Since this thread is 1/2 about a Torino now...sigh
...so here's an excerpt on Poteet's 'Talli from the Power Tour.
Green text cuz... well, you know.
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"My scheduled ride for Thursday’s leg of Power Tour was with Adam Schoonmaker of Skoons Hot Rods. He is doing Power Tour in a ’29 Model A truck
and I was looking forward to experiencing some old school hot rodding, but then there was a scheduling problem. This other guy, a Troy something, what was it again? Oh yeah, Troy Trepanier asked if I might also like to cruise for a bit in the Ford he built. I called Adam, “Hey dude, uh, you mind rolling caravan for a little while with George Poteet’s ’69 Torino?” Oddly, Adam didn’t mind, so our little parade set off, the Rad Rides by Troy car in front, Adam, his dad Alan, and their friends Jinx and Fred bringing up the rear.
How do I even describe the ride quality in the Torino? I couldn’t stop smiling. Just cruising at freeway speed you feel like you’re in the NASCAR Talladega that inspired this build, only there’s a passenger seat, and it’s really comfortable. I’d only seen this car at shows, where it was immaculate and surrounded by cars straddling mirrors, so seeing it on the road, being in it on the road, and looking out a windshield spattered with insect life, it changed my opinion of the car completely. Something about those matte bronze door pulls fingerprinted from actual use made the car look even better, gave it a solidity that it never had on the show floor. Cars should be used, they look better that way.
As we drive Troy doesn’t miss any opportunities to goose the 429 and the combination of the high rpm roar and the decel pops is so sexy I start to wonder if it’s legal in any state to marry a car. There is a stunning lack of any of the normal old, or even new car rattles in the Torino. All you hear is engine and the rocks hitting the undercarriage–which makes me wince, but Troy isn’t bothered. He built it once, and he can build it again. Occasionally we shout at each other about the details of the car’s construction, its Holman Moody gauges and shifter ball, and how well it suits owner George Poteet. We also talk about Adam in the ’29 behind us.”I was happy to meet him,” Troy tells me. “A young guy like that, a new builder, that makes me think of my early years. We used to come do Power Tour every year, each new build. It’s the best way to learn how to design for reliability, performance, and all the little things, like driving position and road comfort.” Clearly Troy has those things worked out in the Torino. I don’t ever want to get out.
Eventually though, he has to split off to stop by a race shop, and I do want to get to talk to Adam, so it’s out of the high-end and into the home-built. I walk over to the passenger side and stare in confusion and the steering wheel. “It’s right hand drive,” Adam says. “It’s an LS engine, and the alternator went right where the steering box needed to be, so we switched the steering box.” As I sheepishly switch sides, Adam apologizes for the simplicity of his little chopped truck. “It’s kind of hard to compete with Troy’s car,” he says. I assure him that the floor in Troy’s car was just as hot as the bare metal in the Model A, and he offers me a windshield shade to put between my knee and the tunnel, which works quite well!"