Junkyard Find: 1976 Ford Torino

by Murilee Martin

Published: January 9th, 2013

Torinos (and Montegos) were among the Malaisiest of Malaise Era machines, so it seems fitting to follow up the ’75 Gran Torino Junkyard Find with today’s ’76. Yes, just as Nixon’s resignation came just before the Fall of Saigon, Ford kept following up one big, slow midsize car with even bigger and slower versions.

This may be a Ford Elite, the short-lived personal-luxury-coupe version of the Torino, but the Wikipedia entry indicates that the Elite came standard with cloth seats, not the vinyl seats seen here. The emblems are all gone, so this could still be an Elite with a seat swap.

Just to confuse everybody, Ford added the 351M (a destroked 400M) to its array of (nominally) 351-cubic-inch pushrod V8s. That means that Windsor/Cleveland/Modified mixups will be driving parts-counter guys crazy until the last Ford V8 gets melted down.

This car is a bit rustier than the ’75 we just saw, but it’s an (allegedly) more desirable coupe and you’d expect such cars to be worth more than scrap value. Not in Denver, it seeems!

#1970s #1976 #1976FordTorino #Denver #DownOnTheJunkyard #Ford #FordTorino #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #Malaise #MalaiseEra #Torino

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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2 of 71 comments

And003 on Feb 18, 2013

This car would make a good basis for a "Starsky & Hutch" restomod project, utilizing a 5.4L Modular engine from the current Shelby GT500 and an Art Morrison chassis.

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Gnrlee01 on Jul 28, 2013

is this car still available?? can you tell me how i can find out anything about it and/or its current owner for possible purchase?!?!?! gnralee01@yahoo.com thank you for any information and help you can give me!!! steve.

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