Spirit of ’76 – Tom Ulrich Instills Some Modern Performance into Ford’s Boxy Midsize Granada
Sometimes the stars just align and all of a sudden you have a new project car that you didn’t even know you wanted. Tom Ulrich attended one of the big swap meets in Carlilse, Pennsylvania a number of years ago and came across a very clean, original mid-’70s Granada, which got him thinking about how he could build a car like that into something cool.
One his way back home to Colorado, Tom met up with some of his high school hot rod friends in Ohio for lunch and told them about the Granada he saw and what a cool, fun driver he thought it would make. Three days later, one of his friends called and said there was a clean ’76 Granada down the street for sale and boom, next thing you know, Tom was on a one-way flight to Ohio to drive his new project home.
Now, a Ford Granada is not a model that comes to most minds when considering their next project for a good-handling, high performance muscle machine, but Tom has always liked building different things – and we’re glad he does. Designed to replace the Maverick, the Granada debuted in 1976 in the U.S., though the nameplate was already in use in Germany. The car was marketed as a luxury compact vehicle, but we prefer Tom’s take on the model as a modernized, mid-sized, mid-’70s muscle machine.
As Tom tells it, for an Ohio car, it was in decent shape, had been painted once, the stock interior was in really nice condition, and the factory six-cylinder engine ran well enough to get him more than 1,000 miles home. All that seat time gave Tom plenty of time to ponder the best way to make the ol’ econobox handle and stop well, and to give it a boost of power.
First on the list were suspension upgrades, starting with removal of the factory shock towers and wobbly original components. Tom explained that the front suspension upgrade was the most challenging aspect of the build, but he stuck to his guns and fabricated a new system based on a set of Ridetech A-arms paired with the company’s coil-over shocks, along with a new quick-ratio power steering box from Borgeson. He also modified a Ridetech four-bar rear setup to fit the Granada hind quarters, along with a 9-inch axle housing and Wilwood brakes all around.
To add safety and stiffness to the unibody structure, Tom fabbed an inconspicuous roll cage and continued with a few stiffening bars throughout the engine compartment for even more support. Between that tubing is a 4.8-liter GM LS V8 (sorry Ford diehards) being force-fed by a pair of turbochargers Tom picked up from a friend. Thanks to a Brian Tooley Racing cam and valvetrain, along with a Holley fuel and ignition management system, the Granada now has 490 rear-wheel horsepower with just six-pounds of boost! Tom controls a 4L60E transmission through a modified factory column shifter.
The factory shifter is just one of the original interior parts Tom was particular about leaving in place. The factory red bench seat and interior are all intact, including the door panels and most of the dash including the factory Aeronutronic AM/FM radio. Look closely and you’ll notice a bit of carbon fiber surrounding the Holley 7-inch flat screen dash so Tom can keep close tabs on everything going on under the hood. If you weren’t looking closely, you’d barely notice the stealthy roll cage!
To complete the body and paint, Tom called in his buddy Stu Waldron who set about removing the Ford nameplates and Granada badges – except one on the deck lid so people could figure out what they’re looking at. The grille was reimaged by blacking out the vertical chrome bars, which helped wipe the front end clean of its Mercedes influence of the day. LED headlamps were swapped in and their bezels received similar treatment as the grille. Stu worked a little color trickery by painting the lower two-thirds of the bumpers the same Spies Hecker Ford bright red, giving the chromed top section a much-needed thinner appearance.
Thanks to the ride-height-adjustable coil-overs and Tom’s dedication to getting the suspension systems just right, the bright red body sits perfectly over the 18-inch Intro wheels with 225/40/18 front and 285/35/18 Nitto tread. He also added a bit of flair with a slim spoiler from Ringbrothers over the deck lid.
Tom worked on the Granada on and off for about seven years and finally wrapped it up the day before the Colorado Nationals, and what better way to celebrate its initial outing than by earning the Fuel Curve Pick! Next on the list is to smooth out any new-build drivability and handling gremlins and make some laps on the autocross track or at nearby High Plains Raceway!
Photos: Damon Lee, Terry Lysak
