It’s funny you say that. In Hawaii we had a plain vanilla Maverick. The Navy shipped it to California and we drove it to New York and then to Florida. In the summer. That’s when I learned about Stuckeys’s, and chocolate covered ants, and then you shouldn’t drink milk and eat fried chicken in the desert with no A/C.We made it to the Gulf Coast eventually, and since our fortunes were apparenlty changing (we were dirt poor like most of the Haoles in Hawaii) we upgraded to an orange and white Grabber. Still ugly as sin - the Maverick always looked pregnant to me. And still no A/C. I guess that’s what made us tough back then.
Indeed. The Grabber lasted a few years before we got a - get this - Gran Torino Braugham. Yes, the engine was slightly emasculated due to emissions regulations, which is why Ford in their infinite wisdom threw a truck motor in it - 460 V8. Even though it was “emascualted” it was still a 460. When we moved to Michigan dudes including my next door neighbor, were embarassed at being smoked by a car woth opera windows. That car was a beast.
Then I bought my '71 Cougar. First thing I did was turn my air cleaner cover upside down, cut off a dangerous amount of my exhaust system, and installed a Thrush muffler. I’m not sure what good it did, but you could hear that car coming from blocks away. How I wish the two cars could have gone head to head…
If you want to see ridiculous, there’s a photo of the beast here: