My wife and I currently live in the most expensive suburb of Indianapolis. Lest you think our ship has come in, understand that this suburb annexed our modest neighborhood only so the next suburb over couldn’t do it. To proper residents of our suburb, our vinyl-village subdivision is considered déclassé, the cheapest way to get your kids into this suburb’s excellent schools. That describes us perfectly! But after our last son finishes high school this month, we have no need to stay. We’re itching to go. Already we’re walking through neighborhoods we’d like to live in to get a feel for them. It’s always a good sign when we come upon a curbside classic while strolling. Like this 1961 Falcon.
We found it in Indianapolis’s popular Broad Ripple neighborhood. We’d just finished dinner at our favorite area restaurant and decided to stroll the surrounding blocks. I was delighted, but not surprised: I’ve found several of the cars I’ve written about here while strolling Broad Ripple’s streets. It’s where the hip people live. And hip people sometimes drive cars like immaculate 1961 Ford Falcons. In another post here a few years back, the Falcon was named the #1 vintage car of hipsters.
Wherever hip people concentrate, home prices tend to skyrocket. I’ve watched Broad Ripple’s home prices nearly double over the last few years. My wife and I could probably afford the payment on a home here, but at our age we’d be making that payment until we are in our 80s. No thanks. Perhaps the tell for a neighborhood we’re willing to afford is that the curbside classics are in rough condition.
Broad Ripple, Indianapolis, March, 2017
Related reading:
- Jim Cavanaugh on why the 1961 Falcon was just right
- Paul Niedermeyer with everything you ever needed to know about the Falcon platform
- Paul Niedermeyer shows how the original Falcon was made in Argentina through the 80s
Nice find. No rust, Mexican blanket interior.
That’s a fine way to select a neighborhood Jim, could be a good angle for a real estate agent if you’re ever looking for a change of career.
Falcon + hopscotch + dogwalker = Calm safe neighborhood.
Ha! You guys don’t miss a thing, do you!
Wow, even with the extra DeLuxe chrome trim, this car comes across as extra frumpy in that color.
I remember that 1961 Indiana license plate as I bought one at a swap meet to put on the front of the 61 Thunderbird I had in the late 80s. I was dismayed to find when I got home that I had not looked at it closely enough and that it was for a trailer, not a car. Doohhh!
That is not far from where my first house was. I did quite well on it after owning it for five years. Hindsight says that I should have kept it because they have kept going up, up, up.
It’s funny, to my eyes the colors really make this car pop. Different strokes for different folks.
That green was a very popular color for Falcon in 61 and widely used in ads for the car. I remember wishing our seafoam green Falcon – a washed out color I couldn’t stand – was that green (if it had to be green at all). The good thing about the Deluxe trim model was the much higher quality foam padded seats with more attractive upholstery. My Dad’s 61 had them and they were so much better than the sink-to-the-floor cheap seats in my mother’s base 61 (both cars bought new that year). We later had a used white on red 60 Falcon Ranchero – now that was a nice looking car.
Have been watching old episodes of 77 Sunset Strip on METV. Had forgotten that when Kookie finally became a detective he drove a 61 Falcon Futura. Ford no doubt hoped that Kookie’s hipster image (for that era) would attach itself to the Futura. For this kid the Falcon didn’t make the coolness cut compared to Jeff’s Sunliner or Stu’s gorgeous space age Thunderbird convertible.
If the paint was actually shiny it would look a little less frumpy. Not a color seen on any car in a long time, though.
I like the white roof, giving a nice contrast with the the green body. The painted contrasting roof treatment was fairly popular in the fifties and sixties, with vinyl replacing painted in the mid sixties. Recall the two tone paint scheme made a brief return in the early eighties, then disappeared forever.
Cars in the past used to have definite lines of demarcation that lend themselves to start and start points for painting two or tri tone cars. Today all you have are blobs and jelllybeans. Where does one point start and where does it end?
A really underrated shape. Nice thing about the 60/61 is that the grilles on both were really appealing. We never got these two-doors and it looks kinda sporty. Great find.
