The 1970 Ford Torino Cobra "J" code 429 Super Cobra Jet with the Drag Pack option is a standout in muscle car history, especially given its rare production numbers and performance specs. This is a 1970 Ford Tornio Cobra "J" code 429 Super Cobra Jet with the factory Drag Pack option with 3.91 gears and a ford nine inch rear end with traction-Lok rear axle! This is one of only 1,475 Drag Pack Cobra's produced and one of only 201 Produced in Calypso Coral Orange with black interior. Documented with partial build sheet, Deluxe Marti report and window sticker. A bit of History about Fords Drag Pack Option below. Ford's Drag Pack option may have been the best $155 you could spend, possibly in all of Detroit, for 1970. Granted, the new-for-1970 Torino Cobra was a pretty hot package to start with. For your $3,270, you got some strong equipment, with style to match. For performance, the 360-horse Thunder Jet four-barrel V-8 (N-code) was standard, part of Ford's new 385-series engine family-featuring two-bolt main-bearing caps, heads stuffed full of canted 2.09/1.65-inch valves, a 600-cfm Autolite four-barrel atop a cast-iron intake, with hydraulic lifters and 10.5:1 compression. A standard Hurst-shifted Toploader four-speed stick backed it up; also included was the Competition Suspension that utilized 7-inch wheels wrapped with fat bias-belted tires. (In truth, all four-speed Torinos were given the Competition Suspension, which included staggered rear shocks to help quell axle tramp.) As far as style, the blacked-out hood and grille, hood pins, bright moldings, and Cobra identification (a cartoon snake on wheels, doing a smoky burnout) did the talking on a dramatic all-new body. Dual exhaust was standard-issue on all 429-equipped Torinos-as were a bench seat, four-wheel-drum brakes, and an open 9-inch Ford rear. No tach, no console... nothing. Torino Cobra was built to be a down-and-dirty street fighter. Which didn't mean you couldn't take it further. The next step up Ford's performance ladder was called the 429 Cobra in dealer lit. (This engine, code C in the VIN, should not be confused with the Torino Cobra it could be installed in. Or the Shelby Cobra that had so excited the sports car world a few years earlier. Ford used the Cobra name a lot in those days.) New heads with smaller combustion chambers bumped compression to 11.3:1, intake/ exhaust valve diameters were enlarged to 2.24/1.72 inches, and a spread-bore 700-cfm Rochester Quadrajet four-barrel was bolted atop a dedicated intake; the Q-Jet was said to be better calibrated to pass emissions. It added $164 to the sticker price and added 10 horses to its stat sheet"at the cost of 30 lb-ft of torque. The hint that the Cobra engine was more of a top-end revver than a stump-pulling torque-monster off the line was there for you to read between the lines. (History tells that these under-rated engines are closer to 400 horsepower on the dyno, instead of the 370 hp claimed by Ford.) The Cobra Jet Ram Air had the same specs as the Cobra but added the cold-air intake scoop and hood, and cost $229. (Adding Ram Air netted still another engine code: J.) Suspicious yet? Well, buckle in; here's where things really get weird. Ford's Drag Pack option was limited to a brief mention in the brochure, buried in a list of other options (Knitted Vinyl Seat Trim! Visibility Group!) at the bottom of page 18; it mentioned nothing except that it afforded you a quarter-mile-friendly 3.91 ring-and-pinion with Traction-Lok limited-slip diff. You'd have to be devouring the monthly car-buff rags to realize that you got practically a whole new engine by ticking off the Drag Pack option: the Super Cobra Jet. Not only was the 429SCJ (still code J in the VIN) built to be more durable, it had the hardware to allow a keen engine tuner a stronger platform to make even more power.
For the additional cost-just $155, recall-you got four-bolt caps on the middle three main bearings, forged aluminum pistons on heavier-duty connecting rods, a solid-lifter camshaft with more aggressive profile (versus a hydraulic cam fitted into the lesser 429s), a genuine Holley 4150-series carburetor flowing 780 cfm (and a functioning Shaker scoop when the J-code Ram Air engine was specified) flowing 12 percent more air, an oil cooler mounted to the radiator support, header-style exhaust manifolds, and more. That's a lot of premium equipment for just $155. (Selecting the competition-ready 4.30 gearset, utilizing a Detroit Locker "No-Spin" diff, meant you paid an additional $52.) So, how much more horsepower did all of this awesome equipment net the driver/buyer/owner? Ford rated it at an additional five horsepower-a level of subtle comedy on par with the Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. An additional $155 and no advertised performance benefit? Really? Ford did all it could not to nudge-nudge-wink-wink in the catalog's fine print; even the magazines of the time didn't raise an eyebrow at the apparent power-for-money disconnect. (Perhaps the notion of the car companies lying about power numbers to try and placate the increasingly alarmed insurance industry was better understood in those days and didn't require underlining.) At any rate, we've long figured that the actual power figure was closer to the one-horsepower- per-cubic-inch mark. Perhaps because its existence was barely acknowledged by Ford in its dealer lit-and was known largely to the amped-up hot-bloods who bought and devoured high-performance magazines on a monthly basis, but who often didn't have a pair of nickels to rub together-Ford sold just 1,475 Drag Pack Torinos for 1970. There was a Ken Dallison-illustrated full-page color ad that appeared in Hot Rod magazine at the time, but it backed off on horsepower numbers-perhaps understanding the folly of underscoring such details for a meager (advertised) power rise. Today, finding a nice Torino Cobra at your local car show is tough. By way of comparison, more than 62,000 examples of the Chevelle SS were built for the year; just 7,675 Torino Cobras were assembled. Narrow it down to the highest of the high end, and Chevy built 4,475 LS6 A-bodies, nearly triple the 1,475 Super Cobra Jet Torinos built. That's an ignominious fate for a car that would (with its more family-oriented brethren) become the Motor Trend Car of the Year for 1970. What's more, while we've often said that yesterday's rarity is today's collectible, Torinos don't seem to trend that way. A comparable Chevelle is valued at 50 percent more, despite being far more common; the metric still applies when you compare an SCJ-powered '70 Torino Cobra to an LS6 Chevelle. The glass-half-empty crowd will pooh-pooh the idea of buying a Torino Cobra for this very reason; the glass-half-full crowd will see a way to get much the same horsepower, in a far less commonly seen package, at a steep discount. By Jeff Koch Updated March 23, 2024 in Magazine, Muscle Cars, Muscle Machines This is a very strong running Cobra that goes straight down the road and demands attention wherever it goes. The paint is nice with a deep shine and a mirror like reflection. The chrome, trim and bright work shine glisten in the sun. Call 314-346-6039 to
