(first posted 8/8/2012) Sometimes history really does repeat itself. Consider the Fairmont Futura: Both the car (in concept) and the name had been in showrooms before. Both times, it had the same job to do, and it did it well. Like its namesake, the Falcon Futura, the Fairmont Futura would do its thing in a modest and competent way until being more-or-less replaced by another car – the Mustang.
In 1960, Ford brought us the Falcon. It was an honest little car. A simple car.
In 1961, in a Ford Motor Company that employed a rising star named Lee Iacocca, the honest little Falcon got a little flash, and the Falcon Futura was born. It is amazing how a few simple bits of trim made the plain-Jane Falcon almost stylish: Bucket seats, chrome console, three little “venti -ports” on its flanks, and a little red, white and blue “Futura” logo. Suddenly, the dowdy little Falcon became acceptable to a different demographic, at least until the Mustang arrived.
Fast forward to 1978, when Ford brought us another honest little car – the Fairmont (CC here). Why was this car called the Fairmont and not the Fairlane? Or better yet, the Falcon? I have no idea. The 1978 Fairmont was the 1960 Falcon reincarnated, albeit with updates. Plain, unadorned shape? Check. Sound but undistinguished mechanicals? Check. But this time, Ford would not wait quite as long before putting a little personality into the car. Probably because Lee Iacocca was still running the show at Ford during the Fairmont’s development. Whatever the reason, midway through the Fairmont’s debut year came the Futura.
I just can’t let go of the name thing. Ford refused to recycle a well-known name for the car line, but pulled out an old name for the sporty model? Maybe in 30 years we have just become accustomed to everything being called a Sport, a GT or a SSEIRFDXR4TISVOETC. To me, the Futura name was a welcome blast from the past, and one of the few Ford names that was never sullied by a bad car. So Futura it was. Or was it Fairmont Futura. Looking at the ads, I can’t tell. Let’s move on.
Ford was alone in coming up with a unique sporty coupe that was quite different from the regular two- door sedan. Because the age of the convertible and two-door hardtop was long gone by 1978, this was how Ford chose to add a little Thunderbird-inspired spice to the lives of those who liked sporty, two-door cars. This was quite an expenditure for a single model, when you think about it.
It would have been cheap and easy to tart up the regular two door Fairmont, so Ford should earn some extra credit points for this car’s unique body.
Is there a single company that has been more enamored over the years with the outsize B pillar on a coupe? From the original 1955 Crown Victoria to the 1977 Thunderbird, to even the big Bronco (here), Ford was the home of the “basket handle” roof that seemed to get most of its support (visually, if not actually) from the central B pillar, while wispy little A and C pillars served largely as places for the windows to attach.
The Fairmont Futura coupe took the concept and made it the central focal point of the car. Maybe this is why the Futura may be the best looking of all of the early two door (larger) Fox cars – instead of taking the traditional dimensions of a 1960s two door hardtop and shrinking them down to a smaller size (like the 1980 Thunderbird), the Futura went with a roof concept that defied easy comparison to an earlier generation.
Is it just me, or did Ford miss the best looking variation of this body – a new Ranchero. The roof treatment of this car just begged for a resurrection of the little ute. Although there was the halfhearted semi-custom joint-venture Durango (here), a proper Ranchero would have been a fabulous and memorable addition to the lineup.
The new Futura staked out some real estate that would become pretty crowded in Ford’s pasture. Within a year, there would be the new Fox body Mustang, and the following year would bring a Thunderbird that was little more than a Futura in a bad tux. We would also have a Capri and a Cougar. By 1981, unless you picked an Escort or an LTD, you were getting a Fox – Fairmont, Granada, Thunderbird or Mustang, take your pick. While the Mustang had a unique niche, the original Futura coupe would be the most honest and straightforward car of the lot. No putting on the dog for the honest little Fairmont. Which was probably its undoing.
