Ford Torino (1972-1976)
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.JPG) Ford Gran Torino 1974
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| Torino | |
| Production period: | 1972-1976 |
| Class : | upper middle class |
| Body versions : | Sedan , station wagon , coupé |
| Engines: |
Petrol engines : 4.1–7.5 liters (65–198 kW) |
| Length: | 5425 mm |
| Width: | 2014 mm |
| Height: | 1440 mm |
| Wheelbase : | 2896-2997 mm |
| Empty weight : | 2002-2300 kg |
| Previous model | Ford Torino |
| successor | Ford LTD II |
The Ford Torino the model years 1972 to 1976 was a in the upper middle class positioned vehicle of the American car manufacturer Ford , which was offered as a sedan, coupe and wagon. The better equipped models of the series were called Gran Torino or Gran Torino Brougham . They were large, heavy cars that were retrospectively counted among the most uneconomical production vehicles of the 1970s. The cars gained worldwide fame through the American television series Starsky & Hutch, in which a red and white lacquered Gran Torino Coupé was used, as well as through the movie Gran Torino . Its sister model at the Mercury brand was the Mercury Montego .
background
Ford used the name Torino - the Italian name of the city of Turin - for the first time in the 1968 model year for a high-quality variant of its medium-sized vehicle, the Fairlane ; the vehicles were called Fairlane Torino at that time.
In the 1970 model year, the Torino became an independent mid-range series; the name Fairlane used for ten years was dropped. The Torino from model years 1970 and 1971 was a large family car for which six- and eight-cylinder engines with displacements from 4.1 to 7.2 liters were available. A particularly sporty hatchback version called the Torino Cobra was equipped with a 375 SAE -PS strong engine; it was also used in car races. Until 1971, the Torino series had a self-supporting body , with a subframe at the front . The front wheels were suspended on wishbones with coil springs, and a rigid axle on leaf springs was used at the rear.
For the 1972 model year, Ford developed a completely new Torino that had nothing in common with the previous vehicles of the same name, apart from identical engines.
technology
landing gear
The Ford Torino of the model years 1972 to 1976 was based - unlike its predecessor - on a box frame on which a body made of sheet steel was placed. Ford justified the abandonment of the self-supporting construction with the intention of reducing driving noise and vibrations to a minimum; this is best achieved with a separate chassis. Critics, on the other hand, pointed out that a vehicle with a separate chassis is above all cheaper to construct and easier to modify. The frame was adopted unchanged in 1977 by the successor to the Torino, the Ford LTD II .
body
The Torino was available as a four-door sedan, a five-door station wagon and a two-door coupé. The wheelbase of the sedan and station wagon was 2,997 mm, that of the two-door versions was slightly shorter at 2,895 mm. Ford temporarily had two versions of the coupe on offer:
- the "Sport Fastback Hardtop Coupé" with hatchback (1972 to 1974)
- the "Formal Coupé" with an indicated notchback (1972 to 1976).
The style of the body is mostly described as bombastic. The engine compartment and thus the bonnet with its front mask was long; in comparison, the trunk was short. The design of the body followed the so-called Coke-Bottle line . The rear fenders were curved outward and had noticeable beads . In the first two model years, some versions of the Torino had a strikingly shaped radiator grille, a so-called Knudsen nose , which required the front bumper to be lowered in the middle of the car. The design of the front section changed in 1974. That year, heavy, straight bumpers were installed that met the stricter American accident prevention regulations. Associated with this was the introduction of a wide, but lower, radiator grille into which the indicators were integrated.
Motorization
Different eight-cylinder V-shaped engines were available as the drive source, and at times a six-cylinder in- line engine was also available. The engine performance varied in the different model years, as Ford had to adapt the engines to the emissions regulations that changed from year to year. Individual engines were also available with different combinations of carburettors, so that different performance values were achieved with the same displacement.
| Motorizations of the Ford Torino | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model year | 4096 cm³ R6 (250 CID ) |
4948 cc V8 (302 CID) |
5751 cm³ V8 (351 CID) |
6555 cm³ V8 (400 CID) |
7031 cm³ V8 (429 CID) |
7539 cm³ V8 (460 CID) |
| 1972 | 98 hp | 140 hp | 153 hp 161 hp 248 hp |
172 hp | 205 hp | - |
| 1973 | 88 hp | 137 hp | 156 hp 159 hp 246 hp |
168 hp | 198 hp | 269 hp |
| 1974 | - | 140 hp | 162 hp 163 hp 255 hp |
170 hp | - | 220 hp 260 hp |
| 1975 | - | - | 143 hp 148 hp |
158 hp | - | 216 hp 226 hp |
| 1976 | - | - | 152 hp 154 hp |
180 hp | - | 202 hp 226 hp |
Dimensions and weight
The Torinos built between 1972 and 1976 were significantly larger in size than their predecessors. Formally, they were still positioned in the mid-range segment, but in terms of external dimensions they were longer and wider than their competitors and within the brand they moved closer to the slightly larger full-size model Ford LTD . Regardless of the external size of the car, the interior and trunk were limited: measurements by the American magazine Consumer Guide have shown that the space available in the Torino was no larger than that of the compact Ford Maverick .
