Every now and then, I get an interesting car photo from our daughter who has lived in Australia for the past decade and holds dual citizenship. She and her husband Chris, along with our two granddaughters, Riley and Morgan, originally lived in Melbourne. They now live in the scenic town of Ocean Grove, a seaside town in Victoria on the Bellarine Peninsula and a popular surfing spot with a population of just 14,165.
Sabrina takes after me, having a keen sense of “old car radar” and often sends me a snapshot of a car she thinks I might find interesting. Such was the case with today’s story. When I first saw this picture, my eyes were drawn to the bright metal fascia on the rear of the brilliant blue body — as blue as the Pacific as seen from Ocean Grove.
I could not say I had ever seen one like that nor those taillights. But something was very familiar with the roofline, rear window, the flanks and the wheel openings. That’s because I once owned two 1970 Ford Torino GTs! It read on the Torino brochure cover, “Shaped by the Wind” — an appropriate description of the 1970 and 1971 coupes.
I knew the car which my daughter had sent me the picture of was an Australian-built version of the Ford Torino, but I couldn’t come up with the model name, even after consulting with a few of my ‘car guy’ (and girl) friends. After a great deal of searching on the Internet, Google came through for me. Do you know what this car was called? Answer at end of the trivia show anno.