I have always found this car kind of appealing, but had more or less forgotten about it when I came across this one. This car reminded me how much I once liked these. It is funny that when you can go to any car show and see late 70s Malibu with a V8 and rally wheels, the Futura is never represented. This car ought to be a staple of Foxphiles at the car shows, with a 5.0 HO and all manner of Mustang-sourced chassis upgrades, these should have been universally popular with the hot rod and light custom crowd. But they do not seem to be. Maybe it’s because Ford never had any decent rally wheels.
I am guessing at the year on this car. These are not really easy to identify, as they were largely unchanged during their entire 1978 to 83 run. It is not a ’78 or ’79, because those years put some ventilation louvers low on the B pillar. What was it about FoMoCo and body louvers in 1978-79? I, for one, was happy to see them go. I prefer my cars with smooth flanks. Gills are for fish. If the wheels on this car are original, I believe that 1980 was the last year for these, so there we are. I do not recall seeing many of these with this style of alloy wheel, and ditto with the gold paint. Somebody’s grandmother picked out a nice car.
Being 1980, the preppie-plaid seats were, of course, available. I might have chosen a more subdued option, but 1980 is getting to be long enough ago that the plaid has its charms. The vinyl on the seats does not seem as faded as elsewhere, but this could be a materials issue as easily as it could be from a seat-ectomy. The piles of empty Dr. Pepper cans, however, do not really do much for the ambiance of this particular interior. Isn’t this what Cavaliers are for?
Mechanically, these were all over the place. Four, six or eight cylinders, as well as automatic or stick shifts. The six (the venerable 200 cid/3.3L ) and the V8 (302/5.0L) had even spent time under the hoods of Falcons. The V8 was of the magically disappearing variety, starting out as the old 302, then shrinking to the unlamented 255 (4.2L) for 1980-81, and disappearing altogether in 1982-83. And how many of you remembered that for 1980 only, the Fairmont could be had with a turbocharged 2.3? I certainly did not.
By 1983, the Futura name was on all Fairmonts, but the car was being squeezed out of the Ford lineup. You know that the end is near when the brochures tell you what a great value the car is. The Fox-body LTD offered sedans and wagons, and the new aero Thunderbird provided the attractive coupes. Then there was the Mustang that was, by 1983, starting to catch its second wind as one of America’s favorite sporty coupes. The role of the small value sedan would henceforth be filled by the 1984 Tempo. Once again, the Futura was done in by the Mustang (this time with an assist from the Thunderbird.) In the words of Yogi Barra, it was deja vu all over again. It is sort of ironic that the Futura was the only one with no future.
The poor Futura is all but forgotten now, which is such a shame. It really was an honest little car. But who says an honest car can’t have a fun personality?
I liked the regular Fairmont sedans and wagons when they came out. They were tauter and nimbler than the big mid ’70s boats. But the bouncy dashboards and interior plastics screamed “CHEAP!”. I truly hated the ‘Landau-roofs, ‘Opera-windows’, and ‘Basket-handles’ – all those tacky ’70s styling cliches that American car designers thought could turn a turd into something classy!
Happy Motoring, Mark
I always like the plain Fairmont better than the Futura. I was stationed in Korea when these came out. The 1st ones I saw were all strippo AAFES taxicabs. They were much more comfortable than the Hyundai Ponys that were the main competition. I don’t know why, but that rectangular styling just looked “right” on the Fairmont. Of course, I always like the styling of the ’60 and ’70 full size Ford too. Both were a bit different from Fords that preceded and followed. So was the Fairmont.
I agree; back then I wished my parents bought the 2- or 4-door sedan instead of the Futura; for one thing, it has less backseat room.
These things in a solid color and some nice wheels really look great.
I saw a black one with tinted windows and Magnum 500 wheels a few years back and it was beautiful.
I remember when Ford first intro’d the Fairmont. The car had decent room in the back for adult passengers. That was a big deal back in those days, as there were not many cars that could be said about.
A generally attractive car, I wanted to like the Futura (and, by default, the Fairmont from which it sprang) but it just seemed so flimsy and cheap, particularly that hard-plastic dash and interior. It was like the complete opposite of the heavier, old-school Aspen/Volaré which seemed like it was stuck in the sixties’. Ford seemed to be trying way too hard to get away from the old ways and overshot the mark by a wide margin.