This Falcon reminds me a bit of Ford Europe´s compact sedan, the “P5” which was on sale between between 1964 – 1967 (available as 4 / 6 cylinder 2/4 door sedan / station wagon and 2 door coupé).
My dad bought a new one for 8.000 DM. It had a bench seat and column shifter and with all its chrome applications inside and out looked like a miniature American car.
It was the first car I ever sat in.
I remember these as a kid in Greece. My dad’s friend had a white 4-door, with column shifter.
The Ford Taunus
ours was turquoise with a dark green roof. pretty flashy for late 60s Germany.
The line of sensibility…;-)
“Die Linie der Vernunft.”
This old Ford 60s slogan would rather apply to the Taunus P3….nicknamed “die Badewanne” (the bathtub) which was the P5´s predecessor.
Man that’s good looking. I always thought the early Falcons were so frumpy.
The great thing about these Falcons is that they will take most of the go-fast 1G Mustang parts, including “cheap mods” from improved ’70s descendants. They’re sleepers in the right hands, and they’re (still) not collectible enough to forgo mods.
I think the two-tone is what makes it, nothing like a contrasting color on the roof! Good to see it’s being maintained and enjoyed by someone, new (quality) tires are always a huge tell although I don’t know if the raised white letter look is appropriate in this case.
Yeah I’d turn those letters in.
Sounds like my neighborhood where one finds several trucks and cars under less than formal car covers. Although one is a 1961 Caddy that I got to see briefly. A 66 Mustang out on the street and a 1980 Monte Carlo. Numerous older Japanese trucks and probably more if I walk the area which I haven’t. Of course being the Bay Area helps.
Oh, if I hear hipsters again I think I am going to barf.
Great find and the same age as me! One of my uncles had a similar vintage Mercury Comet in this color.
The ultimate irony is that Broad Ripple with all its anti-Pence signs like the one seen in the background is actually home to his in-laws, just a few blocks west of me on Indianola Ave(?). There’s definitely some eclectic stuff around, with a strangely high proportion of 2 door SUVs: unlike the rest of Indy, it’s the short 2 door newer JK Wranglers that are most common not the Unlimiteds. Then there are some older YJ/TJs, and several Trackers, a 2 door Rav4 convertible, and just 2 days ago I got to see an old IH Scout cruise by.
My own contribution to the CC vibe is fairly minor, a street parked purple ’94 Ranger. We fit the general Broad Ripple demographic of young professionals as well, and have a garden in our yard and some painted tires used as planters in our alleyway.
I had not known that Karen Pence was from right there, but I should have. She graduated from Bishop Chatard HS a year ahead of Mrs. JPC and belonged to the parish church right across the street. As did we when we lived on that street.
Well, say what you might about the trendy, the fact that they are saving these CCs is really good news. Think about it, Great Generation folks saved the Full Classics and brass era cars, Boomers saved us the Fifties Finned wonders and Muscle Cars, and hipsters like cheap and cheerful cars. It shows that tastes vary, and everyone has their favorites. I don’t know what the next generation will covet after this one ages, but it probably will be something completely different. The Malaise era cars seem to be the logical progression, and based on yesterday’s post, why the hell not? Vive le CC.
Reminds my of my neck of the woods. 🙂
I’ve never been to Eugene Paul but judging by your photos and descriptions Broad Ripple might very well be the Eugene of the Midwest. Late 20s-40s craftsmen bungalows, some rented but mostly owned. A predisposition for the slightly offbeat and funky, but also a stalwart contingent of older folks that predate the “hipness” of the area. There are also quite a few young professionals that move to the area in their engaged/newly wed-pre-kid/pre-school age kid phase that then move up north to Carmel, Fishers, and Zionsville once public school quality and some more elbow room becomes a concern.
I recently read a local university’s newspaper, and there was a transcript of an interview between one of the students and an older alum. One of the student’s questions was “What was your first car?” and he answered a Ford Falcon.
To that answer, the student interviewer replied “That’s such a cool car!” The man being interviewed responded that it really wasn’t.
