Two major factors drove the big Detroit automakers into designing smaller cars around the end of the Fifties. The first was that smaller imports were starting to make a dent in the domestic market. As Detroit's rolling Wurlitzers had ballooned in size, not everyone wanted to navigate tight urban streets in a giant Chromasaurus.
Second, increasing economic prosperity during the postwar economic boom meant more and more families were adding a second car, and a small inexpensive new car could be an attractive alternative to an older used model.
Ford's small car offering, launched in 1959 for the 1960 model year was named the Falcon. It was a unibody design, which was still somewhat novel for Ford at the time, but otherwise conventional. Coil springs in the front and a live rear axle on leaf prings in the back, the Falcon had drum brakes all around. Power, such as it was, came from a 144 cubic inch 95hp Mileage Maker straight six under the hood driving the rear wheels through either a column-shifted 3-speed manual or a 2-speed Ford-O-Matic slushbox.
The Raven Black pillared sedan in the photo above is a 1961 model. The '61s added a new engine option to the lineup, a 170 cube version of the Mileage Maker rated at 101 SAE gross horsepower.
The photo was taken in July of 2019 using a Nikon D700 and a 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR Nikon zoom lens.
The preferred ride of SIDE. Neat!
ReplyDeleteThe lines are very ahead of their time!
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