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Recommendations for a Ford "Toy" |
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I was recently asked for my views on a question:
Let's assume I have around 35K to throw at a "Toy".
"Toy" must be a reliable, comfortable, and quick cruiser with great handling.
"Toy" must have some eye appeal and stand out from the crowd.
"Toy" should have the potential to increase in value or collectability over coming years.
My first thought is that Havachat, aka Havago, is 100% correct that after 1971, car appearance went downhill...
I'd start with a good rust-free XW or XY Falcon 500 (If you want more boot space and better open-road ride, a ZC or ZD Fairlane)
One
downside to this is that unless you are happy with the suicidal
ram-power steering you will have to have manual steer - real men have
that anyway.
A 302 Windsor if you are concerned about being period correct
Clevo heads and Boss manifold if you want something different - $$$ going up tho'
If period correctness is not an issue, I'd use a Crossflow 6 - maybe EFI, but the carby is sooooo reliable...
(Good mumbo can be made from a crossflow 6 without going turbo - over 200hp without too much trouble)
Street Machine Magazine test of the Ultraflow Limited Sprint manifold for the crossflow head:
"Here's some rear-wheel dyno numbers from a really stout 250 fitted with the Ultraflow Limited Sprint manifold and running on avgas: 82bhp at 2000, 112bhp at 3000, 229bhp at 4000, 282bhp at 5000 and 262bhp at 5500."
282bhp at the wheels is like 340bhp at the flywheel - about what Ford claimed the XY GTHO put out...
Unfortunately, there were no torque figures given for the Ultraflow test and they did not elaborate on what constitutes a "really stout 250" :)
Always remember:
"Horsepower sells cars, Torque wins motor races"
XF
Radiator can be fitted using P5 LTD top mounts and slightly modified XF
bottom mounts without modifying radiator support panel.
Auto is good for a cruiser if you are not too concerned about fuel consumption - C4 being the box of choice for strength:weight.
Otherwise some sort of 5-speed manual - XF cable clutch is the way to go - those hydraulic clutches are just trouble.
Front suspension totally replaced with XF parts:
Upper control arms
Lower control arms (requires XY bushes at inner end - smaller ID than XF)
K-Mac heavy duty camber bolts absolute necessity to maintain camber setting
XF Steering knuckle
XF Disk
XF Caliper and flex line
XF outer tie rod end - XY inner tie rod end - XF adjuster tube and bolts
XF Bump Stop Plates (XW/ZC ones are shallower and will foul on spring with XF upper arm)
Lowered
front springs to get upper control arm horizontal (King FFL2 are about
right - FFL1 are a bit soft and prone to bottom out)
Running the
upper arm horizontal from rest will eliminate the initial positive
camber gain (and associated understeer) at turn-in and instead give
immediate negative camber gain at turn in. This will cause the front
end to bite in immediately and you will have to be wary of oversteer -
especially if you are one of those drivers who gets on the throttle
right after turn-in. :-)
All front bushes in rubber - don't trust urethane here at all...
Rear
axle either XF Ute, Wagon or Panel Van 2.77:1 LSD with Disk Brakes or
XF/ZL Sedan LSD Disk brake diff modified to suit leaf springs (residual
valve will have to be removed from the Master Cylinder to suit rear
disks)
XF Disks can be fitted to pretty much any Ford axle sold in Australia, so getting a factory disk diff is not essential.
Rear
leaf springs reset, retempered with extra full-length leaf - Cairns
Spring Works are the best by far - rears in my ZC were done by them in
1990 - still at same height today...
Urethane rear spring shackle bushes with new Ford Shackles and loads of Lanotec grease
Rubber front bushes - Lanotec grease.
15x7" Performance Superlight or Challenger wheels front and rear with 245/60R15 rear and 225/60R15 front tyres
(Wider
XF diff gives the wider rear wheel look without going to a wider wheel
- you can go to a 15x8" front wheel to get that really "fat" look but
at the expense of low speed heavy steering - a 205/65R15 or 215/60R15
tyre will alleviate this somewhat)
For interior, I'd go as GT as you could afford - door trims, dash etc (probably not the wheel - rimblow blows)
Carpets should have heel pads left and right.
The
XW/Y lowback buckets are a bit rubbish but XF/ZL seats will bolt right
in and with a good set of sheepskin covers look fine and are comfy as...
Rear seat should be totally redone in XF/ZL style with a thinner backrest to allow a more reclining seating position.
New aftermarket Under-Dash aircon unit with late model rotary compressor and XF Condensor.
The
reproduction Superfringe radio with FM will allow you to keep the
period look and use your MP3 player with FM transmitter to listen to
your tunes without installing a gaudy CD player.
Body mods
should be limited to adding a Shaker, Bootlid "ironing-board" spoiler
and chin spoiler (chin spoiler seems to make my ZC run about 10 degrees
cooler on the highway)
GT side mirrors may reduce wind noise
somewhat as will gluing tailgate seal moulding around the outside of
the door window frames.
Naturally all original parts removed for
the modification program should be retained for sale with the vehicle
should that be the ultimate intention for the vehicle.
Depending on the condition of the base car, I would expect considerable change from the $35k budget...
If
the XW/Y, ZC/D look is not your cup of tea and you really want power
steering and factory aircon, then an XD or XE with a HO flare and
spoiler kit and the same wheels mentioned above will fill the bill - at
a considerable loss in style I might add..
One advantage of
going the XD/E route is that the chances of finding a good rust-free
example for less than a King's Ransom are much greater.
There's much more detail that can be added to this recipe, but this is a good rough outline
I
believe my ideas for the XW/Y ZC/D car fit all the criteria given with
the proviso that it will need to be driven sensibly - no burnout comps
etc - but you did say cruiser, not abuser...
I drive a car very
like the one described above every day and would not hesitate to pack
my family into it to drive to Brisbane or beyond - in fact, have done
so several times already and will do so again...
A set of 15x7"
wheels with Simex SM 800 205/65R15 tyres are the go for road trips -
road noise down, tyre cost down, very good grip and at least 40,000km
from a set (still legal after that, I just like to get new tyres before
the old ones start to give trouble)
Also, they squeal a bit when you
push them which is good as an audible indicator that you are
approaching the limit of adhesion (and sanity).
Hope this all helps...
For anyone interested in having a car like this built, FTW Racing would be interested in talking to you about managing the project - use our CONTACT PAGE to drop us a line.
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