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Ray S.'s Limited Production 1976
"Starsky & Hutch"®Ford Gran Torino®
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| Ray's S&H Gran Torino was built on April 26, 1976
at the Chicago Ford Assembly Plant (where all S&H Torinos were built). It had a C-4 Cruise-O-Matic transmission,
2.75 Traction-lok differential, HR78x14 white sidewall tires, electric clock, leather-wrapped steering wheel, air
conditioning, AM radio, and black vinyl bucket seats. It was first sold at Mullins Ford in Richlands, Virginia
on May 29, 1976. |
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Ray's car has actually been listed on this site for
a long, long time. It spent a couple of years on the "Unknown Owners" page, then a fellow Irishman of
mine purchased it in 2002 and moved it to - believe it or not - my old hometown in Illinois! Ray bought it in 2006
and moved it a little farther south, which was quite an adventure.
On the day he bought it, Ray drove the car home about 165 miles with no radio and no air conditioning, surviving
three brief rain showers and a very long traffic jam on the harsh mid-summer heat. He had no brake lights and only
intermittent taillights. A friend of Ray's followed right on his back bumper the entire way so nobody would rear-end
him. The only working gauge in the Torino was the tachometer! |
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| In the next couple of months, Ray and his friend, Rob,
rewired everything from the fuse block to the taillights, installed new carpet, fixed the gauge panel, had the
front seats re-upholstered, buffed the paint twice, tuned-up the carburetor, replaced a couple of the seat belt
buckles, and "cleaned the heck out of the wheels." Ray's Torino originally had a 351 2 bbl. engine, but
a previous owner replaced that with a 400 big block. |
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When I last updated Ray's car on this page in September
of 2006, I said "Ray and I haven't met yet, but our cars are old friends. The photo on the left of my Torino
(in back) and his (front) was taken in my old hometown in 2002 when the car was owned by the guy Ray bought it
from. I'm sure we'll get the two cars together again someday!"
Well, as you can see from the photo on the right, we finally did meet and get our cars together again in June of
2007 when Penny and I were on our way home from our California Road Trip.
We met Ray near his home in Illinois just before we stopped to spend the night in my old hometown. Ray is a great
guy and I look forward to getting together with him again! (Thanks for the Key chain, Ray!) All of the photos on
this page, except the photo of our two cars taken in 2002, were taken on that day in June, 2007. |