1967 Cyclone GT

Family cars are a special thing. And although the passion for cars hasn’t been proven genetic, it can often be traced from generation to generation. The story behind this 1967 Cyclone GT is the passion of a father that became the passion of the son. Jeff Pohlman’s relationship with this car began in 1985 with a family road trip to Aimes, Iowa. Jeff remembers riding in the family motorhome over the endless Kansas black top, a car hauler in tow. His dad, John, found this car through the treasure hunt grapevine and made it a family adventure to go get it.

When they got it home, he remembers his dad using it as an occasion car, driving it at whim Saturdays or after work just enjoying it in an everyday manner. One of Jeff’s best memories is riding down Blue Lakes, Beach Boys on the radio and his old man squealing the tires at every light.

John unfortunately lost his battle with cancer in 2005 and the car passed to Jeff. He knew he wanted a remod restore, so he called Benny. Jeff had a vision. They began by narrowing the rear end, added a 4 link suspension and coil over shocks, and swapped out the factory gauges. And when Mark Kidd rebuilt the motor Jeff was all Ford. A lot of guys will remodel a Ford and throw in a Chevy block but he wanted to stick with original 390 FE block. He is proud they were able to step up to 455 horsepower and 575 pounds of torque and keep the Ford motor. “This car was 1 of 1581 4 speeds built in 1967 and I didn’t want to take that away.” he told me. “I had a vision when we started and as we went along Benny and I idea swapped a bit. He would get an idea and call me, “Hey Jeff, what do you think of this or that?” Come to think of it, I don’t know if we ever disagreed. Benny really made the vision happen. We dedicated a lot of time and money to the project but the result was phenomenal. When my dad’s friends saw the car, they all said we did it right and that felt really good.”

Sometimes a great story can come from the color choice of a remodel. When I asked Jeff about the Cyclone this is what he said. “I picked the color and I think Benny wept a little when I did. But I have always loved the look of really high gloss black with shiny chrome. It can be really tough to get a great black finish, but Benny really came through and the car looked great.”

The car went on to earn awards in every show they placed it in, including Best Ford in Show at the Twin Falls Car show, and 2nd in its class in the Boise Road Show. But the best Jeff told me was, “All of us standing by the car waiting to hear the results of the MVEI President’s Choice at Joe Mama’s. When they called my name, I was overcome. I will never forget it.”

I asked Jeff if he had plans for another remodel in the future…well he said, “There’s a 1966 Ford Fairlane convertible my dad also left me in my shop right now.”