Lost Muscle Cars. Wes Eisenschenk

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       Ford’s Ranchero Scrambler concept car didn’t offer much conceptually that was new. However, it gave people their first look at the new logo that was featured on its newest car, the Maverick. (Photo Courtesy Bill Cook Archive)

      1969 Ford Ranchero Scrambler

      Today, it’s extremely difficult to find any information on any factory show car and the 1969 Ranchero Scrambler is no exception. For tax reasons, most show cars were sent to the crusher once they had served their purpose on the car show circuit and rarely lasted more than a year. About all we have left now are a handful of photographs.

      It’s rumored that Larry Shinoda styled the Ranchero Scrambler; his earlier influence can be seen in the C1 and C2 Corvettes and the 1965 Corvair. By today’s standards it’s a rather mild custom. Even by the standards of its day, it’s still a rather conservative makeover.

      The wheels, Kelsey Hayes Magstars, were production options on a wide range of hot factory Fords at that time. The engine, a 428 Cobra Jet, was the top-of-the-line offering for a variety of Mustangs, Fairlanes, and Torinos. Even the body-colored bumpers (without parting lines) were yesterday’s news, having debuted the previous year on the Pontiac GTO. Although the hidden headlights did not appear on the Torino until the following year, they had been on Thunderbirds since 1967 and the LTD since 1968.

      So what was new? What presaged the future? One tiny detail: The chrome Longhorn in the center of the grille appeared the following year as the emblem for the restyled Falcon, otherwise known as the Maverick.

      1969 Mercury Super Spoiler

      The Super Spoiler was evidence that someone, with emphasis on “one,” was calling the esthetic shots at Ford styling for what the public was told were the better ideas for the 1969 show cars. As with the Ranchero Scrambler, the Super Spoiler had hidden headlights and a body-colored molded-in front bumper. In fact, both the Ranchero and the Super Spoiler look as though they were styled by the same person who designed those wacky custom add-ons only available in the AMT Styline model car kits.

      But the Super Spoiler went a bit further than the Ranchero. Based on a Montego Cyclone coupe, the A-pillars were chopped and the windshield header removed, as well as the roof set as far back as the C-pillars. What remained of the roof and the C-pillars were molded into what Ford termed an integral roll bar. The interior featured four bucket seats with gold brocade fabric. The engine in this stylistic tour de force was said to have been a 351 Cleveland or Windsor, but in either case, it was probably there for show and not go.

       This Mercury Cyclone Super Spoiler concept car was about as extravagant as they came with its plush seats, chopped windshield, and shaved door handles. Very little information remains on this car. (Photo Courtesy Kevin Martin Archive)

       The Super Cobra featured a 2-inch body drop, slanted back window, and an 8-inch nose extension. Much like the Ranchero Scrambler, a Shaker hood scoop adorned the mighty 428 Cobra Jet concealed beneath. (Photo Courtesy Bill Cook Archive)

      Very few, if any, factory show customs ran or could be driven. In the parlance of the design studios, they were design studies only. It can be argued that the 1970 Cyclone production car was far wilder than the Super Spoiler show car.

      1969 Ford Super Cobra

      Proving that Ford was aware that colors other than pearlescent/metalflake brown existed, the carmaker daringly coated and massaged this Fairlane with a candy apple red exterior. Complementing this daring exterior color choice was an interior stitched in candy murano and hot red. To combat the Fairlane’s chronic stubby exterior appearance, the nose was stretched 7 inches and the top was chopped by 2 inches. Powering this static styling exercise was Ford’s answer to any question asked that year: 428 Cobra Super Jet!

      Where Are They Now?

      And so the go-go 1960s era came to a close. People drove 4,500-pound coupes because gas was only 32 cents per gallon. Eight miles per gallon was tolerable as long as we had interiors slathered in gold hot stamping and faux heraldic badges. Then this pesky thing called OPEC intruded without invitation and suddenly Detroit’s answer, specifically Ford’s, was the ugly antithesis to the Super Cobra, the Mustang II. The Malaise era began.

      The grand question remains: What happened to the Ford show cars? That’s not an easy question to answer for a number of reasons. Some of the cars were nothing more than glossy design exercises, known as styling bucks, built from fiberglass or heavily modified СКАЧАТЬ