Full Throttle

When Richard Petty looked at what Chrysler was offering as race fodder for 1969, and then looked over at the long-nose Ford Torino Talladega, King Richard opted to put Petty Blue and the number 43 on a Ford for the year.

A move Petty would rejoice in.

At the beginning of the 1969 NASCAR season, Ford and Mercury were virtually unbeatable. On the big tracks hosting races of 300 miles or more, Ford tied together a 13-race winning streak. Fords took the top five spots at Atlanta, the top four at Michigan, and finished first and second in eight of the 13 victories never losing a superspeedway event until September.

At that, the win was “tainted” by a Richard Brickhouse driven Dodge win as all the major players walked out of Talladega over safety concerns.

With NASCAR running at Talladega Superspeedway for the first time in 1969, Ford realized aerodynamics would be more important than ever.

The Torino Talladega had a replacement nose, one extended by six inches and with a flush-mounted grille on a more rounded front end. The close-fitting bumper was actually a rear bumper cut and reshaped to fit the front end. The rocker panels were reshaped and rolled to allow Ford to run the racing cars closer to the ground within NASCAR.

They called it appropriately and conveniently, the Talladega. In order to keep Mercury in the game they applied the same treatment to the Cyclone fastback to create the Cyclone Spoiler II.

While the slippery pair were built in minuscule numbers to homologate them for racing, they all had the 428 Cobra Jet engine, an engine Ford never intended for racing. (Ford 427 Cammer, along with Chrysler’s Hemi, having been banned by NASCAR) Instead, Ford built a limited number of Boss 429 Mustangs to homologate that open port engine for NASCAR competition.

The ‘69 season started with two wins, one by Petty at Macon a second by Bobby Allison at Montgomery both in ‘68 Plymouths, that was the marquees last harrah that season.

With a clever tire strategy, the LeeRoy Yarbrough won the 1969 Daytona 500 in a Torino Talladega prepared by Junior Johnson.

David Pearson meanwhile would take 11 wins and the 1969 season championship driving Holman-Moody Talladegas. After his defection, Richard Petty won another 10 races in Fords and finished second in the championship.

At one point spanning events as diverse as Daytona, Bristol, the mile and half at Trenton and Michigan the Torino Talladegas won 11 straight. Overall they captured 26 events and the Mercury Cyclones of Cale Yarborough and LeeRoy Yarbrough captured two wins apiece for a total of 30 wins in 54 attempts.

The Torino Talladegas and Cyclone Spoiler IIs are the cars that made the Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird necessary. (And possibly Daytona’s best car ever, tune in tomorrow to see.)

All the posts in this series are available here.