This really is the little-old-lady-from-Pasadena car – although in this case, she was from Torrence. It just seems too good to be true but it is true. This Grabber is located in Artesia, California, the current bid price is $10,488, and there is no reserve. As I was going through the photos, I was almost laughing out loud and not in a bad way but in a good, exciting sort of way, or maybe a crazy way as I’m sitting here by myself. The seller also has it listed here as a Barn Finds Classified. The more I look at this 1971 Ford Maverick Grabber the more I’m in disbelief that there’s no reserve on the eBay auction seen here. It was still wearing the original tires that came with it at the rear.Good. When it returned, it only had 4,900 miles on the odometer and was almost in the same condition as the day he sold it. It sounded almost exactly the same as when I sold it 35 years earlier.' He eventually spoke to the new owner, and after numerous back-and-forth negotiations, an agreement was reached to sell the car back to him. He called the next night and we talked about the car. I told her that I was the original owner, and asked if she could have her husband call me. 'I called back the next night and his wife told me that the car had been sold. 'I called, but no one answered,' he says. There was a small photo with the listing and he was sure that was his car. 'I looked for it for a long time, but never found it.' In 2011, while surfing on Craigslist, he spotted an ad for a 1973 Maverick with a 351 Cleveland and a four-speed. When he sold the Maverick, Mike lost track of it. He sold it to a close friend who kept it for about 10 years, but never did anything with it. The end result was that it was sent to a new home. That configuration lasted a few weeks until the engine swallowed a valve at eight grand and was destroyed.Īt the end of 1975, Mike tied the knot and reality quickly set in when he realized that the monthly car payment was unsustainable. It had a big cam and a Paxton supercharger off of a Shelby-a combination that dropped his times down into the 11.70 range. Once the parts showed up, no time was wasted in putting the 289 back together. With the four-speed and a new rear, it ran 15.50s. Delays in getting engine parts and a set of headers for the 289 forced him to pull it out and drop the stock 302 back in.

In one swift, warranty-killing move, he pulled the driveline out of the car and installed a four-speed, 9-inch rear with 4.44 gears and a 289 hi-po from a donor 1965 Mustang. He was accustomed to running respectable times, so a 16.50 didn't set his world on fire. Behind him was a 1970 big-block Torino and a 1973 Mach I Mustang that he regularly drag-raced. I took it to Milan Dragway that Sunday and ran 16.50s.' The Maverick wasn't his first rodeo when it came to racing. He explains, 'I picked up the Maverick on a Thursday afternoon and drove it home from the dealer and installed wheels and tires on it. That didn't really bother the die-hard racers, and Mike certainly fell into that category. The oil crisis of 1973, stricter government regulations, and rising insurance rates had put the last nail in the coffin of the muscle-car era. At that point in time, anything with a V8 was a former shadow of itself when it came to performance. His goal was to buy the lightest Ford that came with a V8, and for that model year the Maverick was what fulfilled that criterion. At the ripe, old age of 18, Mike Copeland walked into his local Ford dealership on a mission.

1975 ford maverick grabber