I think you mean "million dollar duck"
After quite a time in shipping, I finally got this one back to England a few weeks ago. Now I'm in the process of stripping her down. There is lots to do, but I'm getting more pleased at my purchase the further I dig into it..... Original 289 HiPo on STD bores and Crank, incredibly almost zero rust and an interior that is 10 times better than it looked in the sellers photos - so I seem to have a good solid starting point. The car appears to have been used for some type of club racing back in the early 80's. From what I have found on stripping the engine, my guess would be something went through the oil pump (seized on stripdown) which resulted in the car getting laid up back in 1982. Unfortunately whoever changed the intake to a Shelby Dual Quad (again, maybe for club racing?) didn't make a good job of sealing the water passages and some coolant seeped through to the intake port and laid in No.4 cylinder for all those years. Luckily it looked significantly worse than it actually was and a 30 thou rebore will clean things up fine. Most photos as we progress.... Andy Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi Andy, Good luck with the car. Definitely post more photos as you go along. It looks like it had an aftermarket air conditioner (extra crank pulley). The dual quad carbs might have been installed just because the owner wanted that set up. It was somewhat common "back in the day". Not necessarily a racing set up. If they are CFM sized and tuned correctly that would be a great sounding and running engine. These are great cars. I had 1967 # 40057 sold about 20 years ago. Carmine
Thanks for your comments Carmine, My thoughts about someone using it for some kind of racing were also prompted by the replacement race tank/filler, Perspex windows (uninstalled) and removed bumpers; but its only a guess on my part. I intend to restore it with many of the period modifications intact - only because its very similar to what I would have done with the car if I owned it back in the 80's. I was thinking that it must have been installed with A/C at some stage too as I came across two extra hose holes in the firewall that were blanked off; the extra pulley seems to support that view. This is #40052, so the second coupe. I know 40051 was around in the 80's (owned by Rob Rowe back then - who didn't seem to realise he had the first coupe reading his comments on chassis numbers in the early club newsletters). I imagine that ,without the insight now provided by the recently published factory records in the Veloce book, such things were all a bit foggy back then. Does 40051 still exist? Some kind of show/race car according to the book? Andy
My advice is to put it back in if you plan to drive in the summer. These things are hot inside. I don't know about that. I let my old print newsletters go with the car. What book, by the way? I may pick up a copy.
I assumed it was going to get hot in the cabin when I found expanded polystyrene sheets under the carpets! I will replace with a more modern equivalent and make a better job of sealing the various holes in the firewall.... I think I should be OK without A/C in England; my previous car (Pantera GT5S) had non functioning A/C and we were OK most of the time - mind you, I wouldn't try that with either car hotter climates.... The book referred to is the one detailed a few posts up - "Intermeccanica - the story of the prancing bull" it's a really good read, and includes a complete list by serial number (with basic options/configuration comments) for each car manufactured for the "pre-speedster" days. Certainly its worth the £16 or so I paid for mine. Readily available on the bay and I'm sure the other normal places too. Andy
From my findings the front suspension is much to weak to race. . The workmanship was fair at best and the car is much to heavy for the suspension components. These cars had suspension failures when used on the street back in the day, I can only Imagine what racing would do to them.
Some progress - Engine bay is now stripped out, the "black goop" is removed, stress cracks to the inner wings and one engine mounting post is all welded up and the metal is primed. Next weekend hopefully I'll get time to apply the chassis black and start reassembly of the front suspension. Luckily, the expensive suspension ball joints look to be in very good condition, but the A-arm rubber bushes were age deteriorated so replacements are on order from Italy. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Just curious: What ever happened to the Italia/Omega that I took in trade from Sonny Bono back in the 70's? It was dark green with a pin-stripe outline of Cher on the sail panels. No idea of the S/N; it wasn't important then. I sold it to Herman Sillas, an attorney in my building. It was an interesting transaction. The car that I sold was a Ferrari 250LM (s/n 5909). He insisted that I had to take the trade "because his manager had to be satisfied." He also unrolled a wad of cash which was easily the largest I had ever seen. When I offered to check him out in the LM he refused, saying, "I know how to drive." Later, I heard tales of the LM being parked in front of the Playboy Club on a regular basis, and then that he had sold it with broken trans (crash box.) Yeah, he knew how to drive.
Progress has been a lot slower than intended, mostly because of a lack of any more time to spend on it other than a few hours here and there, but also because the front suspension took a lot longer to than it should have done to get to a point where I was happy with it. Andy Image Unavailable, Please Login
If anyone knows of or has photos of any Italia/Torino/Omega cars on a race track, I would love to see them.
