1969 Ford Petty Torino

You may have seen them on eBay and may has read about them on some Forums but was there really a 1969 Petty Blue Torino? In other articles and pages on this site we have discussed the 1968 Mercury Cyclone GT 500 and other Specials. From all that I have been able to find it appears that the Petty Blue 1969 Torino was real and was much like the 1969 Mercury Cyclone Dan Gurney and Cale Yarborough Spoilers. It was a special Ford promotion for the 1969 Charlotte 600. It is reported that there only 100 such cars built.
These 100 cars were all identical 351 Cleveland powered C6 automatics. Obviously, Mercury had the Dan Gurney and Cale Yarborough Spoiler and Spoiler II tribute cars but why didn’t Ford have one? It appears that they did; and it was the Richard Petty Blue Torino. Remember this was a big year for Ford, The King had left the MOPAR Team and joined up with Ford and drove a Petty Blue Torino. To make the story complete I should be able to tell you that there were also Petty Blue Talladegas just like the Mercury Spoiler II Cale and Dan cars with the long noses but such is not the case. However, Ford did build three 428 CJ C6 automatic Petty Blue Torinos!
I recently received a call from the owner of one of the 428 CJ cars. He is interested in selling it and I will provide the contact info to anyone who is interested. Just send me an email to rfleener@comcast.net.
The car shown here is now owned by Otto Bryant. He has owned it approximately a year and a half. It was ordered on February 20, 1969 and built on March 11, 1969. It was then sent to a holding facility until it was given away as part of a contest. I am unaware of the details of the contest but would like to get more information if anyone has it.
This particular car still has most of its original paint and is rust free. It has been garaged all of it life of 99,000 miles. The owner does have a Marti Report and Build Sheet confirming its pedigree. It is believed that Richard himself handed the keys to the winner of the contest and that the other two 428 CJ cars are in the Richard Petty private collection and have never been titled, but this has not been confirmed.
In addition to the C6 automatic the Torino has a bench seat, oil cooler, PS and white sidewalls. This was a non-ram air car with the only other option being an AM radio.