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Rob McPherson finds his dream ’72 LTD, and makes it better than new.

The stunning ’72 LTD Convertible that’s gracing these pages belongs to Rob McPherson of Great Falls, Virginia. Seems Rob and this car were meant for each other, as you’ll see as you read along…

The big Ford was originally built on November 10, 1971 at the Louisville, KY plant. It was sold by Chuck Anderson Ford, of Excelsior Springs, MO, to a Ford Motor Company employee and then was taken back in on trade two years later. Chuck Anderson Ford owned the car for the next 10 years, using it in parades, and for show purposes. It was finally sold in the mid-1980s.

A world record holder 6 cylinder Mustang takes on all comers!

The Scrapper “program” began in the late ’60s on a farm in central Saskatchewan, Canada. While most racers of the day were building V8s, Norm Hess was busy stuffing a highly modified Ford 300 inline six in an early sixties Falcon. He raced the car at the local NHRA track - SIR (Saskatoon International Raceway). The car was known as “Scrapper” and raced in the H/MP class. The class was an NHRA sanctioned class for six cylinder cars back in the day.

Mark Gazzola of Vancouver, British Columbia, has one unique ’68 Ford XL!

Back in ’75 I was an impressionable youth. I was still in high school and was in the market for a set of wheels. At that time I hadn’t been totally bitten by the Ford bug, although I did tend to lean that way. I was still pretty open minded as to what type of car I might be interested in.

I told my boss I wanted to buy a car, and he told me his brother owned a used car lot on West Broadway and that he would probably give me a discount. He asked what type of car that I was interested in, so I told him maybe a Chevelle, Charger, or an XL. It just so happened that he had all three. The Chevelle was a ’69 light blue 396 SS Convertible with a light blue top. The Charger was a ’69 R/T 440 Magnum. Then of course there was the ’68 XL. They wanted $3600 for the Chevelle, which was way out of my league, and $2000 for the Charger. The only problem with the Mopar was when you opened the doors, you saw the front wheels, and when you opened the trunk, you saw the road. Not a good choice if you wanted a decent car. Then there was the XL. They originally wanted $2800 for it, but since I worked for the owner’s brother, they sold it to me for $1500. He wrote on the bill of sale, “No warranty expressed or implied due to price consideration.” I had to get my Dad to co-sign for me, and since he already owned a ’68 LTD that he had factory ordered, it wasn’t hard to convince him.

There’s a lot more than meets the eye with this ’67 Comet 202!

The Mercury Division of Ford Motor Company long utilized a stylized Mercury (the winged messenger of the gods in Greek mythology) as its symbol, and when the auto maker returned to the production of high performance cars in the early 1960s, they saw to it that their message was delivered, and fast!

Beginning with the 406 cubic-inch, 405 horsepower FE series V8 in 1962 right up to the 375 horsepower 429 Super Cobra Jet 385 series engines of the early 1970s, Mercury went toe to toe with the best Detroit had to offer both on the track and on the street. Often however, giving up a weight advantage to the competition in order to offer a more upscale vehicle to the discerning buyer. Mercury shared its high performance engine line with Ford, and though the production of Mercury muscle cars would never rival that of their Blue Oval cousins, the Division’s racing accomplishments, particularly on the drag strip in the mid 1960s, were unrivaled. Unknown at the time was how the scarcity of Mercury muscle cars would impact the collector car hobby in years to come