From the Marti Report:
ORDER TYPE:. SPECIAL PURPOSE VEHICLE
DEALER #. 84230J, LINCOLN-MERCURY DIVISION GO, 3000 SCHAEFER RD, DEARBORN, MI
Anyone care to comment on that tidbit?
Donāt forget that if the heads have been off, they may have been swapped around during re-installation ~ the VIN might now be on the front of the passenger side head.
I looked. Didnāt see anything. I know where the block casting date is, I just didnāt feel like laying down. I will have to look for the engine assembly date when I go back. Seeing Royces blocks casting date I would think they should be the same or very close.
I would love to; but I have nothing to add. Maybe Mr Pinkerton or Royce might have some info. Having that would be valuable history.
From Marti site: but the Special Purpose Vehicle defn is kinda vague)
Retail ā an individual comes to a dealership and orders an as yet unbuilt vehicle
Stock ā a dealer orders a vehicle to have available for display at his/her location
Basic ā Ford has excess capacity on an assembly line and produces vehicles to keep the plant busy
Fleet ā a company that orders five or more vehicles yearly qualifies for price breaks on these vehicles
Special Purpose Vehicle ā a vehicle built by Ford for what the name implies
Introductory Show Unit ā a vehicle built to demonstrate a new model. Generally this vehicle is shipped to be on display at some large public gathering
A-Plan ā vehicles built for current Ford employees and sold at a discounted price
Z-Plan ā vehicles built for retired Ford employees and sold at a discounted price
Lease ā vehicles leased by Ford to an individual or a company"
I heard it has a 1970 block in it.
Owner has been posting more photos on the Eliminator group page on Facebook the past few days.
It does have a 70 Block. Heads and Intake are dated to maybe original.
Tim has sold this GT-E. We found it had a fresh engine but the cam had gone flat. We cleaned it out the best we could. and put in a new cam, lifters and replaced the rod bearings. #8 has some light scoring, the crank looked fine. I was not there when they did the brake in on the nes cam, but after about 16 minutes it started a minor noise that I was told they thought was a piston. If it were my car and money I would have pulled the engine out when we found the bad cam and sent it off for a rebuild. But it is want it is. I understand the new owner is planning a full restoration, Iām not sure if he plans to find a March 68 block for it or just rebuild the 70 one that is in it. The heads and intake look to be originals to the car with 8D dates.
I hope the new owner will find an appropriate 428 block for the car. They are out there to be found, and not anything like the cost or difficulty of finding a 427 GT-E block. The same block was used on 428CJ Mustangs, Cougars, Shelbys, Torinos and Cyclones. Even Park Lanes, LTDās, police cars and grannyās Country Squire station wagon 428 used the same identical block. The heads, intake, carburetor, distributor and 1968 style 428CJ exhaust manifolds represent the hard parts to find.
Royce, what are some examples of what SPECIAL PURPOSE VEHICLE would be purchased for?
Could this car have been ordered for testing by L-M?
Itās a good question but I donāt have any answer that has any basis in facts so I am going to say I have ideas but no knowledge. Maybe for use by a celebrity at a special event of some sort would be a guess. Then after the event sold off as retail / used car. I would guess very few cars each year would be of this order type. If it were mine I would get a Marti Report with that statistic.
Royce, that makes more sense than my guess it was a test vehicle. L-M wouldnāt need the XR7 package for vehicle testing.
The oddity is the Traction-Lok optionā¦nice!
When a vehicle was used for testing there is an order type for that specifically. Iāve seen some Marti Reports that say crash testing too. I know of a '69 Cougar that had notes on the invoice that said it was ordered for āElectric Seat Back Release Testingā. I donāt know if the Marti Report said anything because I did not see that for that particular car.
I saw that. I meant that I did not ever see the Marti Report for the '69 which was used for electric seat back release testing.
My mistakeā¦ It would be nice to know what this GT-E was used for.
The new owner is actively looking for a date code correct block. Let me know if you have one and I will put him in contact with you.
He has located original fan with clutch, alternator brackets, smog canister, smog canister bracket, exhaust, power steering pump, carburetor, lift hooks, and a close date coded distributor. He is well on his way to finding everything the car needs. I know he needs more to the smog system and possibly a few other little things I canāt think of at the moment. He has done an amazing job finding parts so far.
Iām happy to hear he is trying to return this to as close to original as he can. I like Cougar and hope to see it again.
My Dad recently passed away , I came across the VIN 8F93R569383 to his old GTE and found this thread. Pretty wild. My father owned this car from about 1986 - early 1990ās when he sold it to Darin Felton. My memories of the car and the story if anyone is interested. I was a teenager at the time. We saw this car in '86 at Carlisle , guy from VA was selling it. Dad made a deal with the guy and went to meet the guy at some point to pick up the car and drive it home. The guy blew the engine driving the car as he was going to the meet up spot. He showed up hours later with no car (no cell phones then!) Dad still wanted the car even with the blown engine (cheaper obviously) and went back weeks later and trailered it home. He rebuilt the motor and replaced the broken CJ block with a 428 block out of a 66-67 T bird Q code parts car. I believe he reused the heads on the car but im not sure. Pretty sure the headers were on it then. He enjoyed the car for a few years, a few car shows, blasting around town etc. We had no idea how rare the car was at the time. Dad thought the car was special especially because it had a Home Office Reserve and had a swing away steering column . There was no Martiās, no internet, etc. Just stuff we would read in books and talking to people. I remember Dad joining the cougar club and some āsnail mailā letters with Jim Pinkerton. Around the same time he bought another GTE 8F93W537375 that needed restoration. (thats another story haha) He ultimately sold the car to Darin, who flew out to New Haven CT from Idaho or Oregon. Darin drove the car home even though my father thought he was crazy. I wish I had pictures, I know we had a couple Polaroids at one point.
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