Steve Strope’s 427-cube ‘Black Ops’ 1967 Fairlane<\/a><\/div>\nDavid\u2019s always been a Ford diehard. In fact, for ten years that Blue Oval badge has been his continuous supplier of motorvation \u2013 and his staple diet. Like, he eats, sleeps and breathes the goddamn marque. His older brother\u2019s got it pretty bad too, building a super-hot Mustang a few years back. And nearly all Dave\u2019s mates are into hot Henries \u2013 eight of \u2019em travel in convoy to California\u2019s street machine events, boggling onlookers\u2019 minds with brilliant show-car craft.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Not surprising, then, that when David wanted a new Pro-Street car, a Ford was on the menu. He had definite building plans, and assembled all the necessary items. With the help of buddies David, Joe and John, Dave and his understanding wife attacked the project like a hive of worker bees. The front end was disassembled and rebuilt to stock. The GT came with a heavy-duty shock and spring set. The stock front drums were retained. The rear end was torn out and a custom 2×3 subframe fitted. Dave rehung the rear suspension with Koni coil-over shocks, Alston ladder bars and a Panhard rod. The axle uses a nine-inch Ford with 4.11 gears and a Track-Lock four-pinion set-up. The rear has drum stoppers taken from a \u201969 Mustang.<\/p>\nThe fab Fairlane runs Weld wheels \u2013 15×3\u00bdin on the front and 15×14 at the rear. Rubber is Michelin 165R 15-inchers at the sharp end and Mickey Thompson 33×19\u00bd Sportsmans under the bum.<\/p>\n
<\/span>David wanted to keep the body clean and straight. He trued every panel till perfect, then applied 15 coats of Guardsman Red in acrylic lacquer. To highlight, a set of low-key graphics were applied in violet, tangerine and blue. The interior remains factory fresh with red vinyl bucket seats, console and door trims. A Grant GT steering wheel now does the turning chores and a Hurst Competition Plus shifter is at hand to flick the cogs.<\/p>\nThat motorvatin\u2019 percolation is brewed inside a bubbling big-block bent eight. The internals are an interesting mix of factory and aftermarket pieces. Pistons are Arias 7:1 blower slugs. Rods are \u201969 Ford 428 items, and they float up and down on the stock \u201966 crank fitted with TRW bearings. And with a 4.06in bore and 3.78in stroke, this 396ci Henry\u2019s got a ton of torque. The oiling system was revised, with a TRW high-volume pump and pick-up. Heads are the stock \u201966 Fairlane GT units, working with a Crane street blower-grind bumpstick. Spark comes from a stock 427 dizzy dual pointer and MSD 6A ignition.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Induction of the good stuff is handled by a Blower Drive Services GMC 6\/71 blower. This includes a BDS top blower manifold and snorkel drive running a four-inch blower belt. Mounted on top of the blower is a pair of Holley 750 double-pumpers, complete with gold-plated bowls. The exhaust breathing is handled with Hooker headers flowing out into a dual system, ending with four pipes under the rear bumper. After all that work, a bloke wants to know the score. David has dynoed the 396 and found it pushes just over the 600-horsepower mark. And that\u2019s just what he wanted \u2013 reliable grunt. Any further and you gotta problem child in traffic. That sweet power is transferred to the rear end with a 12-inch Zoom clutch through a Ford Top Loader four-speed and a custom tailshaft.<\/p>\n
<\/span>The grunty 396 powerplant is decorated with a heap of chromed, polished and painted delights, then topped off with braided hoses and fittings. And it\u2019s been worth it. The Fairlane was judged best Pro-Street at the major California street machine shows in Oakland, Sacramento and Santa Rosa. Not bad for 90 days\u2019 hard labour! But David\u2019s a restless builder and there\u2019s another streeter in the offing, a \u201956 Ford Tudor with an even wilder Pro-Street set-up. A big-block, blown and injected; Dave might even take his time with this one.<\/p>\nDAVID TORIUMI<\/strong>
\n1966 FORD FAIRLANE GT<\/strong>
\nFeatured:<\/strong> June 1987<\/p>\nCool info:<\/strong> As well as the usual quantity of chromework, David Toriumi decided to do something different, and gold-plated the bowls of his 750 Holley double-pumpers. How\u2019s that for individuality?<\/p>\nPaint:<\/strong> Guardsman Red
\nEngine:<\/strong> FE big-block
\nBlower:<\/strong> BDS GMC 6\/71
\nDiff:<\/strong> Ford nine-inch, 4.11 gears
\nWheels:<\/strong> Weld
\nInterior:<\/strong> Factory red vinyl buckets, Grant GT wheel, Hurst Competition Plus shifter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flashback: David Toriumi’s GT Fairlane went from family hack to big-blocker in just 90 days<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":12691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7226,7227,30,752,1246,1369,1785,4198],"coauthors":[230],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/fairlane-gt-front-angle.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137161,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12690\/revisions\/137161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12690"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span>The much-modded GT Fairlane you see here is a rarity in Australia. The GT model used the same basic platform as the Oz model, but the panel work was similar to an early model Falcon tudor. The Fairlane GT didn\u2019t really amount to much more than a minor sports pack option, The Fairlane GT package was available for two models, the second hi-po luxo unit being the GTA.<\/p>\n