Here’s another classic example of a car that once was seen everywhere, but is now virtually extinct. Oh, you might find a convertible or high-performance version of a ’61 Ford at a car show, but how about a Galaxie 4-door Town Sedan in slightly patinated condition? Just the way you may remember seeing them on the street back then. And who in 1961 would buy a top-of-the-line Galaxie new, but with so few options that the car basically becomes a stripper? Quite a few people–more than you may think.
Based on research by CC’s own Aaron Severson, during this period hundreds of thousands of low-priced, full-sized cars were produced each year with six cylinder engines, manual transmissions, blackwall tires, small hubcaps, and even no radio. If you look at our collections of vintage photos of parking lots and street scenes, you’re going to see a lot of cars like our featured Galaxie.
I’ve always thought the ’61 Ford was a good-looking car. The front end is a definite improvement over the ’60. The minimalist tailfins are sharp and clean, cleverly emerging from the door handles. And the jet-like round taillights are great.
I have fond memories of the ’61 Ford. When I was around age 5-8, I had a friend (Greg) who lived a few houses up from me. His grandparents would often visit, and they drove what appeared to be a mint condition Galaxie sedan just like this one, except theirs was finished in the most beautiful blue color Ford offered that year, Garden Turquoise Poly.
And to make things even more interesting, Greg had a Matchbox car of a blue ’61 Ford that looked just like Grammy’s, except it was a police car!
Our subject Ford may be plain white on the outside (as many of them were), but inside is where the real beauty is–a vivid turquoise interior in very good condition!
I really like the dash and steering wheel design on these.
Power steering and manual transmission–an interesting combination.
Wide with plenty of room, but you sit low!
Under the hood: the base 223 cubic inch six with mechanical valve lifters, rated at 135 horsepower. I have lots of experience with this engine.
I have the same engine in my 1958 Ford Custom 300, also with power steering (but with Fordomatic transmission).
An interesting thing is, this six-cylinder engine (curiously rated at 145 HP in ’58) provides decent performance in a car weighing about 3200 lbs. But the ’61 Galaxie weighs about 400 lbs. more than the 1958 Custom 300! That’s a lot of extra weight for this relatively small engine to haul around. And this same 223 six was put into the even heavier 1961 Mercury Meteor 600 and 800 and Commuter station wagon models! This is not really the best way to build an “economy” car.
I will say that this is a very “mannerly” engine, with a sewing machine kind of smoothness. With Fordomatic, it’s a nice cruising powertrain. It’s also the most reliable old car engine I’ve ever had, with very few problems over ten years of ownership. And if a problem does occur, there’s lots of room under the hood which makes servicing much easier. Always starts easily, idles consistently, and runs smoothly at all speeds. I like the manual choke which allows you to “fine-tune” idle speed and mixture from the driver’s seat. This provides smoother, better running during warm-up. But it’s not idiot-proof, so Detroit came up with the automatic choke, which I don’t think is the optimum solution for carbureted auto engines of the pre-electronic period.
However, if the 390 cubic inch, 300 HP V-8 (which I had in my former 1962 Mercury Monterey) were under the hood of our subject Galaxie, the car would become a whole different animal! Deep, throbbing V-8 rumble and lots and lots of torque!
So why would someone buy a new Galaxie so basically equipped? For one thing, it would keep the original purchase price low. And maybe someone wanted the nicer Galaxie interior and trim but with six cylinder simplicity and economy. Such a person may have preferred manual transmission but with the ease of power steering, and wanted the small hubcaps which didn’t fly off like the big wheel covers. There weren’t “option packages” like today–buyers could “custom build” their new cars just the way they wanted them.
Given the choice between a ’61 Ford Galaxie and the Ford-based Mercury Meteor 800, I would actually choose the Mercury. The Mercury’s design is not as “pure” as the Ford’s, but it’s more interesting. And I would want the 352 or 390 V-8, with power steering and brakes, automatic transmission, full wheelcovers and whitewall tires. For a new car buyer in 1961, this would raise the cost about $400 over the stripper Galaxie, but as the old saying goes, “Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.”
Yes, I miss seeing old cars like this ’61 Ford, especially an example like this–not over-restored, showing some “honest wear”. To me, these are the authentic and true “nostalgia cars” which are becoming harder to find all the time.
Further CC Reading:
Craigslist Find: 1961 Ford Fairlane 500–Last of the Big Fairlanes by Jim Grey
COAL: 1961 Ford Fairlane–My First Car by Just Plain Joe
CC Capsule: 1961 Ford Starliner–Evens, Odds, and the “Classic Ford Look” by Aaron65
Auto-Biography: 1961 Ford Starliner 390/375–Yes, Pop, You Can Get A V8 Four-Speed 1961 Ford If You Really Must Have One by Paul Niedermeyer
Senior citizens would buy cars like this back in the day. They were only used around town to go to church and the grocery store. They never ventured onto a highway and had plenty of room for friends or grandkids.
