It’s quite an honor to be nominated, thank you. Since the nomination picture was taken in 2003 I have added the vinyl roof & trim. Unfortunately I did not take many digital pictures when I was rebuilding her, and I have not scanned my photos. I am 2000 miles away from her right now, but here’s some more pictures from my gallery here on CCCF:
When I bought her:
What I did to her:
How she looks now:
In a nutshell:
1969 XR7, 460/C6 TCI 2500 stall 9" locker 3.25:1 Aluminum heads & intake, Holly 4V, Duraspark with MSD-6AL. Redid the interior with leather seat kit and running cat mats from John’s, carpeting from ACC. The Shelby style traction bars come & go. She launches just fine without them but I can’t decide if they help the handling or not. She is pretty much as you could do it in the early/mid 70s interior & exterior. The drivetrain is a different story.
I bought her Sept 2, 2000 in West Jordan Utah - just outside of Salt Lake City - and drove her back to NH. We (my wife Cheryl & I) left SLC midday Monday and arrived home in NH about 2 PM on Thursday, She ran like a champ the whole way. No cruise control, no AC and an AM - 8 track. It was a blast.
I drive her wherever she goes - farthest so far is 500+ miles each way to Carlisle All Ford Show in PA. She’s been there twice and of course it poured both times. She likes to cruise Rt 1 along the coast up into Maine and the mountains of Vermont. She handles amazingly well - just don’t tromp the gas in a corner!
In addition to being a fun ride She is the main test bed for my innovations - tach, volt meter, relay kits, headlight motors, programmable wipers… she’s seen it all.
Oh, and she has no name. We refer to her as “The 69”. Always have, I guess we always will.
Add in the fact that the picture in the center mirror always looks like you just drove into a tunnel and that’s just plum AWESOME!
No, seriously… a fow-er-twinny-nine in anything is automatically awarded a lot of ‘coolness points’; and for some strange reason I sorta-kinda like the Big Cat’s body lines, including the oversized “sail-panels”.
This beast is definitely in my “Top Two” - even if the front bumper doesn’t stick out far enough to hold your backside while you take a load off your feet!
Oh yeah: E-Bob, I’m now down to 3. It’s getting more subjective now…
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Your car is one fine Cat and well deserving of ROTM.