My first car was a Ford Fairmont Station
Wagon. It came with a Factory Stock 302cid
V8. I followed a friend one night out to a
local 1/4-mile dragstrip to watch him run his 1970 Dart
340 and he talked me into running my little wagon down
the track. From that day on I was hooked.
Soon my wagon had a 4-barrel carb and intake, dual
exhaust with glass packed mufflers, Auburn Posi-rearend
and Shorty headers.
Well I loved my dragg'n wagon but ran it a little to hard. The engine gave up the ghost and while I was getting the engine rebuilt I need transportation to work. I went to a local used car dealer and looked at a couple junkers. A Dodge Aspen on its last leg, and some other car I forget now. What looked like a deal was a silver 1975 Torino Elite with a 351 Windsor for $750. It sounded horrible when the salesman started it but didn't smoke and was solid looking. It sounded like it would fly apart at any moment but my dad pulled me aside and told me several times to buy the car. I thought he was crazy but the salesman said it sounded so bad that he would take $500 for it including title transfer and plates. I had no idea what a 3/4-race cam sounded like but sure found out what it could do.
I kept my Wagon about 7 years and my Torino about 4. Did a lot of damage at the track with the Torino and a lot of damage to the car. New transmissions, new rearends, constantly replacing tires, brakes, etc. Sold the car for $600 and got a 1978 Fairmont 2 Dr. Sedan that had 35,000 original miles on it for $1,200. The Inline 6cyl ran great so I left it alone. Not a drag car but great transportation. By the way it did run a 16.1 1/4 mile.
I kept my 1978 Fairmont Sedan for about 6 years. I rebuilt the carb at 130,000 miles, new accel plugs at 95,000 and 167,000 miles and oil changes every 3,000 miles. I sold it in running condition with 297,000 miles on it.
I bought for $200 a 1980 Fairmont Sportcoupe with a cracked block 200cid-I6 that had set in a garage for about 9 years. I changed the front crossmember and dropped in a 1968 289cid Stock 2-barrel engine. I did paint it but can't find any pictures of the final product. This has been so far my favorite car since I could pull the front wheels about 4 inches off of the ground, and with a 2 barrel carb at that. I took it to the dragstrip and ran a 13.75-sec best 1/4-mile. That was it I had to add more performance to an already fast car. I added stock mustang headers and dual exhaust which actually hurt performance so that was as far as I got because the track rules started to add restrictions at 13.9 seconds and under. The car body was twisting with the engine torque anyway and the passenger side of the windshield started leaking when it rained. I didn't add anything else but kept the car about tree years. I finally pulled the engine, transmission and rearend and traded the car and $100 to the junkyard for a 1982 Zephyr 2 dr. Sedan in pristine shape. An older gentleman had drove it up from Texas and the 4-cylinder engine locked up on him. This is my current project car for a V8 transplant. My '68 289cid or maybe..... Did I hear anyone say built 351 Windsor?
6-23-00 update Added
Page for new project Car
8-10-00 update Added Page Fairmont/Zephyr
Tech Info
9-05-01 update Added Page
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78 Ford Fairmont Station Wagon
14
sec Dragg'n Wagon
1975 Torino Elite
14
sec Definite Lead Sled
1978 Ford Fairmont Sedan
Long-term
Grocery Getter
1980 Fairmont Sport Coupe
13 sec Street Legal Runner
My
Dads Cougar
nice
ride