because they sold their Ford to the scrap yard. That's why there are so many classic Chevys today and so few Fords.
A bit OT I guess, but a family member bought new (and still has) a 1968 Catalina 4-dr sedan, taxi-cab interior, manual steering, manual brakes, base GTO 400 engine, 3-speed stick on column and little else...You really could buy whatever you wanted back then..
Mercfan, I think that a lot of people thought that a 6 got better mileage and probably were right to a certain extent, but the insurance thing is right on the money. My insurance man today still just like I was told in the '70s when I was young says to never buy a car with numbers or letters and if you can find one by the cheapest engine option available and soup tit up yourself. On our old cars for th most part it doesn't make any difference until you could buy a car with the performance package, but if I was lookingto build a hot rodded say '62 Chevy I would look for one with a 6 cylinder serial number. I would do the same if I wanted a hot rodded late model I would buy a 4 cylinder car and stuff a souped V-8 in it.
I wouldn't order one exactly like that BUT!...I think the best car I ever owned was a 66 Impala 2 door hardtop I bought from the secretary at work. It came from the factory with plain white paint, light blue cloth interior, 220 HP 283, manual steering, 3 speed column shift, [the new for '66 full syncro H.D. saginaw tranny] and a 3.31 12 bolt posi axle and heavy duty 11 inch clutch. She later had a complete power steering setup installed from a wrecked car. Roll-up windows, AM radio and a heater...that's it. That was the nicest driving car! The little 4 barrel, dual exhaust 283 had to really work to lay rubber with that posi rear but it got 21 MPG on the hiway and ran smooth as silk..what a great car!
As long as you mentioned Chevy Impalas..... Back in the late 70's when I worked in a bodyshop we had a car come in that I did a complete lacquer paint job on. The car was a 1965 Impala convertible, bench seat, automatic on the column, kind of a stripper with a 396 big block. What made the car odd even back then was that it was a big block that had about an 1-7/8" SINGLE EXHAUST. I asked some guys about this and the only thing anyone could come up with was that it may have been some sort of towing package.
My old man told me a story about the owner of the Ford dealer he worked at back in the 50's. If Ford sent him an oddball car he didnt want he'd get on the phone w/Ford and tell them "this would be a good place to open a Chevy dealer".
In Canada you could buy a full size Chevrolet or Pontiac with a Chev inline six up until 1974 or later. I saw a big 74 Pontiac 4 door with a 250 in it, the engine looked tiny in that car. Then in 1975 or 76 because of the gas crisis and CAFE, Buick started offering a V6 in their biggest cars and in 75 and 76, they were huge. They didn't downsize their full size cars until 1977. A 1976 Buick Electra may have been the biggest heaviest six cylinder stock car since the 1952 DeSoto Suburban 8 passenger sedan. I know you guys are car guys and don't understand this.... but a six cylinder engine is adequate to take you anywhere in North America at legal speed limits even in a full size sedan from the sixties or seventies. It won't be the fastest trip you ever made or the most exciting but you will get there. Just think of the big rigs with six cylinder diesels. They may not be too fast off the mark but once they get rolling they can eat up a lot of miles.
I have a 1967 Impala SS in my garage right now with a 396/325HP that came equipped from the factory with single exhaust. It also has TH400 and a 12 bolt w/2.73 gears. Power steering and AM radio and the CA required A.I.R. system (smog pump) round out the options. Of course, it came standard with bucket seats and center console.
Man! I've always wanted to find a stickshift squarebird. I've got a '61 Newport sedan waiting its turn at home that's a factory 361 3 speed on the floor. Not really a WTF car but odd to find one like that. Would make a great sleeper.
I'm not a fanatic about any one brand over another, but there are more Fords at car shows than Chevys. I'm at a show nearly every weekend of the year.
my 57 ford business coupe doesn't have a passenger side sun visor, believe that is the way they all were or were supposed to be.
My grandfather, a farmer, wasn't much worried about flash. Every time he went to buy a car he would visit the Chevrolet dealer and the Ford dealer, and each had one shot at making the sale. When he bought a new '58 Ford they had to take out the radio and he made them turn the whitewall tires inside out (guess so he didn't have to clean 'em?) Decades later, in '96, he wanted to buy a full-size shortbed pickup with power windows and locks, automatic and a 6cyl. Both GM & Ford dealers could find one, about a days drive away. He didn't want to wait and ended up with a 351 Ford!
Going strictly from memory on this but the Roadrunners were conceived by Tom McCahill who suggested that Chrysler build a full size car with the ''taxi cab'' interior and big block power. They did and were very successful. There were actually a lot of them just as you describe. Remember some without heaters or radios.
You could run a lot of delete codes back then and get some weird combos as we have seen with these posts . I bought a used original 1980 Camaro , radio delete , no air , 4 speed , posi , ...but with a 305 ??? WTF ? Why go to all that and get a 305 ...swapped in a 350 . T
In 1963 my grandfather bought a brand new 1963 Pontiac Catalina (2-dr) from selling some cattle. He ordered it with a 421, automatic, AC, power steering, etc. And it was loaded to the gills. One time there was a huge blizzerd and everybody was afraid to leave the school but he drove 50+ miles home, passing trucks in the ditches and it never got a scratch. He then traded it (prestine) to a shitty old beat up Dodge. Several cars later, he bought a mid-'70s Chrysler that was a pretty nice car for $150 because the guy who owned it pulled out the back seat and hauled wood in the car. It amazes me why people do what they do.
One of my ancestors had a '53 Ford Victoria she bought new and drove it until her farm was robbed in the '70s and she sent herself to the nursing home. Sheparked it in the barn and she died in the '90s and my parents cleaned out her estate. They found it in mud up past the floor. Who parks such a nice car in a barn?
Awesome history lesson right there. I would prefer a car like that a lot instead of one of those 'poser' bucket seat and console straight 6 SS's Managed to find a copy of the actual ad even if the car sold a year ago it is a '68 and it has the dual sideways scoop hood with Hemi badges and no vinyl top, so no sleeper.
Perhaps then, but try to find one of those today. Bet you he could at least double his money on it now.
The first year 442 came with a 330 CID V8. The 400 came out a year later. So 442 meant either "4-barrel, 4-speed and dual exhaust" or "400, 4-speed and dual exhaust", depending on year. BTW, the "2" never meant "2 doors".
.......was driving down I-80 about 10 years ago and was passed by a little old man and his wife driving a dark blue 68 Biscane 4 door with a receiver hitch, dual exhaust and 427 tags on the fenders..weird.
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