Eric Clem posted this highly-accessorized ’61 Falcon wagon at the Cohort. It’s quite unlike any Falcon wagon I saw back in 1961 or so, when they were being snapped up by young families for cheap transportation. And no, they didn’t have wire wheel covers, and all the other do-dads this one does. That’s not to say it couldn’t have happened, but if so, it was very uncommon.
Gotta agree with Paul on this one.
The only first gen Falcon wagons that I can recall were always stripper models, usually filthy.
Also one of the slowest, most irritating 1960’s car that I have ever had the misfortune of driving.
A loaded down Falcon station wagon, equipped with the 144 cubic inch six cylinder engine and the smooth but power-zapping 2 speed Ford-O-Matic automatic transmission (as most of them were) was a safety hazard.
My cousin had a Falcon VAN with the 144 and he towed a 15′ travel trailer with it. It went pretty well considering.
I suppose it would’ve out-accelerated a similarly loaded VW bus, but not anything else.
Only the two drivers would know that there had been a contest of speed happening.
I have to admit I was never a big falcon fan. amongst the old iron I’ve owned over the years, I always passed on a Falcon when given the chance to own one. But I am appreciating them more and more as I’ve gotten older. This one is sharp and not much different in size from the late model Toyota counterpart it faces. I love the white steering wheel and switch gear knobs.
Possibly this was used as a hearse?
Remember kiddys this has all the under pinnings of 64-70 mustang & now kits for modern 5.0 up-grades Think of the sleeper ability of a lonely classic little old wagon !? as a friend grow-up with the mercury version !, and as a little kid knew it was danger slow ! I sure his father cursed like mine with our totally striped 58 ply. wagon ! but that’s another story ! lol
Agree with the upgrade potential.
But bone stock they were slow ice wagon D O G S.
The hood ornament is not stock. I believe it is from an Australian Falcon and are reproduced. Nice looking wagon just the same.
So they had different accessories down here! Interesting, that.
Somewhere I have an accessory brochure for the Australian ’60-1 XK Falcons. This car, while absolutely lovely, is pretty conservative compared to what was available, even in Australia! Dad must have been a pretty serious prospect to have been given the accessory brochure too. Might see if I can find it and scan it, if the scanner will co-operate. I ‘think’ I know where the brochure is; I’ll have to shift some furniture in the shed to get to it.
I was on Oz eBay a while back, and saw an accessories catalog—maybe that same one—and was very surprised at the different offerings there. What really wowed me was BIG air deflectors to attach to door frame (at leading edge); I’ll guess that’s so you could drive on dusty roads with windows down. I sure never saw those in the U.S.!
BTW, today’s car is a little over-gussied for me, but sure shows some pride of ownership (and at least avoids the fuzzy-dice thing)—hooray for that!
I purchased a ’61 two door wagon from a neighbor for $10 in 1972. He’d pulled the driveline to attempt to do a V-8 swap. With a 392 Hemi. He gave up and sold me the remains. I swapped a 170 and Ford-O-Matic from a wrecked 1963 wagon. It was my fist automotive project. For a 16 year old, it made fine transportation. Mine had none of those accessories. The only options were the AM radio and automatic transmission.
I’d driven the family ’57 Chevy wagon with vacuum wipers. The second project was to swap the electric wipers from the ’63 into the ’61 so that I wouldn’t have to deal with vacuum wipers. Vacuum wipers went away for a reason.
One thing is for sure, this wagon didn’t leave the factory with that hood ornament (no idea what it’s from), that roof rack isn’t the one available on a 61 and the fender ornaments aren’t the correct ones available on a 61, nor are they placed where they would have been had they been original. If memory serves me correctly, the wire wheel covers were not on the option list until 63 as well. So, this one most likely left the factory with the deluxe trim group which included the side chrome and chrome trim around the side windows. I’m going to guess it was very similarly equipped to the one my Dad’s friends wife drove back in the day. Hers was a four door wagon with the deluxe trim group, full wheel covers and whitewall tires. It would be replaced by a brand new 65 Impala wagon. Must have been quite a change going from that 170 six cylinder Falcon to the 327 V8 Impala!
