How much for a 1970 Ford Torino Cobra?

At this weeks Insurance Auction there will be a 1970 Ford Torino Cobra.  This kind of car:

But how much will the actual one being auction off really bring????  

It will be a Salvage Title  

Also up this week is a companion piece.  1949 Ford Panel Truck  

As special and valuable as a nice Torino Cobra would be, that particular one looks like just a heap of burned scrap metal.  It would have to be something like a classic Ferrari to be worth re-creating from the remains of a VIN plate.

Why did i just scroll down???

In reply to Danny Shields :

Oh someone will buy it for the VIN, and miraculously a "restored" car with this VIN will appear on the market within a year or two.

^This.

Even if it's a correct CJ engine, you'll still be upside-down on the price when you're finished.

Best bet is to buy the car and simply replace all of the parts that surround the cowl tag and serial numbers with new or salvaged components. 

Yes, the Cobra will be a Vin-ecotomy for a more pedestrian Torino. 

The panel truck however could actually be the basis for a cool restomod riding atop a modern frame and drivetrain. 

Even with a VIN-swap, I doubt it'll bring crazy money. Strangely Ford midsize muscle has never really taken off, with the exception of stuff like Thunderbolts or the aero warrior Torino Talladegas. Certainly not on the level of LS6 454 Chevelles or Hemi Chargers/Super Bees/Road Runners/GTXs. Too bad, because I think the '68-'69 and '70 Fairlanes are beautiful cars.

In 1977 I owned a nice 1972 Torino. Good car, newest vehicle I owned, at that point.   It was nice enough that it got stolen, never recovered.

NickD said:

Even with a VIN-swap, I doubt it'll bring crazy money. Strangely Ford midsize muscle has never really taken off, with the exception of stuff like Thunderbolts or the aero warrior Torino Talladegas. Certainly not on the level of LS6 454 Chevelles or Hemi Chargers/Super Bees/Road Runners/GTXs. Too bad, because I think the '68-'69 and '70 Fairlanes are beautiful cars.

And I have a theory as to why.  It all goes back to when people believed the rated hp numbers.  Fords were rated less (more realistically) than GM or Mopar.  Not that they weren't competitive, they were just rated less.  Ford figured that they would get their share of bragging rights by actually winning races.  And that worked well for selling new cars.  But a couple years later, when newly licensed young Johnny wanted a car to take to high school, he couldn't remember who won the '68 Rebel 500 nor did he care.  He wanted a 425 hp car instead of a 335 hp car.  Never mind that they both actually made close to the same power.  Fast forward 45 years later and the men with deep pockets that go Scottsdale every year want the cars they wanted in high school.  And it's rarely the Fords.

I’d pay $50

I guess it'll bring 5k

A 401 CJ said:

NickD said:

Even with a VIN-swap, I doubt it'll bring crazy money. Strangely Ford midsize muscle has never really taken off, with the exception of stuff like Thunderbolts or the aero warrior Torino Talladegas. Certainly not on the level of LS6 454 Chevelles or Hemi Chargers/Super Bees/Road Runners/GTXs. Too bad, because I think the '68-'69 and '70 Fairlanes are beautiful cars.

And I have a theory as to why.  It all goes back to when people believed the rated hp numbers.  Fords were rated less (more realistically) than GM or Mopar.  Not that they weren't competitive, they were just rated less.  Ford figured that they would get their share of bragging rights by actually winning races.  And that worked well for selling new cars.  But a couple years later, when newly licensed young Johnny wanted a car to take to high school, he couldn't remember who won the '68 Rebel 500 nor did he care.  He wanted a 425 hp car instead of a 335 hp car.  Never mind that they both actually made close to the same power.  Fast forward 45 years later and the men with deep pockets that go Scottsdale every year want the cars they wanted in high school.  And it's rarely the Fords.

Maybe, but people go nuts over 335hp Cobra Jet Mustangs. I honestly think that a large part of it was that Ford just pushed the Mustang harder than midsize and did things that cannibalized midsize sales. Like how they needed to homologate the KK429 for NASCAR but instead of installing it in the Fairlane/Torino (which were what where actually running them in NASCAR), jammed it in the Mustang and made the Boss 429 and then lost money on every one sold because of the amount of modification necessary to make it fit in a Mustang.

I also don't think that the confusing nomenclature that Ford came up with helped out either. A Chevelle is a Chevelle and a Super Bee is a Super Bee. But then you have a Ford Fairlane, a Ford Fairlane GT and a Ford Fairlane Torino Cobra in 1968 and nobody can tell the difference or figure out what the "good one" is.

 The Guy I work for paid 50.000, fo a 69 428 CJ mustang Last year,It looks Brand New  The Torino will sell for 25-30 Optioned the same way. IF I wanted a Clone I still would not Pay over a Grand  as the 428 engine just doesn't bring the money In that Condition.

Street Side Classics prob. has 1 or 2 If some one wants to compare pricing

The VIN plate might have some value, but not a lot.  What is scrap steel selling for these days?  That price into the weight of the burnt car would be my maximum bid.  Probably a couple of hundred.

I wonder if these cars came from that big collector car dealer warehouse fire in Indiana a couple of months ago?

Trans_Maro said:

^This.

Even if it's a correct CJ engine, you'll still be upside-down on the price when you're finished.

On any car you will be upside down.

But yeesh.

If you can't see that shell as a quasi-Mad Max interceptor, I don't know you.

Appleseed said:

If you can't see that shell as a quasi-Mad Max interceptor, I don't know you.

You weren't the only one who was thinking, "If I could get that for cheap, I'd see how close I could get it to the Black Interceptor." Already has a suitably post-apocalyptic vibe. And a hole in the hood.

I also got a laugh about how the auction specifies in big letters, "107k mi (N), Won't Start, Key(s) Present." Really... who was expecting it to start?

I saw that Torino and "dumpster fire"came to mind

In reply to Appleseed :

Considering there are a couple Aussie Falcons around ......  Didn't Mad Max Start the whole Rat Rod Thing. Think about that .

If you scroll down, it looks like the the front airbags are still good.

In reply to John Welsh :

I see that the auction is over but I don't see results on the web site. How did it turn out?

I caught that the Torino Bidding ended at $550.  With fees this would be closer to $700 and then you have to have the hulk transported so this could easily be towards $1k in someone's real out of pocket expenses.   Wow, that seems high.  

I did not wait to see on the panel van but pre-bidding was at $225.