The Torino was a heavy car. Even in the basic version, the curb weight was more than two tons; a fully equipped Torino Squire Station Wagon with a large engine weighed over 2,400 kg empty. That had an effect on the fuel consumption. Measurements from automobile magazines repeatedly came to values between 25 and 30 liters per 100 km. In 1974, Ford tried to reduce fuel consumption through design measures to reduce weight. The attempts were unsuccessful; however, from 1975 the Torino received a larger fuel tank to increase the range of the vehicle.
The Torino in the press
The third-generation Ford Torino was widely criticized in the press for being uneconomical. The car stands for “all the mistakes that were made in Detroit during this time”. In detail, the criticism included the driving behavior as well as the space and fuel economy: The driver does not perceive any road influences due to the soft suspension and the very spongy steering; Driving behavior is unpredictable when changing direction quickly and triggers anxiety states. The Torino was presented as an example of poor space economy: it was unnecessarily large and space was wasted “on almost every corner”. In summary, the magazine Consumer Guide stated in the summer of 1975: The closer you get to know Torino, the more speaks for the Ford Granada presented in 1974 .
Starsky and Hutch
The Ford Torino became known worldwide through the American TV series Starsky & Hutch , in which the police officer David Starsky drives a red Gran Torino Formal Coupé with striking white stripes on the sides. This paintwork, which gave the car its nickname "Striped Tomato", was initially developed exclusively for film production. Ford provided the series producer, Spelling Goldberg Productions , with two Torinos equipped with a 6.6 liter eight-cylinder engine. One of the cars had a camera on the roof to show the protagonists' perspective while driving; the second car (without a camera) was used to take exterior views.
Due to the great response, Ford launched a limited special series in 1976, which was painted according to the model from the television series. The production version of the Starsky / Hutch Torino was presented to the public at the Chicago Auto Show in February 1976 and production began the following month. The 5.8-liter eight-cylinder engine from the Cleveland series served as the standard engine of the production vehicle.
Production was limited to 1,000 copies. They are sought-after collectors' items today, paying five-digit dollar amounts in good condition. Numerous regular Torino coupes were subsequently painted in the coveted red and white pattern by their owners.
Derivatives
The Mercury Division belonging to the Ford Motor Company offered its own version of the Ford Torino from 1972 to 1976. The vehicle was called Montego . With largely identical technology, it had an independent body, from which the luxury coupe Cougar XR-7 was derived. This in turn was the basis for the Ford Elite presented in 1974 .
Ford's Ranchero pick-up was based on the Torino from 1972 to 1976.
production
In the first two years of production, Ford was able to sell around half a million copies of the Ford Torino. When the effects of the oil crisis became noticeable in the mid-1970s , sales fell by more than half. During this time, many buyers preferred the newly developed Granada, which was smaller, lighter and more economical, but still offered more space inside.
The Torino Coupés were the most successful body variant. 1,678,514 examples of the Torino were built in five years. A total of around 500,000 units of the Mercury version Montego were produced in the same period.
Ford Torino production figures |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model year | Fastback two-door | Sedan four-door | Five-door wagon | total |
| 1972 | 257.853 | 135,786 | 103.011 | 496,650 |
| 1973 | 235.910 | 135.928 | 124,743 | 496,581 |
| 1974 | 148,572 | 115.353 | 68.096 | 332.021 |
| 1975 | 58,693 | 64.181 | 37,242 | 160.116 |
| 1976 | 61,640 | 62,435 | 69,021 | 193.096 |
| total | 762,668 | 513,683 | 402.163 | 1,678,514 |
Trivia
In the film Gran Torino (2008) by and with Clint Eastwood , a 1972 Gran Torino plays a central role as a coveted symbol of lost American values.
See also
literature
- Albert R. Bochroch: American Cars of the Seventies . Warne's Transport Library, London 1982. ISBN 0-7232-2870-1 .
- Flammang, James M./Kowalke, Ron: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1976-1999 , Krause Publications, Iola 1999. ISBN 0-87341-755-0 .
- Gunnell, John: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975 , Krause Publications, Iola 2002. ISBN 0-87349-461-X .
- Richard M. Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930-1980 . New York (Beekman House) 1984. ISBN 0-517-42462-2 .
- Bill Carroll: Torino Steals The Show On Starsky and Hutch . Article on Starsky & Hutch-Torino in: Service Life, Volume 8 No. 2 (March / April 1976), p. 3 ff.
Web links
- www.Ford-Torino.de - German-language website about the Ford Torino series.
- Private website for the Ford Torino
- Private website about the "Starsky and Hutch-Torinos"
- Sales brochure Ford Torino 1975 with further illustrations and data
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930–1980, p. 317.
- ↑ The term "Knudsen grill" refers to the Ford manager Semon E. Knudsen, who at the beginning of the 1970s established a radiator grille that protruded beyond the headlight line as a uniform stylistic element in many Ford models. An example of the Knudsen grill on European Ford models is the Ford Taunus TC .
- ↑ performance data in SAE-PS; Information from Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930–1980, p. 330 ff.
- ↑ a b c Quoted from Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930–1980, p. 316
- ↑ Service Life, Vol. 8 No. 2 (March / April 1976), p. 3 ff.
- ↑ Ford Division press release dated February 9, 1976 (accessed August 5, 2012).
- ↑ Information from Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930–1980, p. 330 ff.
- ↑ Fastback and Formal Coupés. The Gran Torino Elite is not included in these figures.