I found that interaction amusing. To me, Falcons were frumpy (as a few commenters noted above), but among the college crowd they’ve now attained almost a cult status. A few years ago, I never would have dreamed of that!
The relatively tall roofline and the tiny wheels didn’t help the Falcon’s looks. But that roofline gave the Falcon a spacious and light-filled interior and they sold like crazy – McNamara’s practical dream car. I always thought the early cars looked best with wide whitewalls and full wheel covers – gave the wheels a bit of heft.
I always thought the Falcon’s original roofline suited it far better than the hardtop coupe that seems to use the roof from a car two sizes smaller.
Me either, Eric. My Falcon ♦is♦ frumpy. I don’t live near any college campuses or I’d venture to drive mine over to one and see if I get a reaction from the students. I know when I drove mine to college from 1991-96 it was just another car in the lot and no one paid any special heed to it despite it being a lot older that 99% of the other cars parked there. (One exception I recall clearly: a 1966 Chrysler New Yorker. It was dark green and very boxy. I dug it).
I wonder if we could upgrade that Falcon with parts from Argentine Falcons where the 1960 body was still made to the 1970s and 1980s? 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tCyIrv615g
And I saw a later Gen-1 Aussie Falcon featured in this early 1990s Aussie Falcon ad with the cast of the Australian cop drama Homicide.
That would be a late ’66 XP, as the registration is close to Dad’s ’67 XR.
When I started to become of driving age, in the later sixties, first generation Falcons were widely available as cheap used cars. If not “free to good home”, then you could easily find one for a couple of hundred dollars or less. I never owned one but several friends had them and no one thought they were anything but bottom feeder used cars, they certainly weren’t cool. I remember one friend had one with the 144 CID six and automatic combo and it might well have been the slowest vehicle I’ve ever ridden in. If only I had known that these cars would eventually become desirable I would have purchased a small herd of them and stored them until they became worth real money.
Ah! A Falcon even slower than mine with its ‘170’ CID six and 2-speed Ford-O-Matic combo. 0-60 . . . takes . . . a . . . while . . . but . . . longer . . . with . . . a . . . ‘144’. 😀
The family car in the 60’s was a 1963 Falcon wagon with the 170, AC and automatic. We used to say that the standard driving technique was to floor it and keep it floored until it hit the speed limit. The one big shift was at around 50 mph. One time driving through Oklahoma or someplace with an 80 (85?) mph speed limit, with five people inside and stuff in the roof rack I remember I couldn’t get it up to the speed limit.
Interesting post Jim. People play all sorts of games to get in the ‘right’ school areas here in Melbourne, and there have also been cases of suburb boundaries being changed that have made some people very happy!
I saw an Aussie 1961 Falcon on the street recently – will post it shortly.
Fun find.
Does anyone know where there is a site that gives MSRP and dealer cost for cars like this? I am betting that if the MSRP was $1995 for the base car dealer cost was maybe $1650 or so. No idea what the automatic and whitewalls cost or what the dealer markup was.
http://www.theclassicford.com/1961_ford_prices.htm
This site gives you price for the car – appears your guess was close. That $1995 figure IIRC was the entry level price for a new Maverick in 1970, soon to go up markedly as inflation took off in the new decade.
reminds me of this one I saw a while back
Just think what the market would have been like if instead of the Corvair Chevy had introduced the Chevy II in 1960. And it would have been even more competitive if Plymouth had a pleasing style for the Valiant.
I am guessing that the big three might have really gotten serious about building decent small cars and competing better with the imports.
Good question and I go a step further by wondering if Chevy had introduced the Chevy II instead of the Corvair for 1960. Would the Chevy II inherit some B-O-P variants a decade earlier going after the Mercury Comet?
Great post and pictures, Jim. Both the Falcon (in that wonderful shade of green) and that neighborhood look right up my alley – though I’m probably more of a Corvair guy. I hope you all find something in an area you like just as much at a price you can afford. I often wonder what it is about certain residential areas that seems to attract connoisseurs of certain types of vintage vehicles.