As noted here a while back, in the mid seventies Mother's Worry and I dragged my dad down to Cobo for the Autorama.

Imagine my surprise when he saw Jim Mason (he of Hammer-Mason, DST, etc) and struck up a conversation about the red '70 Torino sportsman car on display.

A real race car guy knew my father... by name? Should not have been surprised, DST did a lot of very un-exoitic work for FoMoCo, too.

Dad related that Jim and others within the company had leaned into the Foundry division to get a good run of 427 race blocks released for Parts and Service, this batch having some small, racer-friendly upgrades. I recall thinking at the time, "you can't get an FE in a '70... why would he want that?"

Regardless, I had Harb's hobby in Deer-Brun lean on their distributor for an El Toro Torino, and secured a JoHan '72 Torino as a donor. However, lacking the information of today, those bits were not bashing well for me. Incredibly, I still have most of that '72. Had I secured an Allison Cyclone and switched bodies, with a bit of finesse, it would have been peas and carrots.

So, here in the September of my years, I'd like to use the slightly hogged out annual body and build the one that got away. And at some future point, use a Revell Torino with a Funnyhugger 2 chassis to do a legit ElToro.