Daily-driver practicality and a body from 1967 don’t have to be mutually exclusive, like a lot of people tend to believe. Tuned up properly, the stock setup from back in the day is perfectly able to move the car around. Or, you can swap in modern guts if that’s what it takes to ease your mind. Or you can find a happy mix of both sides of the year gap and be content, like putting fuel injection and electronic ignition onto a big-block. What I’m saying is, there are plenty of options out there if you want a classic body to act like a used-car lot score. You can daily an older car if you truly want to. But would you? Let’s bring up the one really good argument against it for a second: fuel mileage. We all know our old V8s are fun, but we also know that they drink like a frat boy. A possible alternative is to ditch two cylinders, and we’re on board with that, especially if they are in a line. Turbocharged is good, too.
So with that, let’s take a look at our Rough Start find, a 1967 Ford Falcon. Compared to the two previous generations of Ford’s compact, you can easily see that the Mustang’s popularity rubbed off onto the Falcon looks-wise. Visually…well, it’s rough, but it’s got a “bucks-down racer” vibe to it that we can get behind, though the cheap wheels would have to go for something different. Luckily, this car has been converted to five lugs, so we’d just junkyard-crawl some late-model Mustang Torq Thrust-style wheels and call it good. Neat and trim, a Falcon of this year is as close as you can get to having a first-generation four-door Mustang. So, what would you power it with that could do daily duty? A later model 5.0L would be a quick choice, and a 2.3L four-cylinder with a turbocharger and intercooler could get the job done frugally. But this Falcon has a M. Night Shyamalan twist for you…
Meet the Mercedes-Benz OM606. That’s three liters of turbocharged, diesel-fed inline six, backed up by a five-speed manual transmission. Thirty MPG can be yours, Dieselgate-free, if you are willing to fix a pan gasket, some rusty floors, and don’t mind Ford freaks losing their minds every time you start the car up. At $2,400, this could be a surprisingly decent daily…so long as you avoid VW protests.
Craigslist Link: 1967 Ford Falcon
Well – The Mk 2 Ford Cortina’s American father!
Virtually identical and just that bit bigger – this car is fine as it is as there is not even a hint of an LS and that motor gives a blend of performance and fuel economy. How refreshing to see someone dare to be different on a budget – which explains the diesel swap….
I agree with Geordie(there’s a 1st!) I would fix what was needed and drive the heck out of it. I am in need of a new dd that is frugal. I love my Ford trucks and I would have be dead to part with my 390 Ranchero but neither of them are great in the fuel department. Now to convince the love of my life we need another vehicle
Honestly, did Dan Stokes build this? Lol…. The S10 wasn’t enough?
pretty well identical to our (Aussie) XR XT Falcons… these are getting hard to find here, and a nice one could be 15 grand on up.. these were what our earliest GT’s were based on…289 / 302 4 speed cars that were huge fun…
I’d love to have that Falcon but you can keep that stupid diseasel.