With racing engines already producing incredible amounts of horsepower, manufacturers who competed in NASCAR in the mid-’60s turned to aerodynamics to make their cars faster. Ford’s answer was the Torino Talladega. Based on the production Torino SportsRoof, the first of the so-called ‘aero cars’ had to first meet homologation requirements before taking to the track. Legend has it that Ford came up a little short of the 100 examples required to begin the season, having only completed 40 cars by the deadline. It is said that NASCAR president Bill France was fooled into counting each of the completed cars multiple times when NASCAR legend Ralph Moody played a trick on France at the Ford factory. With the homologation requirement satisfied, by ruse or otherwise, the Torino Talladega would go on to win 26 races and both the driver’s and manufacturer’s championships for the 1969 season. Ford would ultimately complete 738 production Talladegas. The car offered here is one such example.

This superb example of the original ‘aero car’ is being offered from the private collection of NASCAR legend Ray Evernham. This Talladega is all original with just 78,898 miles on the odometer at the time of cataloguing. It presents beautifully in Presidential Blue, one of just three original colors for the Torino Talladega, the others being Royal Maroon and Wimbledon White. The mighty Cobra Jet 428-cu. in. V-8 engine runs as expected and makes a proper rumble, making the car equally suited to the show field as it was the high banks at its namesake superspeedway in Alabama.

After the 1970 season was dominated by overwhelmingly fast aero cars powered by massive V-8 engines, NASCAR changed the competition rules. ‘Aero cars’ were forced to use a much smaller, less powerful engine. This effectively killed the aero wars overnight, and cars like this Torino Talladega were no longer competitive. With today’s stock cars bearing little resemblance to the actual production vehicle that bear the same nameplate, it seems likely that the era will never be repeated. This Torino Talladega is an eminently drivable throwback to the fastest days of America’s most popular spectator sport.