This is a dealer promo booklet measuring roughly 8 1/2 x 11 inches, and has a litho mark of 8/74, making this a pretty early piece. The cover, on the left, is pretty subdued considering what a huge gamble this car was for Ford at the time, offering full-size car luxuries in a much trimmer package. The fact that they supposedly benchmarked the Mercedes Benz 280E sedan didn't go unnoticed by the enthusiast press. "Mitered" corners were touted in the build quality of the window frames, and clean lines for the time certainly looked at home next to the imports of the day. From a distance, anyway. The right side of this graphic shows a page of the Optional Extras, illustrating that Detroit was alive and well with that time old "Give 'em what they need, Sell 'em what they want" tradition of extra-cost accessories. This coupe shows how the car could be optioned to almost Lincoln-like levels, and how it almost looks Lincoln-like from this angle.
This interior shot leaves no doubt as to the market and buyers Ford was courting with this "new size" mainstream car. The 5/8 scale mini-model makes the interior seem much larger than its old-school rear-wheel drive 109.9" platform actually allowed. I long for the days of mainstream red interiors! My '85 Town Car had a red velour interior like this.
How many car brochures do you think you have Casey?
ReplyDeleteI think the Smithsonian should have a direct link to casey/artandcolour.
oh I haven't even started. I probably have 500 or more.
ReplyDelete: )
Casey,
ReplyDeleteI really like the ' burled walnut woodtone ' along the crest of the interior belt line. That is unique ! I thought 'What a shame it isn't real!"
Which leads me to this question: In the 60s, the US luxury cars had real wood trim. Then it was gone.Suddenly (and this is only a personal recollection) about 69, everything was plastic. Was the switch to woodtone /wood grain in American luxury cars a money saving device, or was it a Federal safety regulation ? I had read that real wood was outlawed due to the potential of splintering during a wreck.
Fair enough,but now,real wood is back. And back for a while. Did the laws relax? Is there some new treatment to the material ?
Any thoughts or information on this?
AP
Malibu
GOOD MORNING MALIBU, ANOTHER DAY ENJOYING A WALK WITH CASEY IS ALWAYS A GOOD WAY TO SPEND YOUR DAY.LOOKINF FORWARD TO WHAT HE COMES UP WITH TODAY.
ReplyDeleteGRANNY
I really liked these Grandas and Monarchs. For some reason they seem to have gotten a bad rep and when did you last see one? They were really nice inside and a very usable size. I never realized until just now how the fronts of these and the Elites echoed each other -- I guess the big Fords look a lot like this too. A real family resemblance!
ReplyDeletePaul, NYC
Hello Granny, Hello Paul,
ReplyDeleteI don't know why they got such a bad rep . They were everywhere you looked for a long time, and then--poof !!--gone. Unloved . Unsung .
Except for here, of course!
AP
Malibu
About the wood in car interiors, I don't think there ever was any prohibition of it. There might have been some talk, as there was talk of outlawing convertibles, but it never happened. The upscale Europeans always used real wood, sometimes in voluminous amounts! I think American manufacturers were having such a bad time with downsizing and emissions problems that using real wood probably seemed like just too much trouble.
ReplyDeletePaul, NYC
You are probably right, Paul. Real wood: too much trouble and expense .
ReplyDeletePlus ,who knows? Research might have revealed that Americans liked E-Z- Care woodgrain-" the modern trim with the traditional look . "
It was, after all, the late 1960s-the decade where the laboratory brought us such artificial delights as Space Food Sticks, Tang, and Screaming Yellow Zonkers !
AP
Malibu