When I saw this ’63 Falcon ragtop posted by Staxman, it instantly flooded me with some memories of a hot summer day at the Gunpowder River. It was the perfect car for a bunch of kids to head out of the city for a day in the woods to go swimming in the cool water and smoke a bit of weed and drink some beers and just recreate. It was the ride home at night that I remember best, the warm and humid Maryland air slashing through my long hair as we rolled along the Beltway and the Jones Falls Expressway, back to Fells Point where a bunch of us lived in a very old brick row house no more than ten feet wide.
I got squeezed into the middle of the front bench seat (Futuras came with either a bench or buckets in ’63), which was representative of my bedroom too, which was the middle room of three on the second floor, and as there was no hallway in the narrow house, my bedroom also served that function. I was the last to join this motley household on one of several of my temporary returns to the Baltimore region, in about 1973 or so. And my friend Jerry had picked up a dark green Falcon convertible since the last time I was out.
I’m not a big fan of convertibles, as I did a lot of long distance traveling all over the country in those years, and it’s not much fun after the first hour or so, and sheer torture in the back seat. But running out to the country to escape a hot August night in Baltimore in one was just the ticket.
That’s not to say it was genuinely sporty, as Falcons avoided that quality with all their might. Its 170 inch six wheezed as they all did under the load of 5 or six kids on board, and the column shifter competed with my left thigh for real estate in first and third gear.
The convertible was anew body style addition to the Falcon in 1963. My guess is that it was another keep-up job after the Corvair showed up topless in 1962. As well as the Falcon sold, Lee Iacocca was constantly looking at the Corvair. The Monza had been a big unanticipated success, so the Futura was quickly created to also offer a bucket seat ‘sporty” version, although there was no such thing as a handling package, better brakes or a hotter engine. That would have to wait until 1963.5, when the V8 Sprint appeared, wearing a lot of the Fairlane’s underpinnings as well as its 260 V8.
It was the cheapest way to get a drop-top Ford, if that was your thing. And in 1963, as the smaller car sporty vibe was tuning up, it made sense, in its own way.
Quite apropos to yesterday’s post about the decline of the full-size car. The Falcon was just the right car to wean Americans from their full-sizers. The Corvair had unusual engineering and the Valiant was, as my friend would say, “unfortunate-looking”.
Americans tend to be averse to change (Imperial units of measurement, anyone?) so the fact that the Falcon was just like every other car, only smaller, eased the pain of change.
These were nice cars; even casino robbers with 13 million dollars drove them:
Not to mention all the Falcons in The Misadventures Of The Dunderheads.
Very authentic sounding Falcon door closing sound in this clip! Those Falcons were actually quite good for little money. Lots of driving time on several, including my drivers test on my father’s ’63 Futura Fordor. His had the 170 six and automatic.
My Father owned a ’63 Falcon Futura 2 door, 260 V8, “3 on the tree” manual transmission that eventually got updated with a J. C. Whitney floor shift conversion.
It’s Wimbledon white exterior and red vinyl interior had a certain T-bird influence, in my eyes, anyway. Not at all luxurious by today’s standards; but had a certain American “sporty” look to it during that time period.
I learned how to drive in this car, with my exasperated, coldly perfectionist Father growling out corrections and criticism.
Dad temporarily inflated the front tires wayyyyyyy past the recommended pressure to help me in the parallel parking part of the driver’s test.
I was quite taken with the V8 rumble of this car and the way it pushed me back into the seat during “stab and steer” second gear runs (without Dad sitting uneasily next to me, of course).
Many, many years later I had the “joy” of driving my college roommate’s hand me down 144 six/2 speed automatic Falcon station wagon to/from college. The wagon was Smooth and Slow, to the point of being an interstate merging traffic hazard. The bleating and whining of this “Bow-Wow” powertrain sounded NOTHING like Dad’s V8 model did!
I was flat out amazed how different the two cars, based on the same basic chassis and body, could be! The only time I drove that slug of a station wagon was when it’s owner (the college roommate) begged me to do so.
In 63, The Mustang was well along in development, The show car Mustang II was doing a tour and forecast nearly exactly, the look of the car. (just channeled and chopped a bit,) Ford had to do something as a place holder until the falcon based “Pony” was ready for her close up. so the falcon acted as a place holder. The Futura Hardtop and Convertible did an admirable job. But were quickly eclipsed in April of 64. An older cousin had purchased a 64 Falcon Conv. in the autumn of 63, when the Mustang debuted, he took the hit on value and traded it in on a Mustang Convertible. that following Spring. Falcon was soon relegated back to a sensible small car Never to have sporting intentions again.
