Dragstrip

Dragstrip, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

I took this at Byron Dragway in northwestern Illinois, during an historic drag racing event. One of the challenges of shooting old cars is finding an appropriate backdrop - it's a bit jarring to see an vintage car parked in front of a new grocery store or something. It can be particularly hard at racetracks, which are usually full of advertising signs and modern cars.

This is as true at drag strips as it is at road courses. Particularly at the starting line, where there's usually modern safety equipment and an emergency vehicle, right where your subject's doing a smoking burnout.

Anyway, the organizers of the races I was at hit the mark with their start line truck, which was this well patinated old sixties Ford, complete with a Holman & Moody logo on the door.

Instant Vintage

Instant Vintage, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A picture perfect T-bucket hot rod, imperfectly pictured.

Willys

Willys, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

...and a Ford Mainline. That Willys is a classic old school gasser style hot rod, too. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen an actual stock Willys. They're all hot rods!

Deuce

Deuce, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

The 1932 Ford coupes and roadsters are the quintessential hot rods. They started becoming popular lakes racers just before the Second World War, but interest really blossomed postwar. They were cheap, plentiful, looked good, and could take a variety of engines from the stock 4-bangers and flathead V-8's to Red Ram Hemis. Suitable for street or strip use, the Deuce quickly became a legend.

Payin' The Cost To Be The Boss

The Boss, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

In 1969, at the height of the Trans-Am's popularity, Ford needed to develop a version of the Mustang to take the fight to Chevrolet's Camaro Z/28. The vehicle that resulted was the Boss 302, which ran a composite engine made up of the Windsor smallblock and cylinder heads from Ford's "Cleveland" big block. The resulting 302 cubic inch motor was unique to the Boss, and had it's own distinct sound and feel, a chattering, high-strung race engine for the street.

Other improvements to the Boss were the deletion of the standard Mustang's rear fender scoops, a new functional hood scoop, tightened up suspension, and frequently a lower rear axle ratio. All of this added up to a pretty serious piece of kit, able to entertain on the road and win on the track.

And the name? Ford President Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen was a big proponent of this project, and when designer Larry Shinoda was asked what he was working on, simply answered "The Boss' car". The name stuck.

Fairlane 500

Fairlane, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner. If that sounds complicated it's cause it is-the Skyliner is the one with the retractable hardtop. This is a full sized car, by the way, with room for actual grown ups in the back seat. The rear deck is enormous, to accommodate that long roof-you can practically land a helicopter on it. And it's a fascinating thing to watch-the owner of this car kept running the top up and down every so often, and people always stopped to watch.

Eagle eyed readers will note the vintage ex-CTA "Green Hornet" trolley car trundling past in the background.

Shoebox

Shoebox, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A great little '50 Ford convertible, which contrasts nicely with the Southern Pacific 1518, an early EMD SD7 locomotive dating from 1951.

Ford

Ford, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

The Return Of TtV Tuesday! This is a 1950 Ford coupe, the famous "shoebox". The '49 got this nickname almost as soon as it hit showrooms, because it was FoMoCo's first properly modern-styled car. The '48, a fine looking car in it's own right, was basically a pre-war model with some styling upgrades. The new car, along with the new '49 Mercury, had smooth, all-enveloping bodywork. More importantly, the Shoebox was still a simple design, and practically begged to be chopped, channeled, lowered, hopped up, and metal-flaked. Truly a classic design.

Naturally, I've shown you the very front of a standard Shoebox!

The Boss

The Boss, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A genuine former Trans-Am Ford Mustang Boss 302. And yes, that does seem a bit long winded, so we'll just call it "The Boss".

The Trans-Am was derived from the SCCA's sedan championships, and generally followed the FIA's Group 2 Touring regulations. Divided into over- and under-2 liter categories, the Trans-Am featured a broad array of European and American sports cars, and resulted in some of the automotive world's iconic cars.

Looming large among these is the Boss, Ford's factory racer for the '69 season. Over-2's were limited to 5.0 liters displacement, which rounded out neatly to 302 cubic inches. This resulted in a lightweight, high revving, powerful engine, and one of the more sought after Mustang variants (along with the Camaro Z-28 and the Challenger T/A).

This is an original Trans-Am car from the late 60's, run by the Bud Moore team. It's parked on the grid at Road America about a year ago. I like how the driver has his arm hanging out the window as he's sitting waiting for the start. Just chillin', no big deal!

The Big E

Big E, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

We've talked about the Edsel before, so I won't go into the history of the marque again, except to say that I've always had a soft spot for these underdogs.

This Edsel hood ornament would usually be in the center of the hood, but this car was pretty heavily customized and featured one on each fender. How heavily customized? The front clip was all Edsel, and from the windscreen back it was all Ford Ranchero.

The owner called it a "Fordsel".

F Stop

F Stop, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Vintage 40's Ford semi.

Fairlane

Fairlane, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Or maybe "not so Fairlane". We've seen this car before-I just noticed that yesterday's Rambler is reflected in the Ford.

