid-late 60s. They didn’t cover EVERY FoMoCo special race/muscle variant, but DID cover some of the lesser-known. Check it out and enjoy!

Ranchero ? ,you mean Torino!

Correction!, you meant Ranchero.

It's a mechanics thing. My grandfather wore his that way & so did I when I wore a belt.

Learned something today

Guitar players too,, so it won’t scratch

Makes me wonder if it was at all similar to the Jaguar quick change type popular with the hot rod crowd.

@@gaelicwarrior5064 Seems this option workes more like an O/D. Manouverable while drivin'... Or?

@@SuperLuckyCat7 The old Jag rears that I've seen utilized in hot rod/nostalgia drag events had two rear facing, straight cut gears that were visible with the differential cover removed. To change the final drive ratio, one had only to drain the gear lube, remove the cover, and swap the two gears. This allowed for a street friendly gear ratio that you could drive to the track, make the switch for better race gearing, and then return to the street setting for the drive home.

The two-speed "streep" (short for "street & strip") rear axle was built by Dana-Spicer (and wasn't based on the Ford 9" as might have been expected.) A prototype Cougar Eliminator equipped with one was tested by several magazines in early 1969, and got rave reviews. All indications were that it was going to be a production Eliminator option (as was the Boss 429 engine.) But for reasons that still aren't entirely clear, both were withdrawn at the last minute and existing customer orders were cancelled. One possible explanation is that L-M was afraid of excessive warranty claims from customers attempting to shift axle speeds "on the fly." (It was designed to be shifted when the car was stationary.) Another intriguing rumor is that Iacocca didn't want to see his pet Mustang upstaged by a Mercury Cougar. Whatever the reason, the Cougar two-speed axle project is an interesting historical footnote, and up until watching this video I didn't know ANY of them had survived.

MaoTseHelen thank you!

2 speed rears have been around a long time. back in the 40's cadillac had one vacuum operated

I was in navy in the 80s shipmate had a pinto wagon with the 2 speed rear end . Was built for racing

I heard about it years ago. But it was so obscure ,and only 1 guy new about it at the time

C-C-C-C YEAYUH!!

@brandon kra lol

BFKAnthony817, it's a clone/replica, not a real King Cobra. Go to the Ford Museum and you'll see a real one and the history of the other two. This car is NOT one of them.

My dad bought one new in 70. Backed it off the train upon delivery and did the 1/4

@@inharmsway526 Nice. What time did he get in 1/4?