Home Martin Comey's Mach 1 Cougar Convertible Chassis Dyno Test Greg Wong's 429 Grande Kevin Kozak's 429 Mach 1 Jim Ginger's 429 SCJ Mach 1 Tim Cole's 429 CJ Mach 1 John Michalek's 429 Mach 1 Jim Ginger Special Photos John McMaster's 429 SCJ Mach 1 Summer 2007 Mustang Shows Rick Thompson's 429 CJ Dan Davis's 429 CJ Cougar 429's in Germany Chris Long's 429 Cougar Two Machs 429 SCJ from Iceland Brent Thorp's 429 CJ Grande Thiago's Mach 1 Russell McDowell's 429 Mach 1 Patrick Auger's Mustang 2011 Mustang Memories Show Paul Cassel's 429 SCJ Mach 1
| |
Brent Thorp's 429 CJ Grande
Hi John,
Finally I have some pics of the Grande. We have recently moved & with the work
required on the house the Grande was put on the back burner. The car came to
Australia during 2006 it came to a collector in Aus., who actually never drove
it. It remained parked for about 18 months in his collection. He purchased the
car from a US marine (who I constantly email) who bought it from a dealer in
Clearwater Florida, it was traded by a guy from Phoenix Arizona on Pontiac
Judge. The car was featured in "Ford Builder" June 2006 so I presume the
restoration was performed around 2005. The car is matching numbers & is in
pristine condition & only gets driven in ideal conditions. It is on club
registration, which is very restrictive in Queensland. (15km radius of the
owners address or club events) otherwise its $1000 for general registration. I
have a sales invoice & a deluxe Marti report. The car cost $3200US & was ordered
with $2200US of factory accessories. Power Steering, front discs, air con, tilt
steering, AM/FM radio Intermittent windshield wipers, tinted glass, tach, rear
demister, lambeth cloth. An Aust.,1971 GT Falcon Phase 3
cost around $4000AUS & now sell for anything up to $800000.00AUS. My object after buying the car was to
get every thing in working order. I have overhauled the brake system, the air
conditioning, the steering box, radiator, thermostat, clock, complianced it to
Australian safety with new retracting seat belts, child harness, headlights that
dip left, indicators etc., If a vehicle is over 30 years old it can be used as
left hand drive. Queensland is a warm to hot climate which made the 429
uncomfortable to drive in city conditions, it used to suffer from boiling to
fuel evaporation which led to stopping in city traffic. I eventually had to add
a thermo fan & auto trans cooler to make it drivable. This was after radiator
reconditioning, adding race coolant, changing thermostats,& going through the
embarrassment of pushing the vehicle off the road until it cooled down. Now all
is forgiven, I have also moved out of the city of Brisbane. All improved
drivable mods & changes are easily reversible there have been no changes to the
car other than bolt ons (MSD Dizzy, Pertronix coil, thermo, auto trans cooler,
Griffin radiator, K & N Extream air filter, Flowmaster exhaust, 2.25 stainless
pipes, custom steering wheel) although I don't know how you cool a 429 with
factory equipment. The C6 auto is very unlike my modern Prado unless I stop at
an intersection it is happy to remain in top gear all day long, unless one gives
it the right foot then the Jeckle & Hide attitude comes to the surface. I have grown to appreciate
this vehicle for the condition it is in, the awesome 429, & its low mileage of
58K. I would love to know its complete history but that seems impossible to find
with the disclosure laws of today. As far as I can research it is the only
Coupe/429 in Australia.
Well John that's about it, please email me for any further info I hope you can
use this as a feature on the Megasite.
Cheers
Brent
|