All correct. I’ll give a pass on the 1963 Sprint wheel covers and the 1963 Sprint door cards. But the rest of the stuff is chromey junk.
Here’s one with the real roof rack, which is actually pretty awesome.
The cream coloured steering wheel is nice, in that it stands out from the rest of the colour it is surrounded by. However, it would be a regular regimen to keep in clean, and eventually the paint would wear through I would imagine.
The light colored wheel (as shown) came with the Deluxe trim package. Even the base had the cream knobs. Owned a 1960 base Tudor for several years. Mine had a black wheel with a horn button. Great basic car all around.
If a Falcon and a Granada got into a drag race, would either of them win?
If the Granada had the 351 V8 option there would be no contest.
If a Falcon and a Granada got iron a drag race, there would only be two people who cared.
A Falcon which would be welcome in my driveway.
This is not a model I recall seeing in abundance in my part of western Canada back in the day. Our neighbourhood was for the most part, blue collar with a lot of basic cars. Mostly mid or full-size. Station wagons were a rare sight. Convertibles were owned by young men who had a good paying job.
A few early sixties Falcon wagons have come and gone on Kijiji along with the off Comet wagon. Yes, even those were rare back in the sixties. Full-size wagons seemed to be the most popular in my young eyes and usually owned by families with an income higher than what my father made.
The roof rack on this one has the rear flap that is supposed to direct air downward at speed, to keep the rear window clean, as the wagons would accumulate dirt and soot on the rear window. I don’t know how well the innovation actually worked. These rear air deflectors were not seen on cars until the very late ‘60s, if not the early ‘70s.
Loaded Falcons (wagons, sedans and convertibles) were fairly common sights in Southern California. And when the Falcon Squire came along, a lot of those, too.
A neighbor bought a new Falcon Squire probably 62 or 63 .She always turned off the engine and left the wipers in the upright position , for some reason I thought this was cool. Odd memory’s of a 5 year old.
I don’t harbor any ill feelings toward the Falcon, but then again, I didn’t grow up with them (Dad did, though, in 170 with a sloppily column shifted 3 speed guise).
Fairly typical accessory overload on this example, though there’s probably another 300 pounds worth in the catalogs if you were so inclined. Very hard to find restored cars without fender skirts and continental kits, and once utilitarian trucks with wide whitewall tires… not really my bag o’ chips. This one *could* be reasonably entertaining to drive if equipped with a 260…
For that matter it’s a loaded Falcon 2-door wagon. Wouldn’t the 2-doors have been the strippers among the strippers?
Certainly when Ford started to offer fancier Falcons than the early deluxe trim, the 2-door wagon was shut out from that entirely so the take rate for a deluxe 2-door wagon must’ve been low enough to convince them that was the top end of that niche.
This ought to help with the power issues
I drove a 1964 model as a company car. I used to say, “Falcon, the car that gives you everything its name implies.” When the damned car broke down, which was periodic, the company gave me a 1964 Rambler 330. That was a nice driver and rider!
Here’s a Falcon more like the way we remember them. And it’s for sale!
https://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/d/saddle-brook-1962-ford-falcon/7361930720.html
My dad drove one of these in white with a red interior. Family folklore has it that my dad was forced to trade in his 1950’s era British roadster because I was afraid of it and would scream every time it was started up. I believe I was made out to be the scapegoat in that deal, and as an only child, I have no back up to verify that theory.
What I do remember about the vehicle was it was a manual 3 on the tree with a roof rack, radio, and heater. Seat belts were installed in it at some point in time. There was this one long street that had a slight slope and every time he drove down it, he would pop in the clutch and we’d free wheel all the way down to the stop sign. In my 4-5 year old mind, we were going a million miles an hour and I do remember hollering “go faster, go faster!” I never heard him complain about having to drive that penalty box.
I still troll the web looking for that era of Falcon wagon.
I remember mostly base model Falcons but then I imagine it varied where you lived….
The 144 & 170 CID i6 engines were pretty low power and back then it seemed only the dealer had a fancy-schmancy timing light to ensure the timing was correct…
This one looks nice but the advert sounds like typical New Joisey scammer .
-Nate