My parents liked the Ford Gran Torino when they first saw the tv series 'Starsky and Hutch'. They found a good deal locally on this white 1974 Torino base hardtop. Note the different grille treatment from the Gran version. The base grille design was inspired by the Aston Martin of the late 60s, which you see in a photo below. The 1972 through 1976 Torinos don't generally get the respect that they deserve. Ours was the first car that I drove and we had it for a total of 14 years. If not for the heavily salted roads in the winter here in upstate New York, I would still have it. Contrary to a lot of opinions out there, the Torinos handled very well for their size. Even our mechanic agreed with that. Performance? Ours had the small block 302 Windsor V8 with 2 barrel carb and full emissions equipment installed. Yet I vividly recall a day when my dad passed another vehicle while going up a long, steep hill and I was in the back seat watching the speedometer as it reached 90mph and the engine still had power to spare. A lot of the critics may have owned cars with the big block 400 Cleveland V8 with 2 barrel carb, which was a heavier engine with a poorer power-to-weight ratio and handling that was adversely affected.
For sales in Venezuela in 1974, Ford still called the car 'Fairlane' which was a name that was not used by Ford in the U.S. after the 1970 model year.
The late 60s Aston Martin:
These 3 images are of a 1976 Gran Torino that was actually used in the filming of 'Starsky and Hutch'. The shade of red was a special order color and not a regular production Ford color. Whenever there was a case like that, Ford installed silver bumper filler panels, front and rear. More recent yellow Crown Vic taxi cabs have the silver panels too.
We also had a 1973 Gran Torino wagon for a while:
I also had a 1973 Ranchero GT for a while. Very similar to this one, except that mine was a light yellow-green. It did have the wide yellow stripe with the smaller black stripes surrounding it. Someone added amber lights to this one. All four of the headlights on mine were clear:
I also had a 1979 Ranchero GT. From 1977 through 1979, the Torino became the LTD II. It had retro stacked headlights. I like the design. A lot of people don't. I added 1960 Ford Galaxie cone-shaped wheel covers to my Ranchero to add to the vintage look. I also added a U.S. Navy grille badge to replace the standard one. From 1972 through 1979 there were a lot of Ford and Mercury parts that interchanged across various models. My Ranchero came from the factory with the instrument cluster bezel as in the first photo below. The second photo shows where I changed to a blue vinyl bezel from a Mercury Cougar and also added a Ford 3-spoke sport steering wheel.
These are photos of an LTD II Sport. My car was a base 2 door hardtop but was the same Light Jade with darker green accents. I ended up selling my LTD II and Ranchero GT to a guy as a package deal.
I also had this 1975 Ford Elite for a while. It was a Torino variant. They were built for 3 years, 1974 through 1976. In 1974 they were called 'Gran Torino Elite'. For the final two years they were simply 'Elite' :
So, there's a bit of 1970s Ford history.
I hope to have one of those types again in the future. What do I have today? A 2000 Ford Crown Victoria former police interceptor that is sidelined right now with a vapor canister problem. Interestingly, the interior and exterior dimensions of the Crown Vics and Torinos are virtually identical.