Andy Griffith show approves.
I always thought the Mayberry patrol car was a 6. There’s no way Andy would trust Barney with a high-powered interceptor.
My father’s boss bought a ’61 Ford six and he hardly fits your rigid and inaccurate stereotype. They drove it all over the country and to the Rockies. As did large numbers of other folks.
As I noted in greater detail below these sixes had plenty of performance for their time, with a top speed of 90 or so and able to cruise the interstates at 75 or so.
Nice! A well preserved ’61 Ford w/six cylinders & stick is a rare survivor indeed. Definitely not a young man’s car however.
I agree that it is a very handsome design & it’s great to see that the interior (also very nice) is still holding up well.
A friend ‘s father had obe new oyur youth groupbpiked size abdckugfafe it and on level frounfmd the almost got to 85moh nice ride gutless wonder
Very nice indeed .
I once had a 1962 Tudor Galaxie with the (?) 223 i6, three on the tree and over drive, it was from Arizona and had aftermarket AC added .
How I wish I’da kept that beautiful car, it was huge inside and out, nice beige paint .
Sadly it tossed a rod and I junked it .
This sort of full sizer with the i6 was much more common than anyone not there back then realize .
IMO terrific cars but near zero worth once 6 + years old .
-Nate
The beginning of what I consider the best years of big Fords ever: 1961 – 1964. IMO the last year was the best, and the ’65 and later Fords a big disappointment, this from my extensive driving of our family’s ’57, ’59, ’63, ’64, ’68, ’69, and ’72 full-sized Fords. And to me the last of these, the ’72, was by far the worst of them all to drive. We had all of them from new.
Some neighbors, up the hill a bit, had the “60” version of this car. Lasted till “69”.
Thinking it was blue inside though.
When this car was built, much of the interstate highway system was not yet built so for many people highway travel was not yet an issue in their area. That is where a car like this would do just fine.
Folks tend to underestimate the performance of big sixes. They had a top speed of 90+ and would roll along quite easily at 75 or so. They were very common and even pulled trailers and hauled families on vacation loaded up.
My 240 six powered ’66 F100 rolls along at 70-75 without any effort, and at about 2100-2200 rpm, thanks to its OD.
We have had numerous vintage reviews of six cylinders to confirm this. This ’66 Bel Air six with PG did 0-60 in 15.5 seconds, faster than a number of V8s (Fords, mainly) and had a top speed of 95 mph. Very much capable of brisk interstate travel.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/vintage-car-life-road-test-1966-chevrolet-bel-air-six-with-powerglide-just-how-slow-was-it/
My college roommate’s 62 Bel Air had a 235 6 and a PG. I suspect many of the 6/auto cars had relatively short gearing compared with the V8 models. My friend’s Bel Air made lots of engine noise over 60-65 mph, and didn’t sound happy at all beyond that speed range. I’m sure a lower numerical axle or a manual with an OD gear would have helped a lot.
The ’62 Chevy came with a standard 3.36 rear axle for both the six and the 283 V8 when equipped with the standard 3-speed manual or PG. At 60mph the six or 283 V8 engine would have been turning 2678 rpm, at 70, 3125 rpm.
With 3sp/OD, it came with a 3.70 axle. That higher numerical axle was almost invariably fitted to all OD cars back then so that 2nd gear starts (which was a pretty common thing back then) would be easier, allowing clutch-free driving in 2nd and 2nd/OD up to about 45 or 50, meaning around town.
I should add that a lot of this is perspective and relative. In Europe, low-price brand American sedans like this typically were sold with sixes, whose displacement was quite large for European standards. And their top speeds were also quite good, in relative terms. As to engine noise, Europeans weren’t exactly spoiled by that like Americans were. 🙂
Undoubtedly a big V8 with a lower numerical rear axle was going to sound less strained than six or small V8, but a healthy number of folks were willing to put up with that. Obviously, that all changed as the ’60s progressed and incomes went well up.
I didn’t mean to imply that the big sixes weren’t capable of interstate travel. I’ve driven them and they were. I just meant to say that interstate travel wasn’t an issue for many at that time.
I see; good point. But there were still highways, and in some ways they were more challenging, having to pass the slow trucks of the era. It seemed to me that driving on the interstate (as it got built out in those years) was a lot easier on the cars than dealing with the hills and passing and all.
My father’s boss in Iowa City, the head of the EEG laboratory at the hospital, traded in his hemi-powered ’55 DeSoto in 1961 for a new base ’61 Ford 4-door with the six and three-speed column shift.