Fortunately, Ford had a much better Fox-chassis execution in the 1979 Mustang.
I agree the basic Fairmont/Zephry did come off rather cheap or flimsy looking so it’s no wonder they disappeared off the streets so quickly. Durable they were not. At the same time with the right trim, wheels and colour they were handsome looking cars.
I’ve never known anyone who owned a Fairmont Futura. I’ve seen plenty of them during its production run, and I’ve always found it more attractive than the standard Fairmont. I particularly liked the Futura grille. I’m not complaining about the Fairmont appearance. Both the standard Fairmont and the Futura are handsome cars.
A high school friend and his wife bought one of these circa 1979. It was a replacement for a Mustang II and I will let everyone draw his/her own opinion as to whether or not this was a step up, down or sideways. I can vaguely remember riding in the Futura a couple of times, about all I can say for it was that it was new. I don’t really remember but I’m sure that Tony’s Futura had the 200 CID six, I know that it had the auto trans as the Mustang II had the four speed manual and Mrs. Tony was tired of shifting gears. They ended up getting divorced not long after this and I have no idea who got/had to take the Futura in the split. I find the styling of these to be somewhat odd and prefer the regular Fairmont. As a matter of fact I seriously considered buying a Fairmont instead of my Rabbit but you couldn’t get the four speed/V8 combo, at least not in California, and I was a dedicated self-shifter at that time.
I wonder if JPC knows his posts are in syndication… LOL!
There’s a very clean, original looking Futura very similar to the one in the pics roaming the streets of my town right now. Some young guy is using it as a pizza delivery vehicle. Seeing this post reminded of that fact. I drove up behind it the other day and thought: Why is this kid using the car to deliver pizzas (in Michigan in the middle of winter)? WTF?
I’ve mentioned before that my family (parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, etc.) all have had Fox body Fords in a variety of styles. I alone accounted for three Fox body Mercury Capris. I’m familiar with their ups and downs.
I guess it really bugged me that the kid was driving a certifiable classic. Maybe not an universally well loved classic like a Beetle, or an universally reviled classic, like a Citation. But, due to condition and age, it’s a time capsule and should be treated as such.
Maybe he really needs the money. If he were smart, he could sell that thing on eBay for more than he’ll make shifting pizzas, especially after fuel costs…
Bummer.
I’ve actually been waiting for this syndicated re-run to comment myself (above brochure pic like my car). ?
Perhaps this kid DOES know what he has and keeps it nice, since you say it’s very clean. I’m sure that Michigan winters are much worse than here in Baltimore, but down here, we have an extremely paranoid SHA (State Highway Administration). At the first sign of flurries, these folks are treating the roads with salt, brine, and all sorts of chemicals, even in unwarranted threats of just a little winter weather.
If this kid is anything like I’ve always been, he probably washes that thing as soon as the snow event is over, to keep the salt off of it. Despite the over use of salt here in Maryland, I have never had a car rust out. Ever. There was a little surface rust on my ’73 LTD, but not a lot, even by 1981, and that was more my sister’s neglect after I got the Futura in 1979. But from that Fairmont forward, they’ve all been maintained and kept perfectly clean whenever possible. I have never had a garage, but even kept outside in the elements, my cars all look good with no rust. Now mind you, a decade is about the longest I’ve kept a car, but I typically keep a car to well over 100K and roughly 8-10 years. This guy’s Futura is approaching 40 years on this planet, in a harsher climate, but if you’ve ever been to Baltimore in the winter, you’d know we are way to salt happy down here. All of my cars did about a decade of daily driver status in this slop, and still, no rust. My Mustang is retired from the DD grind, so I can keep it off the road on days like that, but for its first 9 years and 171K, it was my DD and still looks amazing.
Funny thing about all of my Foxes: I’ve had the aforementioned Fairmont, and several T-Birds, but never a Mustang until I got my 2007 in ’08. Of course I’ve heard some say that the S-197 platform is the Fox platform’s grandchild.
