A 1969 Ford Torino Talladega has been posted for sale on the Cars On Line website at a very low price.
1969 Ford Torino Talladega Homologated for NASCAR …
Ford Motor Company’s 1969 Ford Torino Talladega was the first aerodynamic factory production car to be homologated for NASCAR competition. Though Chrysler’s Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird are now more famous and get more respect from muscle car collectors, it was the Talladega which took all the honors as a NASCAR champion.
The 1969 Ford Torino Talladega was so successful in NASCAR that it won 29 Grand National races during 1969 and 1970. David Pearson won the NASCAR driver’s championship in 1969 campaigning Talladegas, and Ford won the 1969 Manufacturer’s Championship. There were only 750 of these Torino Talladegas homologated for NASCAR that year. It remains one of the rarest cars to find from the muscle car era.
The 1969 Ford Torino Talladega you see featured here is a “sleeper” deal posted by a private owner from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Follow this link to see the ad. The asking price is a surprising $65,000. These cars are so rare, you may never again see another one offered for less than $100,000. The seller tells us a frame off rotisserie restoration was mostly completed on this one with only a few minor details necessary to take it to factory spec. It comes with its matching numbers 428 CJ big block Ford motor. The seller says it has all original sheet metal, laser straight, and has near perfect Wimbledon White paint. He says it runs and drives excellent with its C6 automatic transmission. He also indicates that the Marti Report, a deteriorated partial build sheet and a full file of restoration receipts comes with the car.
To achieve the aerodynamic attributes Ford was looking for in a race car, the Talladega had to shed some of the Torino’s less aero perfect elements. Holman-Moody are credited with helping Ford make the front section a little sleeker by flush mounting the grille and headlights. This was accomplished by extending the car’s length by almost six inches. They actually took a Torino rear bumper and narrowed and V cut in the center while the ends were filled making it look like an air dam. The rocker panels of the Talladega were also reshaped and rolled. This enabled the NASCAR teams to run an inch closer to the ground in competition reducing the center of gravity and increasing wind tunnel flow.
Although the NASCAR Talladegas all had either the 427 side-oiler or later the Boss 429 engines, all of the production cars for homologation were produced with 428 Cobra Jets. Competition black hoods and rear deck panels came on all production cars. The 428 Cobra Jet had the ability to create high torque at low RPMs.
The salient virtue of the Torino Talladega was its front nose, with a flush-mounted grille and aerodynamic shape. The big secret about the Talladega was that the rocker panels were reshaped and rolled to allow it to be run about an inch lower to the ground. Ford was the first manufacturer to homologate an aerodynamic race car for NASCAR, although both the Dodge Charger Daytona and the Plymouth Superbird were not far behind. The Ford Talladegas were also the most successful.
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