The Torino Talladega Ford Built Only to Beat Dodge !

📘 Think you know your car? Check the VIN first. Full decoding guide for Classic Cars → https://classiccarshistory.com/ The Ford Torino Talladega Ford Built Only to Beat Dodge In 1969, Ford built a NASCAR weapon you could only buy with a column-shift C6 automatic, a front bench seat and no four-speed. The 1969 Ford Torino Talladega was a homologation special. NASCAR rules said at least 500 cars had to be built for the public before a new body shape could race. Dodge’s Charger 500 had just shown what a flush grille and a flush rear window could do on the superspeedways, and Ford had to answer before the 1969 season. This documentary covers the late 1960s NASCAR aero war between Ford and Chrysler. It looks at each change that made the Talladega a stock car racer: a nose about six inches longer with a flush grille, a Torino rear bumper sectioned and narrowed into a front spoiler, and re-rolled rocker panels that let the race cars sit one inch lower under NASCAR’s ride-height rule. It follows the rush at Ford’s Atlanta assembly plant in January and February 1969. The 500-car minimum was cleared by January 31, and then Ford built 247 more cars that no rule required. Every regular production car had the 428 Cobra Jet and came in Wimbledon White, Royal Maroon or Presidential Blue. From there, the story moves to the race track. Richard Petty left Plymouth for Ford and won his first race in the new car at Riverside. LeeRoy Yarbrough won the 1969 Daytona 500 with a last-lap pass. David Pearson won the 1969 NASCAR Grand National championship with Petty second. Dodge responded with the winged Charger Daytona, and Plymouth later built the Superbird. The video also covers: the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II twin the 427 and Boss 429 race engines Bunkie Knudsen’s yellow Talladega and his firing from Ford the driver boycott at the first race at the new Talladega speedway Buddy Baker’s 200 mph lap Ford’s 1970 racing cutbacks and its withdrawal from racing the 1971 rule that limited the aero cars to 305 cubic inches It ends with what these Ford muscle cars are worth today. It also separates fact from legend. That includes the disputed production totals, the famous story about Bill France counting the same cars three times, and the one Talladega detail that no record has ever explained. If you enjoy classic car history, muscle car documentaries, NASCAR history and the stories behind rare American cars, subscribe for more. Tell us in the comments which classic car we should cover next. #FordTorinoTalladega #Talladega #FordTorino #NASCARHistory #AeroWars #MuscleCars #ClassicCars #ChargerDaytona #PlymouthSuperbird #Boss429 #CobraJet #DavidPearson #RichardPetty #MercuryCycloneSpoiler #HomologationSpecial #CarHistory #AmericanMuscle #StockCarRacing Sources Talladega and Spoiler Registry: production records, prototype histories and specifications for the Ford Talladega and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II Hagerty Media: “Ford Torino Talladega” by Blake Z. Rong (2017) Speed Sport: “NASCAR in 1970”, drawing on period reporting from National Speed Sport News Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for ‘fair use’ for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. I do not own some or all of the video materials used in this video. In the case of copyright issues, please contact me at historymediachannel1@gmail.com for credit or removal.