So you are sick and tired of the “Ford Tough With Chevy Stuff” stickers? Hate the fact that we have Blue Oval products in a lot of the pictures from LS Fest? Have avoided YouTube videos because, sure enough, there’s a bastard swap running the races? Okay…we get it, there are purists out there. If it came from the factory as a Ford, it had better be powered by a Ford. Well, since we know that there are plenty of wagon fans out there and there’s a legion of anti-LS folks to match, here’s your answer, in the form of a 1981 Ford Fairmont wagon.
If you are laughing, you shouldn’t be. Fairmonts were the first Fox body, beating the Mustang out by a year, and are one of the lightest versions (with the heavier curb weights just under 3,000 pounds) that you can find. There’s plenty of them out there with stout power trains, but Fairmonts (and their Mercury twin, the Zephyr) still have a slow and dowdy reputation…which this wagon capitalizes on. Underneath that tinny hood is 460 cubic inches of Ford V8, backed up to a C6 automatic. That’s more than twice the size of the likely 3.3L inline-six this car would have come with, and even if it is bone-stock, should make for some entertaining driving. Other than a set of chrome Terminator-style wheels, there isn’t anything to give away what’s going on in this wagon. So long as it’s running, at $2,500 it’s a steal and you have some cash left over for a set of drag radials and the little blue bottle of happiness. Sounds like a winner!
Craigslist Link: 1981 Ford Fairmont
Just perfect for those grocery runs to the local market.
I’m calling him when I get out of work today. Perfection.
Anybody who pollutes a Ford product with an LS should be shot on sight!
This is one cool wagon apart from those wheels that look like your 80-year old Grannie wearing her granddaughter’s Jimmy Chous – fit subtly widened stock steelies with the original wheel trims for that ultimate sleeper look
I am surprised that it clears the stock style hood , because in a fox mustang it doesn`t .
Best intake for hood clearance on these big 385 series engines is the old Torker II intake.
They’re single plane, and don’t have the same low RPM torque of a modern dual plane, but they’re nice and flat under the hood.
No shortage of off-idle torque with this monster, anyhow.
I love wagons (I’m on my sixth), and would love to have this one.
Thanks for the info , I would like to have this one too , driving to the friday night test and tune, have fun , drive back home , having a beer…
best intake is still a offenhauser port o sonic
If I didn’t already have a Fairmont… and a Fox LTD… and a Fox Marquis…
Why? It’s gonna slower than cold molasses in January. Put the LS in.
A turd with an even bigger turd underhood. Typical ford.