Edsel

Edsel, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Ford's Edsel was meant to be a separate, all new brand to compete with GM's midpriced Oldsmobile and Chrysler's DeSoto. It was a spectacular failure. Popular belief is that the car's styling-mostly conventional but with that unusual vertical grille up front-did the Edsel in, along with it's weird name. In reality, it was a combination of things, including poor build quality, pricing that didn't quite slot between Ford and Mercury, and marketing that promised more than the cars delivered. In addition, a recession in 1957 and '58 hampered sales of midpriced cars-Studebaker eliminated the Packard brand, AMC focused on economy cars instead of larger Nashes, and Chrysler saw sales of it's DeSoto brand fall drastically. The Edsel didn't have much of a chance, and was gone within three years.

That said, I've always kinda liked the Edsel. Stylewise, I think it compares favorably with most other American cars of the period. This one's a '58, and I believe it's an unrestored example as well.

Shoebox

Shoebox, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A classic shoebox Ford, about a 1950. Someone said that shoeboxes have distinct faces, with a big nose right in the center.

Whatever, I like this shot. It looks pleasantly old.

California Special

GT/CS, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Available for only a year, the California Special was a factory built limited edition Mustang, and was an attempt to get some of the Shelby magic to rub off on the rest of the range. The package consisted of Shelby styling cues, such as the Marchal foglights, scoops, Thunderbird taillights, and the Shelby hood. Ford meant to build 5,000 examples, but demand for the California Special fell a bit short.

Ford did this sort of small-market limited edition a couple of other times. A nearly identical car to the GT/CS was marketed in the Denver area as the "High Country Special", and a few years later the "Twister Special" appeared in the Kansas area. All of these editions are pretty rare today, and are an interesting footnote to the Mustang story.

TtV-Bird

A '55-ish Ford Thunderbird, the small two seater ones. As seen through my new to me Argus 75.

Skyliner

Introduced in 1955, the Ford Fairlane was the company's new full sized offering, and proved fairly popular for it's short two year lifespan. The model received a restyle for the '57 year, and along with most of Ford's range the Fairlane grew in size and gained a lower, leaner look. The model also gained a new top-line designation, the Fairlane 500, and a new top, top of the line model, the Skyliner.

The Skyliner was something really special-a hardtop convertible. Retracting hardtops are a bit more common these days, but in the late fifties this feature made the Skyliner unique-it was the only model offered anywhere with such an option. Sadly, although watching a Skyliner go through the motions is a traffic-stopping show, it was an expensive option, prone to malfunctioning (there's a zillion miles of wiring involved), and worst of all took up most of the trunk space. So, only about 20,000 Skyliners were built in '57, and way fewer for the restyled '58 and '59 years.

This one's a '57, and is resting peacefully behind a body shop out in the country. It seems pretty solid-I hope it gets the restoration it deserves.

V-8 Ford

Ford's Model B, introduced in 1932, was an important car for the company. Aside from being a replacement for Ford's long-serving Model A, and fixing a few of that car's shortcomings, the new model would also provide a platform for Ford's brand new V-8 engine, the legendary Flathead. This was a bigger deal than many today realize-previously, anything bigger than a four-pot was the preserve of expensive luxury marques, not humble working class Fords. Finally, Joe Average could enjoy some of the performance of Joseph Moneybags, even more so if he was handy with tools because the new Ford engine was pretty easy to soup up and make more powerful.

The classic Model B, it seems, is the legendary '32, the Deuce. It's the one that all the hot rodders got and it's the one that everyone still likes to build today. But the Model B lasted until 1935-a heavy restyling job for the '33 season brought more flowing lines to the car, as well as some new trim and more power. This graceful hood ornament is on a '33.

Surf Naked!

This is a vintage bumper sticker for Plastic Fantastic surfboards, which were made in Huntington Beach, California, from the sixties up until the 80's or so. It's on the back bumper of a '66 Mustang notchback, an original, black plate, one owner from new California car. I loved this car. It was mostly original (the owner had done some engine work, and it had some different wheels on it), and it wore it's 45 years with pride. Some pitted chrome, faded paint, a little surface rust on the back axle, foggy plastic lenses, that worn spot you get on the door top from leaning your arm on the sill while cruising, it was all there.

And a bunch of period stickers.

Shoebox

Shoebox, originally uploaded by William 74.

As with many manufacturers, Ford's postwar products were essentially their last prewar cars, freshened up a bit and put back into production. It wasn't until 1949 that FoMoCo was able to release an all-new design, the now legendary "Shoebox" Fords.

The new cars featured clean, modern styling, new suspension, and better appointed interiors compared to the old designs. They proved to be popular, being priced competitively compared to Chevrolet's Bel Air and Dodge's Coronet. Plus, the ford offered something the other two did not-the option of a V-8 engine, the legendary flathead.

The shoebox ford quickly gained popularity as the basis for a custom car as well. The first examples started showing up by the time this '53 was built, and some of the most famous custom cars of the fifties and early sixties were based on them. Good looking as the standard car is, it almost begs to be chopped, the headlights frenched in, and a set of sombrero hubcaps fitted.

Proving that the shoebox could be just about anything to anyone, this '53 Customline is a nice, mild custom, with no serious body modifications, but an excellent paint job and a gorgeous tuck and roll interior.