If you want a graphic example of why compact car sales tanked starting in 1965, here’s the Chevy version of it. A stylish Camaro six coupe cost only $136 more than a Nova six coupe. That’s not quite 6% more.
As to the headline, here’s where it comes from:
Clever advertising on Ford’s part, IMHO. My Mom had a ‘65 Mustang with the 6 cylinder and 3-on-the-floor and it was a nice driving little car with plenty of pep!
I had a 68 with that same combo and I agree that it was a nice all-around drivetrain. My only gripe was that the rear axle ratio was a little short for highway driving, but that was a trade-off for the peppy personality it displayed around town. An OD unit would have been a perfect solution.
If only Ford had made a 4 speed stick available. I wished the same for mine.
How were the sixes in rain and snow? I had a ’67 Mustang with the 289 and automatic, and it took a light touch on the accelerator to control it with that light rear end on the treacherous Saw Mill River Parkway.
The 65-66 Mustangs did offer the 4-speed with the six. The take rate was probably very low – people would spend extra for the automatic, but someone looking for economy would not spend more money for more shifting.
I checked the brochure at oldcarbrochures.com. I’ve put a copy in this reply.
Both manual transmissions came standard with a 3.08 axle. If I read the brochure correctly, the 3-speed could be optioned with a 2.73 axle – dog off the line but a freeway cruiser. The 4-speed could be optioned with a 3.55 – a screamer off the line but buzzy on the freeway.
I might be reading it wrong and either trans could be had with any of the 3 axle ratios.
The 3-speed had a 2.85 1st gear and the 4-speed had a 3.11 1st.
The 350 had optional axle ratios up to 4.88-1……That would be an around town type of ratio……engine would probably be screaming in high gear by 50 mph with the 4.88’s.
There’s a guy I run into at the local deli once in a while who shows up a beautiful yellow Camaro convertible from this era. Having searched for a long time before finding a duplicate of his first car, he is unmoved by any suggestion of dropping a small block and a four speed into it. Why make it common and lose the special attributes that came from replicating your ride… a Camaro 6 with an automatic?
“first ride”.
I agree that a six and a manual made for a lot of fun in these cars, but I still think a chevy small block (preferably a 350) was the best fun per pound. Big blocks had a handling penalty that (to me at least) outweighed (literally) the extra power. Give me a ’69 Chevelle with a small block V8 and I’d be in heaven.
A neighbor came back to the States in late 1967 after a few years on a foreign assignment. He found a nice 1966 Mustang coupe in light yellow with a 6 and three speed. It was his commuter car which also took him to the golf course on Saturdays. Surprisingly his golf bag fit in the small trunk.
Unlike most European sports cars the Mustang had small rear seats for those times it was necessary to carry his young children some place. It was also a Ford which meant parts and service were easy to find. This neighbor could perform most routine maintenance but he was by no means a “car guy.”
The wife drove a late model Oldsmobile 98 and always seemed to have a big Olds or the Buick equivalent from then on. I don’t know how long the Mustang lasted but it seemed to be just right for the neighbor’s purposes at the time. Having the big sedan in the garage also covered the bases for the family.
The girl in the Camaro ad should’ve been holding a Coke bottle. The way they striped that particular car really emphasized that, which the Mustang didn’t share.
I can’t complain…I had a ’71 Maverick with a 200 six and 3 speed manual, and while not muscle car fast, it was fun. Although I might have had more fun in the back seat 🙂
I’ve got an early road test of the 200 six Mustang, which was the first upgrade from the 170 cid base model. The author found that the 200 teamed with the three speed or even the auto provided adequate power and was fun to drive. Ford had a whole series of ads promoting the six for the Mustang. They were aimed both at men and women. The factory was having trouble meeting the demand for the V8 models and brought out a Sprint special to add some interest to the base engine. Mustangs have always been popular and well accepted with their base power plants.
I can’t imagine the popularity of the Mustang Sprint going unnoticed by John DeLorean and having a direct influence on the development of the Pontiac OHC 6 (which was also called ‘Sprint’).
So, you mean not every Camaro had a 396? The horrors because every one at an auto show is a big block SS. Same for the Mustang. Every one had a 302, or later the 390.
Not.
I don’t have precise figures, but a rough guess, based on what I saw in the family garage, was that 30% of the Mustangs and Camaros had a six. A Camaro with the 230 six and Powerglide was a peppy around town runner. The Thriftmaster is one of my all time favourite motors.
I have driven a Mustang with the 200 six. I would hardly call it a “husky brute” but it made for good advertising.
IIRC, I think the six to V8 split was actually closer to 50/50. There were a whole lot more six cylinder Mustangs than one would think from what one sees at today’s car shows.
