Mike,  I checked my records today. I actually bought the car on June 5, 1985, from a 60 plus year woman in Longmeadow, MA. She bought the car new, after a rather serious accident in another vehicle that was totaled. As she told my dad at the time, she had read that yellow cars were least likely to get hit because of they are highly visible – so she went to her local ford dealer and the salesman put her in a grabber yellow 71 ford Torino GT convertible. When I got the car it has 39K on it and had never seen a winter. She was a retired snowbird, summered in Longmeadow and wintered in Florida, so the car was garaged throughout the winter. I kept the car garaged in the winters and drove it in the summers – it was my ride for last couple of years of college and through grad school. In 1998, Bill Flioretti of Mostly Mustangs and I completely restored the car and gave it a bit more power. The 302 engine is now bored 30 over, has a holly 650 and duel exhaust – I have the original carb should I ever want to restore it. The interior is all original but the body and undercarriage required some attention. The goal was to give it a bit more low end power while keeping the cruising quality. To be honest, when I bought the car, I had no idea what I was getting. My father and I have always been 60s convertible guys, he has a 66 Pontiac Catalina (all original w/70K on it). I had been looking for a 60s/70s convertible for about 3 years when he found this in a local paper. I was away at college, when I got the call from him – in his words “ if you don’t buy, I will take it for myself”. That was enough for me, I came home the next day wrote a $3000.00 check and owned the car. The great thing about Torino convertibles is that so many people are unfamiliar with them.

Thanks again for the information and remember me if you see a 429 convertible out there. FYI, I have been visiting you web page for years – great job.

Best,

John A. Schwallie