1962 Ford Falcon

Even though Alameda has plenty of 60s Mustangs, their Falcon siblings are very rare on the island. In fact, we've seen just one Falcon in this series so far. And it's not like the Mustang situation, where I have a huge stash of cars photographed and ready to go- this '62 is the only additional Alameda Falcon I've been able to find (well, unless you count the Falcon-based early-60s Ranchero cartruck I shot a while back). Here is that Falcon, which lives on a busy downtown street and serves as its owner's daily driver.

Normally I'd say nonfunctional hood scoops are lame, but the one on the Falcon looks great.

Here's where you Edsel aficionados can tell us about how Robert McNamara (who grew up a couple miles away in Oakland and married an Alameda High girl) killed the Edsel in order to push the Falcon... right before he switched to the Vietnam War as his next big project. Did the Falcon lead directly to Khe Sanh? In any case, I recommend The Fog of War to anyone interested in Falcons and/or the Vietnam War.

I saw a '62 Falcon parked side-by-side with a Prius not long ago, and the Prius is huge next to the little Ford. This car really was a radical step for Ford back then, although like most car models it got bigger with every successive model year. If Ford brings back the Falcon name, it will likely be on a crossover monster with cupholders made for 5-gallon buckets and an air suspension that will enable it to squat down to clear freeway overpasses.