Jalopnik
Today we have one of my personal favorites, a late-60s midsized Ford with a fastback rear. I've had a couple of these, including a '68 Mercury Cyclone that served as my daily driver for several years, so I know their flaws and strengths pretty well.
Sure, the fastback shape was pretty much all about winning NASCAR races and selling cars to rabid Southern race fans, but is there any better reason for a body style?
To be honest, these cars have handling best described as scary; with leaf springs in back and Ford's patented crapola 60s front suspension, they lean alarmingly in fairly mild turns and understeer like cement mixers. But with great big gobs of V8 torque under the hood, who the hell cares?
One quirk of the NASCAR-friendly fastback design was the crazy trunk setup. The trunk itself is freakin' huge, extending forward about six feet. However, the trunk lid is an absurdly tiny hatch, which means that any object that's going into the trunk needs to fit through a very restrictive slot (even medium-sized cardboard boxes won't fit). That's bad enough, but the real problem comes when you put some object within easy reach of the opening and then brake hard during a drive; the object will slide all the way forward, which means you need to climb into the trunk to go fetch it. This is especially fun when you have a bunch of groceries knocking around in the trunk. Argh!
This is pretty much the same front body as the '68 Ranchero we saw a while back.
The Fairlane 500 trim level was a notch below the snazzier Torino models. You could get the base Fairlane 500 with 2-barrel 302 for $2543; however, with the base '68 Road Runner with 383 going for $2870, I might have been tempted to spend the additional few hundred for the Plymouth.
But wait! The 280-horse 390 was just an extra $284; another $184 got you the 4-speed. Hmm... Road Runner or big-block fastback Ford? And let's not even talk about the GM options (except to mention that you could get a new '68 Chevelle with 325-horse 327 and four-speed for only $2829).
Toyota imitated this rear-side-glass/trim setup with their mid-70s Celica fastbacks; since they also imitated the grille and taillights, the overall effect was of a 2/3-scale, 10-year-old Fairlane.
This one is missing some minor components, but it wouldn't be a bank-breaker to get it in fairly straight condition. Fortunately for Fairlane owners, Ford stuck with many of the same components well into the Granada/Monarch era, so lots of parts are quite common.
This car definitely needs way more rubber in the rear wheelwells, preferably on widened factory rims with dog-dishes. A 427 would be nice, too.
Comments
And people kvetch about the handling of the modern FoMoCo Panther platform car. With the WattsLink rear suspensions and independent front suspension with coil over shocks, car critics do not understand how damn great we have it.
In fact, (as I told a guy trying to sell me a $30,000 fwd near luxery car) people need to grow up and learn how to drive before they complain about how bad rear wheel drive is.
Of course, I grew up with leaf spring Jeeps and curvy mountain roads in Appalachia so I can appreciate the modern rear drive car. No to make the next gen Panther look as cool as that Fairlane!
IMO, that was one of the better looking American cars of the day. Not prone to rusting as much as the GM and especially the Plymouth, I'm surprised there aren't more around.
My sisters husband left Ford for Toyota around that time, and had a hand in the Celica trim design. They wanted to make the Japanese car more appealing to Americans....
The 2nd-gen Intrepid has a similarly awful trunk/opening ratio. It's bigger than my fridge (over 18 cubic feet!), but the opening is about the size of a pants pocket. It's incredibly maddening.
Even so: fastbacks are STILL cool.
Let's not forget that the 428 Cobra Jet was a late-in-the-year addition to the Fairlane/Torino option list, and would also make a good choice to power this car.
Or, if you want the displacement & power without so much cast iron (and less scary handling), pick a Windsor that's been bored & stroked to the magic 427 number.
Either way, a re-finish in red (be it Ford's "Candy Apple Red" factory color or the classic custom Candy Apple Red that noted custom painter Joe Bailon came up with many years ago) would also make this car its best.
It's kind of refreshing to see one of these that isn't restored and parked with mirrors underneath, but rather is still getting regular use.
Small trunk openings notwithstanding, fastbacks FTW. My '69 Barracuda was a great ski car, with the fold-down rear bench and trunk trapdoor. One of the few cars I've sold that I really miss.
I love the looks of this thing. But then I favor all the fastbacks, even the Marlin. Silly not to make it a hatchback, though.
I have a theory they all ended up in the Hudson off New Jersey. You can fit like 8 bodies in that trunk.
@brandegee:
Marlins are THE fastback. At one point, I lived around the block from a guy who had one, and I'd go out of my way to see it and lust after it.
In the same neighborhood, oddly enough, was an H1, an AM General M35 w/ a dump bed, an Merkur XR4Ti, an older Range Rover with 40" super swampers that was actually off-roaded regularly, TWO GM EV-1's, and a late 80s olds cutlass that had the emblems rearranged to read "assmobile."
This is the Torino that looks way cool-1969 only and pretty rare, but maybe the owner of the one on here could shoot for a restoration:)
[www.cruisenewsonline.com]
Its a shame these things dont garner more attention- they deserve it.
I finally saw this car MOVING today in Alameda. For so long I only saw that it has switched parking placing on alternating sides of the street, but today while sitting at The House of Bagels on Park, it cruised past. I was glad to see it too, because a coupel days earlier it has a big orange sticker onthe windshield, the one cops put there on derelict cars two days before they tow it.
Glad it wasn't abandoned! Beautiful car, I wouldn't change a thing.
I had a 68 Flane. I used to road race it. lowered slightly, HD shocks, 8in wheels, built 302. It handled great. I could stay close to the Alfa's & other 'sports' cars on the turns & pass them on the straights.
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