Prostreet 1978 Ford Fairmont Futura

1978 Fairmont Futura undergoing transformation

Last week I stopped up to a friend's place to check in on how his prostreet 1979 Ford Fairmont Futura was coming along. He picked up the car a few year's ago out of Florida for a rock bottom price of $1,100. His first car was a Fairmont packing a 302 with a 5 speed behind it. He always had a soft spot for them, so when it came time to build a car, he turned back to his roots.

His plans slowly progressed from simply builing a healthy 302 with another 5 speed, to a turbo 302, then back and forth between a big block or a 302. Then, while surfing ebay one night, he ran across an 8-71 blower for sale locally. Though it had been bought many years ago, it had never been installed and ran on an engine. He decided on a set amount of cash he was willing to part with and tried his luck as the bidding wound to a close. In the end, found himself picking up an 8-71 blower, and from there on, his plans seriously changed.

Mocked up engine with blower on top

Almost every part of his project has since been adapted to cater to the engine he is building. The few engine blocks he had accumulated were no longer sufficient, he went with the strongest production block built by Ford, a 4 bolt Super Cobra Jet block. He no longer felt comfortable with a cast 460 crank, so was willing to give up cubic inches in order to go with a 429 forged, steel crank he obtained at a swap meet. The crankshaft was out of 429 propane equipped dump trunks, it was machined so that it would work in a passenger car by Moldex. The compression will be around 7.5-1 with the custom Diamond pistons that set him back a cool $1,000. The bumpstick is a mechanical flat tappet with around .520 lift, while the connecting rods are by Scat and said to be good for 1,400 hp, thought he paid extra for rod bolt upgrades. This engine will likely make as much as 1,000 hp, depending upon the boost he runs. For induction he has a set of dual 725 cfm Demon blower carbs. The cylinder heads are currently aluminum Ford Cobra Jet heads, though he is already pondering upgrading them to a set up Trickflow heads. Those are most of the basics for the engine itself.





Backing the engine is a full competition rollerized TCI C6 he picked up from a guy that had ran sparingly behind a high horsepower Mustang. It has a reverse valvebody and will be shifted by a B&M quarter stick. I think he has yet to order a torque convertor, nor does he have a driveshaft made yet, as the powertrain hasn't been mocked up within the vehicle yet. A beefed up custom Currie 9 inch rear and custom axles for high hp applications, with a Detroit Locker keeping the tires spinning together. The meats are 325-50-R15, which entailed cutting out the wheel wells to make room. The rear suspension is all aftermarket as well, with polyurethane bushings. The car will also have an 8 point roll cage, possibly a 10 point before it's all said and done. I'll try to follow his project more closely in the near future and offer updates as they take place.