I graduated from college in 1980. Some guy was making one of these into a drag racer, to race at Englishtown. Whether it was Pro-Stock or a bracket car I don’t know. I never saw it finished or on the track.
I think that the Fox cars definitely make for an interesting “hot-rod” platform. With so many different variations that were built over the years, they are a lot to choose from. And with the Mustang as part of that, essentially anything you can do to a Mustang you can/should be able to do to any other Fox body. You may have to fudge some here and there to adapt, but it shouldn’t be all that hard.
The Futura with the LTD front end on it was posted earlier, here is another photo of the same car after some additional mods (supercharger, new wheels, etc). I had always loved the roofline and rear ends on the Futuras, and seeing this car definitely renewed interest in it. The LTD front end just works with the rear of this car, even better than the squared off front end of the Fairmont.
Ranking near the top of my mental garage would be a Futura similar to this one. Futura body, LTD front end, DOHC 4.6 V8 (from 03-04 Mach 1), 5-speed manual, IRS from 01-04 Cobra), 5-lug wheels, lowered…. that’s how I’d mentally build out my Fox body.
Yea, that’s nice, it works……..
It looks like he worked with a Mercury Zephyr Z7 rather than a Futura, Brian. Notice the taillights (you can just make out the horizontal lines wrapping around – the Futura’s were vertical). There are also shark-fin vent-louvers on the side that were unique to the Mercury. While I liked my Futura’s taillights better than the Z7’s, I think that the Z7’s horizontal lines are more cohesive with the horizontal lines up front on that LTD grill. Having seen pictures of this car many times before, I always drool, wishing mine looked like that back in the day (only I’d like the midnight blue color that mine had). After its accident in ’84, I probably should’ve done that to my Futura (I even thought it would be cool at the time), but by then, I wanted a new Aero Bird and got one. ;o)
That has to be just about the perfect Fox. They really should have updated the rear of the car, while keeping the “basket handle”, and made it into an 83-86 LTD coupe.
If we don’t enlarge your little blurry photo at very fast first sight we believe in a Gran National .
My sister bought one new, brown with the camel interior and vinyl top (with the brown stripe/basket handle). It was a decent car for the time, and slightly more sporty looking than a basic Fairmont. My best friend in HS had a cream yellow 4 door, and that car was referred to (completely sarcastically, natch) as “the Sexy Fairmont!” It pretty much guaranteed that he never got laid.
I had a 78 Futura, black, with red interior. Removed all the badging, trim items and pinstriping, painted the bumpers black. 302 automatic. TRX wheels from a Mustang. Nice car, tin worms started to reclaim it.
My favorite Fairmont Futura was Bob Glidden’s Pro Stock Futura, Bob was undefeated in the 1987 season. The only undefeated Pro Stock ever!
As I was finishing up college in 1979, I will admit that I was attracted to the Yuppie look. That guy striding purposely toward his Futura certainly was dressed to the nines in true Yuppie style. I even affected that style of dress for a time. I had read John T. Malloy’s book; Dress for success. I was a huge fan of the Audi Fox, but the Fairmont sedan and especially the Futura coupe was considered as an alternative. I still check CraigsList hopefully for a Fox, but perhaps it’s better that I never found one. I don’t know how many real Yuppies would have cross shopped a Fairmont against a 3 series BMW, which was the king of that world.
I still like the Futura, it can accept every Mustang upgrade, a smog legal fuel injected 5.0 swap would be a great car. However I’m pretty sure my time with possible engine swaps is long past.
My “Dress for Success” period ended even longer ago. Once I figured out that I wasn’t going to be that successful, I figured I could save a lot of money on clothes!
Almost got a blue one in “1981”;wanted “fwd” though.
My recollection matches StuMacks – the turbo Futuras were heavily advertised but never built. They had a short run in the Mustang and were troublesome so never made it to the Fairmont. By this time, Ford was focusing on the new Fox Granada, the resurgent Mustang, the new T-Bird, and upcoming Fox LTD, and the Tubro Futura was quietly dropped.