Other guys Supercars?

[jimbo]

Just curious if the Ford and Chrysler guys had anything equivalent to COPO,Yenko,Motion,etc. The only dealer tuned cars I have heard of are from Mr. Norms Grand Spaulding Dodge and I dont think they were as elaborate as say a Yenko. Jim

[hvychev]

Would most of you consider cars built by Shelby as Fords Supercars?

[copo9566aa]

1967 Mustang Stallion
1969 Firebird Commanche
AMC Javelin RR1
67 Stallion [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[Salvatore]

I think Hurst Performance in Michigan did the 1968 Hemi Darts and Cudas. Ford had an aftermarket company do their Boss 429 Mustangs, and of course Carroll Shelby did many things. The COPO I think was the only car built that actually came down the same assembly line as the 6 cyc. cars did. There were many dealer installed items for Ford and Mopar. Tasca Ford, Grand Spalding Dodge,etc. Sam

[olredalert]

------Did Tasca Ford ever build any upgraded supercars.They did so much performance oriented stuff it would seem like a natural.............Bill S

[tom406]

Tasca did appear to be in that business, with their KR-8 Mustang package featured in HOT ROD. This was a 390GT Mustang fitted with a 428 Short block and a variety of 427 Low Riser and Medium Riser bits to make it a mover. It was a pretty well thought out package, which makes me think they did a few other Mustang and Fairlanes in a similar fashion. Like Yenko, they preferred to let the factory do the dirty work if at all possible, and the KR-8 feature spurred a write-in letter campaign to Ford that pushed them to do the exceptional 428CJ engine program. That's the legend anyway.

Mopar never seemed deny their dealers the biggest engines for their intermediates, so a rule bending, engine swapping dealership wasn't necessary. (Knowledgable mechanics to tune those finicky Hemis running strong were highly sought after, however.)

I think Pontiac dealers were probably in the closest position to emulate the Chevy guys, with similar cars (Firebirds and GTO's)and similar short-block swap options. Where Chevy guys upgraded their 396 bottom ends with 427's, 389 and 400 Pontiacs were easily upgraded with 428 (or prior to that,421's). Royal Pontiac did this for several Pontiac magazine test cars, and I'm sure for paying customers as well. Myrtle Motors in Maspeth, NY offered supercar upgrades to their customers. I have a road test of a Myrtle Motors prepared '68 428/TH400 Firebird. It had a Ram Air top end and a host of supertuning options. It ran 13.90's on F70-14 thin whitewalls and a 12.55sec @ 110MPH on M&H cheater slicks. Total price of the new 'Bird with its tuned 428 was $5149.74. Base price of a Firebird that year was a click under $2800.

The Firebird article was reprinted in a '84-era MuscleCars magazine. I had to smile when one of the articles in there said a Hemi Challenger can "bring as much as $7500 in today's marketplace". (Of course, I was in 10th grade at the time, and that was all the money in the world to me and then some [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img])

[Zman]

How about the Hurst SS AMX? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]
Supercars has a beautiful example on his web site. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worship.gif[/img]

[JoeC]

There was a story on how Tasca Ford came up with the 1968 428cj. It was somthing about them blowing up a 390 Mustang which they thought was a dog so they rebuilt it useing the best parts they could find in Fords parts bins. It ran pretty strong so they showed it to Ford. Ford liked it so stepped up and made 50 to make them NHRA Super Stock legal. This was one reason Chevy did the 427 COPOs.

[Salvatore]

I think Rice and Holman Ford out of Philadelphia did some early swaps. They sponsored Al Joniec with the Bat Car Mustang. Holman and Moody was a big Ford dealer also. They might have been from Florida, but I am not sure. We hated Fords in those days!! Sam

[NCGuy68]

[ QUOTE ]
Holman and Moody was a big Ford dealer also. They might have been from Florida, but I am not sure. We hated Fords in those days!! Sam

[/ QUOTE ]

Sam....you took the words right out of my mouth mentioning Holman and Moody. Actually, they were from Southern CA and moved to the Charlotte, NC area sometime in the 1950s. They got hooked up with Ford to produce circle track and road race cars which they did very well. They also built some pretty stout drag race motors. To my knowledge, they never sold any complete Supercars cars thru a dealership.

Today, any of they're documented cars/motors/parts are highly sought after particularly by the Blue Oval guys.