The following comes from Joseph Vitola of Chesapeake, Virginia Joseph writes "Dear Mike, I must say, not a day goes by that I don't check your site for one reason or the other. Its both an excellent site by design, and content, and the fact that you actually update it every day is beyond commendable. Thank you, on behalf of every proud Torino owner out there, myself included, of course. Anyways, enough praising you, lets get onto the car you see before you. First let me explain the pictures themselves. The cute blonde was an old girlfriend of mine that I foolishly lost (partly because of the car) I'm the goofy tall white kid, and my buddy giving the thumbs up has helped me put the thing together along with (its hard to see, but he's there) the guy sitting in the beast itself in one of the pictures. The story about this car is long, and I'll do my best to give you the readers digest version, but i understand if you cut some of it out for lengths sake. I bought this beast back when i was 17 off a guy for 200 bucks. No lie. he really just wanted to get rid of it. It had no engine (he blew the cleveland 4 times, the last one being in a race with an unworthy Integra), and a half dead FMX. As you can see in the picture where ' sitting up, thats what it looked like mostly when I brought it home. She stayed that way for quite some time as i searched for a job, an engine, and a general understanding of cars. Over the summer that year, i came across a windsor from a 74 montego and proceded to drop that in the car and rebuild it at the naval base Oceanea hobby shop where she resided for quite some time. I happened to one day be magically granted a brand new c6 (for free no less), and aside from a whole bunch of other go fast parts, I beefed her out rather nicely. About 10 months later when I finally got to a point where all I needed was to have her tuned and turned over (mind you, i knew nothing about cars, and my friends and i were just cutting our teeth on this beast) I had her brought down to Moyock Automotive in NC. Sadly, all the work i had done was for naught because it turned out that the 400 dollar windsor was really a 50 motor. Her flywheel was bent, the timing was beyond repair, the valves were all leaky, and the list goes on. she lived for me to hear her beastly roar for all of 24 seconds. I was heartbroken and greatly discouraged, my project of almost a year had just died before my eyes. Thankfully the serendipity of the car intervened again and I came across a newly rebuilt 70 429 from a tbird on ebay.  It was like a dream come true. this engine was perfect, and for 1800 dollars (300 bucks to ship from Carson City Nevada to Chesapeake Virginia) it was a ridiculous steal. The new parts alone on the thing were worth the 1500 I payed for it. She came with a Ford Motorsports Dominator manifold, dove C heads, pete jackson gear drive, new water pump, custom jet hot headers, new mallory ignition system (distributor, coil, etc), and the list goes on. For all the trouble I had with the windsor, I was rewarded with this blessing from the gods. She was computer dynoed at 475 hp and 500 ftlbs of torque, and believe me, its all there. I had the boys down in Moyock drop her in, and i took her home. that journey is a story in itself, in which the hood flew off, i had no brakes, no power steering, and the tranny didnt shift outta first for 10 miles of an interstate, but I've gone on too long anyways. There is a whole lot of work still to be done on this beast, and I will keep you updated as I get things done with her. I hope you post this on your site though, cause its kinda been a hope of mine for 18 months now. And to any import boy wanting to talk smack about steel, or any chevy old foggie that thinks he can handle Ford, this 19 year old welcomes all challengers! Thanks Mike!

-Joseph Vitola Chesapeake, Virginia"

Thanks Joseph, Wow, what a great story!  I was reading it and when you got to the Windsor part, I said "No.....  he's gonna get rid of it!"  Raed like a great novel!  Good luck and keep me updated!  (by the way, cute blonde, too bad....)