Hello to everyone on FordForumsOnline! I've owned quite a few Fords - in fact, my first car was a 1955 Ford Fairlane (white with tan top, 4 door - my dad believed in a safe car). In 1968 my then-husband and I bought a gold and black Torino GT fastback with the 390, and in 1969 we stayed sort of in the Ford family with a blaze orange and black Mercury Cyclone GT fastback. We lived in Michigan then and used to attend NASCAR races at the then-new Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. Ironically, my sister now owns a home less than 2 miles from that track! She and her then-husband went to the Indy 500 every year for many years (she has a couple of photos of her with Andy Granatelli of STP fame).
In 1995 I bought my first Ford Probe GT (a black 1994, which I still own and drive weekly - 197K on the car, "new" J-spec KLZE engine installed at 164K to replace the OEM KLDE (due to an incompetent "mechanic" who put a too-short mani breather hose on when changing the rear valve cover gasket, which is a PITA - transverse mounted engine of course, for those who are less familiar with Probes - and the throttle linkage got caught on it, revving past redline and seizing). I like the extra HP, dynoed at 147.09 whp a couple of years ago.
In 2006 I wanted a second car and nothing appealed to me but another Probe, so I bought a buddy's heavily modded 1994 Probe GT (Wild Orchid color was a special one that year only), drove it for 2 years and sold it to another buddy - I took that money and put it down on a 2008 Mazda RX-8, which I still own (my DD).
Also in 2006, another buddy had 4-5 vehicles (including an F-150, and his own racing Cobra - he's an SCCA champ!) and wanted to sell me his (also black) 1994 Probe GT (it was going to a good home if I bought it, he said), so at that point I owned 3 Ford Probe GTs, all 1994s, all manual gearboxes, all with different interiors (my original car has gray leather interior, the Wild Orchid has the special orchid/teal/gray interior, and the other black one had black cloth seats and black interior - which is very desirable, as I found out). I sold that car in 2007 to another buddy who I knew would treat it with TLC.
I and my buddies go to the Probe Talk site - I am on that forum quite a lot, but plan to frequent this one. Thanks to Tom Taylor of RockAuto (they have great parts - that's where I bought my replacement catalytic converter for Probe GT #1 a few years ago, and I love their monthly newsletter - that's how I found out about this forum).
I trust that this welcome thread, which was going to be short, gives you some idea of my history with Fords. I'm surprised there is no Michigan icon below! That's where most of our cars were made. Oh yeah, I grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan before moving to the west coast, and one of my favorite childhood memories was taking a school field trip to the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn, MI. Another favorite destination is Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.
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