FeaturedFord TalladegaHistorical Paperwork and Memos
What were the tooling costs for the Talladega?

When ever Talladega owners get together someone will always mention the high cost of building the cars and how Ford lost money on every one of them. I have never before actually seen an estimate but this document begins to provide an answer. Even in 1968 dollars this estimate is way less than most have speculated. However, note the first sentence, “Estimated Program Costs Based on 200 Vehicle Build”.





Richard & Marty,
Very interesting, and I suspect very optimistic, estimates. (It is also interesting to see it titled: “Fairlane NASCAR Program” as virtually all labeling of the car during races called it either a Torino, or a Cobra.
I also have to ask why the “200” unit run estimate, as they would have known that NASCAR was officially requiring a minimum run of 500, and supposedly, Ford built about 750…
These appear to be projections by someone who was trying to convince management to fund the project. I wonder what the real numbers were…
Great stuff! Please keep it coming.
Thanks,
Carl.