It’s interesting to note something you all know, that early Camaros had a standard steering column gearshift….about 40 years ago, there was a ’68 teal with tinted glass by my house, I thing it was a six with PG, but I loved its looks. That it, until the 6 was swapped with a Mercedes 220 D. Some swappers kept the original gearbox, and the gearlever stayed where it was. I remember also a funeral black ´68 (this was in 83) Impala with a Perkins 4.203 and Powerglide, in which we drove with the hearse to my grandpa’s final resting place. It was a terribly sad day, but as the cemetery was far away and the drive was long, I ended up chatting with the driver and being told about the mechanicals. It was useful as a funeral car, nice ride, comfortable. As a real driver, it wouldn’t move off a streetlight. Sorry for going off-topic…
Not mentioned yet was that the Ford as campaign was a takeoff of Helen Gurley Brown’s book “Sex and the Single Girl” which was a mildly scandalous bestseller in the early 60’s, later turned into a fictional 1964 movie. Quite the hot stuff during my youth for suqqestimg that the female vocabulary could include words other than “no” when it came to relationships.
Syke, thank you for the context of the ad campaign. There seemed to be something alluded to in the ads that I was missing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Single_Girl#/media/File:Sex_and_the_Single_Girl_(first_edition_cover).jpg
I ordered a new 1965 Barracuda with the standard 225 CI Slant 6 engine and 3 speed Torqueflite automatic for my mother to drive, she drove it for 20 years with exactly NO engine problems at all. I had it in my possession until 2004 when I sold the car to another MOPAR collector. It’s still running perfectly to this day.
Quite a few people, not just ‘single girls’, drove base Pony cars, and not just I6’s. My parents 2nd car was a ’65 I6, 3 speed manual.
Most average Camaro/Mustang had a 2bbl carb 302 or 307 v8. When GM F bodies sold well in 1976-79, many had 305/301 v8’s, not all were Trans Ams.
Younger car guys “can’t understand” why they offered base models and 6 cylinders to begin with. “What were they thinking?” they say online. Geeez!
Show them a Iron Duke Camaro or Lima Mustang, maybe a FWD Charger. It could be a lot worse than a torquey, reliable, smooth, long lasting Inline 6.
My boyfriend’s ex gave him a 2000 Ford Mustang V-6 coupe. I really hate the 3.8L V-6, and I’d like the car a lot more if it had the Aussie Barra engine instead of a reverse-engineered, reliability crapshoot.
A girl in high school drove a ’66 Mustang 200 6 and automatic. (Mind you this was 2001-2003, I drove a ’71 Beetle and her mom had a Karmann Ghia she and I were one of the few classic cars in the parking lot) and I enjoyed every chance i got to ride around with her in that car. It had more pep than I expected.
Love me some old-school American Inline 6. Have had a couple of Mercurys with the 200 I-6, currently have a ’74 Chevy C10 pickup with a 250 Inline 6 (3spd manual), recently upgraded (this past summer) with a Clifford intake, Headman heders, and Weber 2bbl carburetor. Would not have bought the truck if it had a V-8. I really wanted an ’87-96 F-150 or F-250 with the EFI 300, but I do love my old square body.
Goodness me, I’d have six with that Camaro. What a pretty thing.
Sorry, make that “I’d have a Camaro with that six”.
What prim uptight got a Nova for stuff-all more, I wonder? Six or nor no six?
I owned the 200 six and three-speed combo from Ford many moons since, albeit in a heavier ’66 Falcon, and it was just fine. Had it been ’66, and that eight just a few more work shifts more, though, I’d have flung that six into the weeds just like the eight would’ve on the road.
I’ve not driven the Chev six, which was from the same year as the non-identical Holden six, despite both being similar sized, pushrod, all-iron, non-crossflow, and thinwall cast (plant/design efficiency wasn’t a GM thing then, it seems). And if the resultant power specs are right, the standard six in the Camaro would’ve been a revless, hissy windbag.
With the single girl, I’d have eight. At least, and more on Sundays.
The 200 six cylinder engine and the 3 speed “Green Dot” automatic transmission made for a pleasant driver in my ’66 Mustang.
The lighter engine made the manual steering much easier to tolerate than in my buddy’s heavier 289 Mustang. The six was much easier to work on than the 289.
The college girl across the street (who make my high school heart beat faster) talked her Father into buying her a used first gen Camaro in 1971. Optioned with the six cylinder engine, Powerglide transmission, crocus yellow with black vinyl interior and Chevy’s always truly excellent in dash factory air conditioning.
I helped her wash and wax it several times in exchange for rides to/from high school. The cute gal, the attractive Camaro, with me in the seat next to her, helped to raise up my “street creed” among my friends.
The unavoidable fact that this otherwise appealing Camaro, gurgling on and on and on in low gear most of the time (she did have a heavy foot on the gas pedal!), sounding exactly like my Grandfather’s 1951 Chevy, was not lost on my 15 year old car crazy mind.
She didn’t know old Chevy history and would not have cared. She was happy with her first car and I was happy to be sitting next to her.
🙂