Benefits

Welcome: If you have an interest in Fairlanes/Torinos, and/or their Mercury cousins, then this is the place for you! Knowledge and help from fellow members is available, and we welcome you to share your experience as well. To join, just fill out the membership application and mail it in along with your dues, or fill out the New Member Signup form on this website for immediate membership activation. Then you may begin accessing the helpful information on our website, start having more fun with your car, reading about similar cars, and communicating with others who share your enthusiasm!

What you are seeing on the website as a non-member is just a fraction of what there is. Here is what you could be seeing as a club member:
• Forums - By year group for technical information, parts & cars for sale or wanted; or just for shooting the breeze.
• Archives - Over two decades of past club magazines, technical articles, and feature articles, all available for download. (Non-members can download a sample club magazine by clicking on "Archives" and following online instructions.)
• FCA Events - find event details for opportunities to gather with other club members around club cars.
• Membership Directory - find club members in your area.
• Friends Helping Friends - if you are stranded with your Fairlane/Torino, it's nice to be able to find a club member in the area willing to help out.
• Photo Pages - the ability to post pictures of your car to share with other club members.
• Production Numbers - get the production numbers for all club models.
And as a member, you can renew your dues by credit card. OR, you can join right now!

FCA is dedicated to the preservation, restoration and enjoyment of 1962-79 Fairlane/Torino cars, and Mercury equivalents. We show no favoritism or prejudice between driver cars, modified cars, original cars, restored cars, or concours cars. All are equally welcomed and appreciated. The majority of Fairlane/Torino owners modify their cars in some way to accommodate their personal tastes. These cars were meant to be driven and most are. We are very laid back and enjoy sharing the experience we have with our cars with other club members.

Membership has grown from about 25 when the club was first formed, to over 3,000 today. Membership is nicely distributed among all car group divisions represented in the club. Members reside in every state in the U.S., and numerous foreign countries as well. We have or have had international members from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, England, Finland, Germany, France, Malta, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland and Sweden. Car ownership is not necessary to become a member of the FCA.

Current yearly club dues for new members are $40 in the U.S., $52 for Canadian members, and $69 overseas, payable by credit card on this website, or payable in U.S. funds in the form of Postal Money Order, Worldwide Money Order, or check drawn on a U.S. bank to: FCA, 7177 County Road 1135, Leonard, TX 75452-6083. Membership dues fully support all club activities.

We publish a bi-monthly (every two months) club magazine, titled Fairlaner, that is normally 48 pages in full color. The following are part of the magazine’s current content:

• Information from club Officers and Staff
• In-depth, never-before-published technical articles by club members
• Tidbits (info of interest to our members such as new products, parts, resources, etc • National Meet and Mini-Meet schedule, information, and photo coverage
• Feature Cars
• Special features such as Technical Service Bulletins, Registries, etc.
• Reprints of vintage magazine articles
• Members’ Cars (pictures and stories)
• Classified ads (free to members), including: Cars for Sale, Cars Wanted, Parts for Sale, Wanted Ads, etc.
• Commercial ads - limited & related to our club cars

Once each year FCA holds a National Meet. National Meets have been held in Carlisle, PA; Charlotte, NC; Tulsa, OK; Ft Collins, CO; Dearborn, MI; Indianapolis, IN; Hickory, NC; St Louis, MO; Sacramento, CA; Columbus, OH; Hagerstown, MD; Kingsport, TN; Flagstaff, AZ; Cromwell, CT; Reno, NV; Cincinnati, OH; Springfield, IL; Lexington, KY; York, PA; Dayton, OH; and Springfield, MO. As you can see, we move our National Meet among different locations in hopes of accommodating more club members.

You must be a club member to register a car and/or participate in the National. Members are welcome to bring their families and guests as spectators. New members are always welcome to join and participate. Voting at these annual meets is done by the member-participants, except in the Concours (restored) and Original (unrestored) classes. These two categories are judged by class experts. Normally, 100-200+ cars are registered at a National Meet.

Our club encourages local Mini-Meets hosted by Fairlane Club members. Often these events are held in conjunction with other clubs’ meets. We have found Mustang clubs to be very cordial in inviting Fairlanes/Torinos to hold FCA mini-meets within their shows. If there is not an FCA Mini-Meet in your area, it is only because a member willing to host one has not yet come forward. If you are a club member and interested in hosting an FCA Mini-Meet, contact the Mini-Meets Coordinator.

Technical Advisors and Tech Council members are available for each year group to answer members' questions pertaining to their particular year groups. The year groups are 1962-65, 1966-67, 1968-69, 1970-71, and 1972-79. Some Tech Council members have specialized knowledge pertaining to particular cars such at K-codes, Thunderbolts, R-codes, and Talladegas. Technical Advisor contact information is listed in our bi-monthly magazine. Tech Council members are listed on our website.

Our club store has a selection of tee-shirts, caps, decals, license plates, etc., which can be ordered by mail using the form appearing in the club magazine, or purchased directly at our National Meet. At some time in the future, purchases may be able to be made online.

FCA was formed in early 1981 by Glenn D. Packard to share information about 1963 to 1965 Fairlane cars with High Performance 289 4V engines. These were known as K-cars because of the letter K in the fifth position in the vehicle identification number (VIN). The K was the engine identification letter which designated that the car came from the factory with the 271 horsepower, high revving, 289 4V. This was the same engine used by Carroll Shelby in his famous Cobras. Interest was so great in not just the K-cars, but all 1962-65 Fairlanes, that within two months the club expanded to include all these cars plus their Mercury cousins, the 1962-63 Meteors.

As potential members discovered the existence of the FCA, requests for additional year coverage increased. The club first expanded to include 1966-67 Fairlanes and Comets, and later to include 1968-69 Fairlanes, Torinos, Comets, Cyclones, Montegos, Cobras, Spoilers, and Talladegas. In the late 1980s, interest accelerated in the 1970-71 Fairlanes and Torinos, including all other models based on the intermediate unibody chassis. Another expansion was to include the framed-chassis intermediate Torinos of 1972-76. Again, we included all other cars based on the same chassis, which included Gran Torinos, Elites, and Mercury equivalents like Montegos, and in 1974-76, the XR-7 Cougars. After 1976 the Torino name disappeared, making it a convenient place to stop our coverage. However in 2022 with careful consideration, the club added the 1977-1979 Rancheros, Cougars and LTD II's. These are the last to share the framed mid-size chassis that started with the 1972 Torinos. This officially is a convenient place to stop our coverage.

The club does not include Fairlanes before 1962 as these cars were based on the full-sized Ford chassis. The Fairlane was then not a unique car, but only a trim series. The club supports just the intermediate-sized Fairlanes, all the Torinos, and their Mercury equivalents from 1962-1979.

FCA is a non-profit organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Tennessee.