Frank Reisner used the Ford 9" rear axle in the rear. Given that its Italian styling is slightly narrower than standard Muscle Cars of the era, there just wasn't a lot of room under the fender for oversize wheels and tires. Flared fenders would alter the look of the car (and be period-incorrect) and probably hurt it's long-term collectability value. If you absolutely must have wider rear wheels (and who doesn't think deep-dish wheels look great on the rear of any muscular car), then I recommend buying a narrowed rear axle to use, while keeping the original axle unmodified for maintaining the car's originality. The 4-wheel disc brakes are the same Girlings used on Shelby's AC Cobras, so I'm not sure why you'd want to replace them. Part of the fun of owning an older car is experiencing what it was like to drive the older technology. If you want new technology, buy a Corvette. No one wants the unreliability of an older car design, so making subtle improvements like an improved wiring harness or better bushings, etc makes sense; but if you go modifying the car in irreversible ways, you may regret it when the market for original cars takes off. There were some Borrani wire wheels made for Italias which I've heard were the same ones used on the Maserati Mistral (15 x 6-1/2L RW3994), but I cannot confirm that as I've never seen an Italia with original wire wheels in person to check the wheel numbers. I believe that the vast majority of Italias were delivered with the Ford-supplied Magnum 500 stamped steel wheels that were so popular on muscle cars of that era. Some Italias came with an optional set of Cromodora cast aluminum wheels which I believe were made specifically for the Italia's offset needs. They may need longer studs installed if your car came with the Magnum wheels originally. The Italia's body styling is very much from the early 1960's - similar to the Ferrari GTO Series II of 1963 which came with wire wheels, but also with styling cues from the Ferrari 275 GTB which came out in 1964 and was the first production Ferrari ever to offer cast wheels... the point being that the Italia's styling is from that transitional period when wire wheels were being replaced by cast wheels, so the Italia can look period-correct with either wire wheels or cast Cromodoras. The Magnum 500 wheels are correct in the sense that they are original to the car; but my strong belief is that whatever makes the car look more Italian is the right direction to go. Keeping the car American under the hood is fine - especially for reliability and costs, but the best looking Italias are the most Italian looking ones - with either wire wheels or Cromodoras. Low-profile tires have the wrong look on cars of this era. If you love the Italia for it's beauty, then stick with the proportions and details that were correct for its era. If you decide to use wire wheels, don't use Jaguar wheels or two-eared knock-offs (too British-looking - not that that's bad on British cars, just wrong for Italian cars). Similarly, to maintain the beautiful Italian styling, the exhaust outlets should look like the Italian systems of that era. I studied side & rear photos of lots of Italian supercars from the early 1960's before having a custom system made for my '69 Italia. Getting the length, spacing, and angles just right with 4 ANSA tips took a long time and a lot of labor, but it looks so right when done correctly. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
heres mine ,one i just sold at auburn auction labor day isee its listed again for sale at this st.louis dealer theres a great story to go along with it also i did correspond with paula reisner and she did give an explanation to how it might have all happened i owned it for 34 years but never realized the'' mistake'' making it a one off,until i bought paula's book if you dont have it you might want to buy it : click the link below 1968 Intermeccanica Torino Italia for sale #1789863 | Hemmings Motor News
I'm in the process of restoring a 1968 Intermeccanica Italia. I have found answers to all the typical bushing problems, but I'm having some difficulty finding a replacement for the front Bilstein shocks. The old newsletters listed numerous shocks, but none are really that great a choice. Has anyone found a good riding alternative to the original Bilstein shocks? I'm thinking of going to a coilover, but can't find a stem top shock with an extended length of 22" and a 14" compressed length. Fox body mustang 3.5"OD coil springs that comes in 12 and 14"length are available. I think they would well. If anyone has been able to find an answer to this age old Intermeccanica Italia question, I would appreciate the help. Thanks, Dan
Was Nice until the Pinto Tail lights showed up.. http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/intermeccanica/italia/1813146.html
2 Intermeccanica for sale on Phoenix Craigslist https://phoenix.craigslist.org/search/evl/cto?query=Intermeccanica
I spent quite a bit of time coming up with solutions for my front suspension - assuming yours is the early type too, I am happy to share if it's of help.
Why don't you Andy share info. The more in detail the better. Any specs / sources of replacement parts is appreciated. My wested interest is due to having two early cars on which I will need to replace suspension bits. Total suspension replacement to one for safety reasons (broken and welded struts) and rebuild the another one to factory spec
