Affordable Unicorn!

"CobraJoe" (cobrajoe)
11/29/2016 at 13:24 • Filed to: None

Found one of my Unicorns!

Just a Fairmont? Nope!

It’s a Durango! Only like 200 of them were made. I’d love to have a Foxbody ute, but they’re impossible to find.

The price is on the high side for me though...

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

DISCUSSION (18)

vondon302 > CobraJoe
11/29/2016 at 13:36

Damn that is a unicorn.

shop-teacher > CobraJoe
11/29/2016 at 13:36

I think that was on NPoCP quite a while ago.

Stapleface > CobraJoe
11/29/2016 at 13:39

I can’t say I’ve ever seen one of these before. Nifty piece of history there.

CobraJoe > shop-teacher
11/29/2016 at 13:41

I don’t remember seeing this one on NPOCP, but it might have been shared on Oppo before. I didn’t bother checking because I just found it by accident.

shop-teacher > CobraJoe
11/29/2016 at 13:41

I think it was quite a while ago.

Edit: I couldn’t find it, so maybe it was on Oppo. It wasn’t recent though, so I bet it’s been sitting at that dealer for a while.

CobraJoe > shop-teacher
11/29/2016 at 13:58

He certainly is asking a pretty penny for 80's Ford steel, even if it is for an extremely rare and hard to find model.

shop-teacher > CobraJoe
11/29/2016 at 14:02

Yeah, I could see $4k or maybe $5k, but not $8k.

Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer > CobraJoe
03/23/2017 at 13:12

Little pricey, but: it’s totally ROCKNROLLBLUEJEANSUSA! or something to that effect. Definitely a “right Buyer” kind of car, that a lot would get sick of if it sat too long.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CobraJoe
06/30/2017 at 10:58

That is a profoundly ugly car. Divide that asking price by ten, and maybe we could begin talking...

CobraJoe > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/30/2017 at 13:14

Blame the paint color and wire wheels for most of the ugly. A paint job and wheel swap helps immensely.

Kinja'd!!!

(Yes, two of those pics are Fairmonts, but the Durango was actually a converted Fairmont).

Though I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a fan of the simple and clean lines from the 80s.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CobraJoe
06/30/2017 at 13:46

There is really nothing that is not unattractive about that entire assortment of cars; underpowered, poor handling, unattractive. I owned one, a wagon with a straight-six and a four-speed manual. Just all kinds of crappy, but I don’t regret trying it out. Paid like $800 for it in 1988 or ‘89.

CobraJoe > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/30/2017 at 14:06

There’s a lot attractive about those cars. RWD, fairly light weight (Fairmonts are around 2700-3000 pounds, depending on engine and body), very easy to work on, very easy to upgrade, and can be bought and built very cheap.

It’s a Foxbody mustang in disguise. Apart from some wheelbase specific parts (driveshaft and exhaust mostly), anything from or for a Mustang will bolt up. Engine swaps? How big do you want to spend? A junkyard 302 should be cheap, or a 460 swap can be done with a bolt in $1000 kit, even the 2.3L pinto engine can be built to put out massive power. Trans swap? C4 or AOD or 5 speed or 6 speed? Better handling? You can do anything from swapping in springs from an SN95 to tubular A-arms to a full Cobra IRS install. Brakes? 10in front rotors are an easy swap, 13in rotors can be installed using factory parts.

Non-mustang Foxes are a performance bargain if you’re willing to put in a little research and elbow grease. The looks are the only questionable thing, but you can do a little bit of mixing and matching with other Foxbodies if you want, or you can learn to live with the simple and clean lines and enjoy the drive.

(BTW, I would love to have your old 4speed wagon as a project.)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CobraJoe
06/30/2017 at 14:20

All news to me. Thank you for informing me.

The ute you posted that started all of this, that’s just a pretend 428 CJ badge, right? The listing gives no pictures under the hood, nor any mention of how the thing is engined.

I’ve always been a GM man and I view the final (11th) generation Caprice 9C1 as the pinnacle that nothing compared to before or since. If I had a buzillion dollars to buy whatever I wanted now, I’d buy a Cadillac CTS-V. But that presupposes that I also had a buzillion dollars in my maintenance budget... I had a 2013 Impala with the VVT engine rated at 300 hp. It ran great, but then I learnt that I had a giant maintenance liability with the engine timing chain(s) and I priced it to sell and dumped it while it was still happy.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CobraJoe
06/30/2017 at 14:21

Honestly Joe, you’ve changed how I feel about that car, though what little I know I would not want to change from GM to Ford to try one out. I’m too old for that and getting too late a start.

CobraJoe > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/30/2017 at 14:44

I really doubt that the 428CJ badge is honest. There’s no other visible mods to the car other than some speakers, and a big block FE would need quite a few changes to make it reasonable to drive. (Springs, brakes, trans, rear end, tires, and some other suspension strengthening mods for starters). So, unless it’s a true sleeper, it probably has the I6 that all Durangos were sold with.

Growing up with a brand really does focus your attentions. My first fun car was a ‘79 Mustang with the 75hp 2.3L and a 4 speed. I didn’t have it long, but it got me hooked on the foxbody chassis pretty hard. It is pretty funny working on a Ford with my hardcore GM friend though, he often gets confused about why Ford does something a certain way. He has a 2005 CTS-V, and that’s a pretty darn fun car. The clutch is a bit goofy, but 400hp makes you forget about it pretty quickly.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CobraJoe
06/30/2017 at 15:23

My CTS-V would have an automatic. I don’t think manuals belong in big sedans. Besides, modern emissions and drive-by-wire and rev hang and all of that have taken the fun out of them. IMHO...

O.C. likes saloon cars.

Did you register for my 9C1 lottery?

Still: you’d need a big maintenance budget for a CTS-V, if only for the tires and brakes. My CTS-V would probably have a curious need for frequent trips to the tire store and uneven wear between front and rear, and no doubt, the fronts would be different from the rears, and maybe even different from side to side. And I’d need some aftermarket struts and Brembo brakes and other necessities.

I’ll so some more reading on those Fox body sedans, though.

CobraJoe > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/30/2017 at 15:54

The 1st gen CTS-V wasn’t really that big, it was more of a midsized sedan. The 6 speed in it really doesn’t feel out of place, and it’s already pretty well dampened and has factory brembos even. Honestly, apart from some oddities like the clutch, the only problem I have with it is how expensive (and unnecessary) it is to upgrade. It is on my list for a possible future daily driver though, I really want to return to a V8 RWD in my next car.

It’d take quite a bit of money to get a Fox sedan up to CTS-V level peformance, but I bet it’s possible to build one for roughly half the price of a 1st gen V. (It just won’t be anywhere near as refined or comfortable).

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CobraJoe
10/15/2018 at 16:13

Frictionless Pulleys.

In your reply to the other post , you tried to understand and answer my question, instead of showing me how clever you could sound. Thank you for that. You’re not a teacher, are you?