MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone, Big_Blocker here for a very special edition of Muscle Car of the Week. Now let me tell you all firstly, I have seen the movie Gran Torino twice. Secondly let me tell you that this movie is bad-f***ing-ass. With these two things in mind, it is easy to see why I chose the very car for which the movie is named to feature as the Muscle Car of the Week, the 1972 Ford Gran Torino.

First a little history about the car, then I shall delve into some thoughts on the movie. Referring back to a previous post, we learn that the Torino nameplate originated as a performance and appearance package on the tried-and-true Ford Fairlane back in the late 1960’s as the muscle car wars were reaching a boiling point. However, as the year 1972 dawned on Detroit, several things had changed that caused the once mighty street racers to be transformed into shells of their former selves. Those ‘factory rated’ engines that put out gobs more horsepower than advertised were causing insurance premiums to skyrocket making it hard for people to afford them. Not to mention that OPEC had the United States by the balls with an oil embargo and seeing as an average Hemi’s fuel economy came in the vecintity of 12 highway and ‘you don’t even want to know’ city, gas prices made things worse (there were other factors as well but I will get into all of them in more detail in a future post).

With the world the way it was in 1972, the Gran Torino rolled off the assembly line a much different car than it had a few years before. Instead of being constructed on a uni-body platform, the body and chassis were two different pieces that bolted together resulting in a claimed better ride while taking already poor handling and beating it to death with a piece of rusted re-bar (the ploy worked however as people enjoyed the more quiet and comfortable ride of the car). Styling had not gone too far into the 70’s as the Gran Torino still retained the bulging fenders and a fastback roofline reminiscent of the traits of its older muscle car brothers.

Forget about the big block power options as the 428 and 429 Cobra Jet engines were long gone and were replaced by stifled 400 cube V8’s with 2-barrel carbs and low compression. However, there was a hint hope if you wanted performance in 1972 and it came in the form of a 351 cubic inch Cobra Jet V8. The 351 still had a 4-barrel carb to make good power however lowered compression brought horsepower down to around 250 and torque to 290 lb feet. To many this may seem like a terrible loss in performance, however power ratings dropped from gross to net so the the 351 put out closer to 300 ponies. The overall performance wasn’t too shabby for the times as 0-60 ticks came in at 6.8 seconds and the quarter could be done in 15.4 seconds. One performance goodies included standard front disc brakes as well as a performance handling package that consisted of heavy-duty leaf springs and front and rear sway bars. All in all the Gran Torino of 1972 wasn’t bad for the money as it still got you decent performance and a nice ride quality if you didn’t mind paying for the gas.

Now as far as the movie goes…I will say that it is a bad ass film that I enjoyed watching very much. Clint Eastwood is a gristled war vet that hates pretty much everyone (including minorities) however learns to care for his Hmong neighbors and protects them from a local gang. He is not careful with his words and is not afraid to say what he feels. He is also not afraid to kick some ass here and there as well. My vote, go see it otherwise he may kill you…I would be scared of this:

Big_Blocker out.