The Ford Maverick and it’s twin, the Mercury Comet, did well enough in the United States market. They were decently sized, fit the small-car segment well without being too tiny, and with the right options checked off on the order form, made for one hell of a junior supercar in the Maverick Grabber/Comet GT forms. For many, this is what the second-generation Ford Mustang should’ve been, instead of an Iacocca fever dream that shared way too much with the Ford Pinto. And as a former Comet owner, I can see the reasoning. V8 swapped and ready to get rowdy, the Comet I owned inspired tons of fun and a shocking amount of driver confidence. Small wonder that the little compact Ford did well.

But that’s the United States. In Brazil, Ford needed to replace their version of what we know as the Aero Willys, and fast. Sometime in the early 1970s, the company brought out four unidentified cars, all in white, and asked attendees of a party they had thrown to vote on which one they wanted to see come to market: a Chevrolet Opala, a Ford Corcel, a Ford Taunus, and a Ford Maverick. The winner from the selection pool? The German Taunus…but there were problems with that selection, per the Brazillians in charge of the program. The Taunus would be too costly to produce in Brazil, the car couldn’t battle the Opala in the streets, and so on. Thus, the American Maverick was green-lit for production.

The six-cylinder versions of the Maverick did not impress. The engine used was the Willys Hurricane six, a 161-cubic inch affair that was shifted via a four-speed column shifter that nobody seemed to like. The engine would get hot enough to nuke the last cylinder. But ask about the V8-equipped cars, and the tone turns absolutely positive: between the Super Luxo cars and the Maverick GT with it’s almost-Mustang looks, graphics, colors and 302, Brazillians got a proper muscle car. In fact, the Maverick is joined by only two other V8 vehicles of the time: the 1967-83 Ford Galaxie/LTD/Landau (a carryover of the 1966 Ford Galaxie) and the 1969-1981 Dodge Dart/Charger. The Chevrolet Opala remained six-cylinder powered, the Landau was a luxo-boat. The Dart/Charger and the Maverick were instant heroes, V8 muscle in a land where that was mostly a foreign concept.

And some heroes get better with time. Like your Fords to rev to the moon? You’re welcome.