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?
Don’t 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. Didn’t see anything. I know where the block casting date is, I just didn’t 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 – an individual comes to a dealership and orders an as yet unbuilt vehicle
Stock – a dealer orders a vehicle to have available for display at his/her location
Basic – Ford has excess capacity on an assembly line and produces vehicles to keep the plant busy
Fleet – a company that orders five or more vehicles yearly qualifies for price breaks on these vehicles
Special Purpose Vehicle – a vehicle built by Ford for what the name implies
Introductory Show Unit – a vehicle built to demonstrate a new model. Generally this vehicle is shipped to be on display at some large public gathering
A-Plan – vehicles built for current Ford employees and sold at a discounted price
Z-Plan – vehicles built for retired Ford employees and sold at a discounted price
Lease – 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, I’m 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, LTD’s, police cars and granny’s 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?
It’s a good question but I don’t 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 wouldn’t need the XR7 package for vehicle testing.
The oddity is the Traction-Lok option…nice!
When a vehicle was used for testing there is an order type for that specifically. I’ve 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 “Electric Seat Back Release Testing”. I don’t 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 mistake… 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 can’t think of at the moment. He has done an amazing job finding parts so far.
I’m 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.