Love the car, pictures, and the writeup. The atmospheric prose at the beginning took me to (your) summer ’73 in the middle of summer.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – the first Falcons had such an endearing simplicity about their lines. The first ones were the best.
This one is beautiful in that powder blue and dark blue top and interior. The spoked wheel covers look perfect, in a mid-century “Populuxe” kind of way.
That’s a nice little slice-of-life story, Paul—and you pointed out the pros/cons of the car really nicely, I think.
If I had a three-car garage, this would be a good “toy car” for me–giving my non-metric tools some exercise .
I have no memory of that badge on the trunk lid—a special Futura item?
Perhaps so?
I do recall that trunk lid badge on Dad’s Falcon.
I don’t recall Falcons of that vintage even having an option for a passenger side-view mirror. My ’64 Falcon’s accompanying owners manual has no such thing offered.
A guy I knew in community college had a gen one Falcon, complete with the 144 CID six and three on the three. We would occasionally go to lunch in the little beast and, I have to tell you, with four adult males aboard the Falcon was probably the slowest vehicle I’ve ever been in. Probably not true in reality but it seemed as if the Falcon might come in second in a race with a well tuned Snapper riding mower. If you could get past the slowness the Falcon was not a bad car, it was well put together and it was reliable; there is much to be said for simplicity.
These Falcons, at least the ones remaining, are now becoming collectibles, especially the convertibles. Virtually any equipment that will fit on a first generation Mustang will bolt right on, so it is relatively easy to throw in a 289 or 302 V8, upgrade the suspension, etc. and end up with a fun to drive summer cruiser.
“any equipment that will fit on a first generation Mustang will bolt right on” not quite, as I found out on my 64 Comet. But the Mustang’s existence makes things easier for sure when compared with such things as Studebaker Larks and Ramblers.
@just_plain_joe: It probably IS true in reality that the Generation One Falcon you rode in with 3 other adult males on board with the ‘144’ and 3-on-the-tree was the slowest car you’ve ever been in!
From the final photo, it looks like the photographer was coming home from the grocery store when he spotted this beauty. That would explain the backpack and the paper bag next to the rear wheel of the Honda Element. That one detail really adds something, even if it was done by accident. It takes you right to the moment of discovery, and puts you in the photographer’s shoes. Love those vintage “Wash 63” plates.
Very observant! That is my daypack and I cannot lie.I wasn’t even aware that it was in the photo until you mentioned it. The photo was actually taken in the parking lot of the grocery store. I thought I should get the shots before the owner came back and drove the car away.
Most offbeat vehicles I’ve photographed in that parking lot have been a couple of JDM Mitsubishi Delicas, one registered in Washington, one in British Columbia.
Antique license plates can be used in Washington. However, there is a very real potential of issues when driving through another state due to the way the registration is filled out:
In 2014, an elderly couple were driving through Las Vegas with their classic 1962 Impala which had antique 1962 plates registered in Washington. Because of this, an alert NHP trooper stopped them and, through a series of incompetent moves (mainly due to the cops not being smart enough to enter a ‘+’ symbol into their computer), determined that the Impala was a stolen car. The elderly driver was strip-searched at gunpoint on the side of the road, arrested, and hauled off to jail, while his car was impounded and his wife with a broken leg was left to fend for herself.
The NHP figured out the errors the next day after the old dude spent the night in jail and was released. The couple is ‘still’ in the process of suing the NHP (a judge has thrown out most of the lawsuit, saying the NHP acted appropriately, according to the best info they had).
Search ‘Robin Bruins’ and ‘Nevada Highway Patrol’ for the whole story.
This car represented one more unique niche taken away from the independents. Studebaker brought back a convertible for the Lark in 1960 and Rambler did the same with its American in 61. Not a big niche, but a niche nonetheless. Then Corvair, then Falcon, then Valiant. Poof.
The 63 Falcon may be my favorite convertible among big 3 compacts that year. In 64 I move to Valiant, both for its styling improvements and because the 64 Falcon lacked the visual magic of the 63.
But those are the second-ugliest wire wheel covers ever made (after those 80s versions, also from FoMoCo.) Those “wires” were nothing even remotely like real spokes, but were instead made from the stamping dies that cut all the metal away from them and curved them so that they might look like wire spokes from, say, 500 yards away.
I saw the exact same model at transport world museum last year but with red interior having talked my way into their workshop to photograph a VW ambulance the Futura was being serviced only having been driven some 1000kms the previous weekend by the owner apparently its her favourite car if not using one of the numerous VW Kombis they have, very rare cars here we only got some four door sedans from OZ officially new.
I intresting to know i can buy this top in this color