My father was rather perplexed by that and though it was a bad choice. And he made a point to make sure that the ’62 Fairlane he bought had the V8, although it was actually smaller in displacement than the big Ford’s six and had about the same hp. But it was a V8!
We got those cars new here Canadian CKD packs locally assembled none of them were cheap and Ive never seen a RHD six cylinder version only the odd recent imports that usually get a V8 swapped in eventually, if you wanted a six back then you bought your GM/Ford from the UK or the emerging Australian efforts.
Are we sure that the subject car isn’t a pale beige? It seems to have a white rooftop. The beige/turquoise combination cannot have been common.
I always had mixed feelings on these 61s. I thought the 60-62 dash style was weak compared with what others were doing, and I was so-so on the front end. Also, I find the 60-61 Galaxie roofs the weakest of the early Galaxies.
But wow, what a great survivor!
Apart from engine and power steering this puts me in mind of my dearly departed ‘63 Galaxie.
My first thought was “haven’t I seen that car on CC before as someone’s ride?”.
Our next door neighbor in the late 60s/early 70s was an elderly gentleman and his wife, no children, he had worked a factory job all his life. Very austere fellow, quiet, would only speak if you talked to him.
He had a white Galaxie stripper similar to this that he traded in every three years or so for an exact same model.
Indeed, a lot of folks seemed to like these…
My dad bought a wrecked light blue 61 convertible with a white top and a V8 in about 63 when I was 11. I thought it was sharp, but he didn’t like it and flipped it after he fixed it. He bought a pristine white 61 Buick Electra 225 convertible with a blue leather interior. We all loved that car. Regarding the six cylinder engine, 3 speed, and power steering… My Dad had friends with cars like that. I didn’t consider them “car people”. I understood that they just wanted transportation. Point A to point B cars, as one of them put it. Driving a three on the tree was perfect for these guys…
Quite a few buyers of these basic manual trans, six cylinder powered full sizers were younger. Family folks with kids of whatever age. Perhaps aged 30’s and 40’s. A couple of my high school friend’s parents drove such cars, always purchased new by choice. They could also be described as not car people, just transport needs satisfied. They seemed to replace them with another new one every 3 years.
I accompanied one friend’s family on numerous trips to the beach or mountains, several hours away. The six banger Biscayne did well enough even on the expressways. That dad, with his right arm around his little daughter, deftly shifted the tree through 2nd and to third gear with his left hand. Reaching across the wheel.
A couple hundred dollars saved by not getting options taken for granted today like power steering or brakes or a radio or even a dashboard clock could pay for several months rent in the early 1960s. Many middle aged and older people remembered the Depression years and viewed such things as frivolous.
On the other hand, this was only a savings if you planned to drive the car until it either expired or was old enough that its value was strictly nominal (which in the rust belt was probably not that long). If you traded in every three years, the hit in resale value would make three-on-the-tree/no-power-steering/no-radio cars a false economy pretty quickly.
What young people today might find hard to appreciate, but Depression era people considered any brand new car to be quite a luxury. It didn’t matter if it was a low priced model of a lower priced brand. It was a new car that could be reliably driven for many years. They didn’t need or want a lot of options. many buyers wanted to keep the price down because they preferred to pay cash for their new car.
Standard size cars from the ’60’s and earlier were designed to provide adequate transportation at normal driving speeds. They didn’t have extra power to achieve unnecessary high speeds. The base models would accelerate fast enough for normal traffic and could easily cruise at the speed limit of 65 mph. with enough left over to step it up to 70-75 mph. on occasion. A new V6 Camry or Accord can probably hit 130 mph. but when are you ever going to use that kind of speed?
My stripper ’70 Mustang with the 250 six could do a bit better than 90 mph. I drove my Dad’s old ’61 Dodge with a slant six and three on the tree at normal freeway speeds without any problems back in the 1970’s. A lot of people think that old cars from the late 40’s can only be driven at 45 mph. My current ’46 Plymouth had a factory top speed of 80 mph. and I’ve driven it at 65 mph. on a couple of freeway runs. Both my Mustang and Plymouth had their speedos calibrated by a GPS app.
Cars back then ran at higher rpm than modern cars, unless they had overdrive, and will sound busier.
I can see where people would take a car like this. My dad bought a 57 Chevy Belair two door many years ago. The elderly man was giving up driving. He told my dad that he ordered it with the six and three speed “because he didn’t need the nonsense of a V8 and automatic!”
A great car, but dad sold it a month before I got my license.
And to Paul’s point, I wrote an article here about work trucks I used. The most dependable was a 71 Ford F350 with a 300 engine. It simply did not break though it was way over taxed.
Cool car indeed
In the early 70’s when I was a little kid, you saw these everywhere now I miss these old cars no matter the brand. My family mostly like Pontiacs but one uncle did own two ’61 Starliners at the time( a black and a red one). Sharp looking cars.