Ford’s Ranchero Scrambler concept car didn’t offer much conceptually that was new. However, it gave people their first look at the new logo that was featured on its newest car, the Maverick. (Photo Courtesy Bill Cook Archive)
1969 Ford Ranchero Scrambler
Today, it’s extremely difficult to find any information on any factory show car and the 1969 Ranchero Scrambler is no exception. For tax reasons, most show cars were sent to the crusher once they had served their purpose on the car show circuit and rarely lasted more than a year. About all we have left now are a handful of photographs.
It’s rumored that Larry Shinoda styled the Ranchero Scrambler; his earlier influence can be seen in the C1 and C2 Corvettes and the 1965 Corvair. By today’s standards it’s a rather mild custom. Even by the standards of its day, it’s still a rather conservative makeover.
The wheels, Kelsey Hayes Magstars, were production options on a wide range of hot factory Fords at that time. The engine, a 428 Cobra Jet, was the top-of-the-line offering for a variety of Mustangs, Fairlanes, and Torinos. Even the body-colored bumpers (without parting lines) were yesterday’s news, having debuted the previous year on the Pontiac GTO. Although the hidden headlights did not appear on the Torino until the following year, they had been on Thunderbirds since 1967 and the LTD since 1968.
So what was new? What presaged the future? One tiny detail: The chrome Longhorn in the center of the grille appeared the following year as the emblem for the restyled Falcon, otherwise known as the Maverick.
1969 Mercury Super Spoiler
The Super Spoiler was evidence that someone, with emphasis on “one,” was calling the esthetic shots at Ford styling for what the public was told were the better ideas for the 1969 show cars. As with the Ranchero Scrambler, the Super Spoiler had hidden headlights and a body-colored molded-in front bumper. In fact, both the Ranchero and the Super Spoiler look as though they were styled by the same person who designed those wacky custom add-ons only available in the AMT Styline model car kits.
But the Super Spoiler went a bit further than the Ranchero. Based on a Montego Cyclone coupe, the A-pillars were chopped and the windshield header removed, as well as the roof set as far back as the C-pillars. What remained of the roof and the C-pillars were molded into what Ford termed an integral roll bar. The interior featured four bucket seats with gold brocade fabric. The engine in this stylistic tour de force was said to have been a 351 Cleveland or Windsor, but in either case, it was probably there for show and not go.
This Mercury Cyclone Super Spoiler concept car was about as extravagant as they came with its plush seats, chopped windshield, and shaved door handles. Very little information remains on this car. (Photo Courtesy Kevin Martin Archive)
The Super Cobra featured a 2-inch body drop, slanted back window, and an 8-inch nose extension. Much like the Ranchero Scrambler, a Shaker hood scoop adorned the mighty 428 Cobra Jet concealed beneath. (Photo Courtesy Bill Cook Archive)
Very few, if any, factory show customs ran or could be driven. In the parlance of the design studios, they were design studies only. It can be argued that the 1970 Cyclone production car was far wilder than the Super Spoiler show car.
1969 Ford Super Cobra
Proving that Ford was aware that colors other than pearlescent/metalflake brown existed, the carmaker daringly coated and massaged this Fairlane with a candy apple red exterior. Complementing this daring exterior color choice was an interior stitched in candy murano and hot red. To combat the Fairlane’s chronic stubby exterior appearance, the nose was stretched 7 inches and the top was chopped by 2 inches. Powering this static styling exercise was Ford’s answer to any question asked that year: 428 Cobra Super Jet!
Where Are They Now?
And so the go-go 1960s era came to a close. People drove 4,500-pound coupes because gas was only 32 cents per gallon. Eight miles per gallon was tolerable as long as we had interiors slathered in gold hot stamping and faux heraldic badges. Then this pesky thing called OPEC intruded without invitation and suddenly Detroit’s answer, specifically Ford’s, was the ugly antithesis to the Super Cobra, the Mustang II. The Malaise era began.
The grand question remains: What happened to the Ford show cars? That’s not an easy question to answer for a number of reasons. Some of the cars were nothing more than glossy design exercises, known as styling bucks, built from fiberglass or heavily modified production sheet metal, without engines or running gear. Once they had served their purpose, which dictated a short life span, they were old news, just gathering dust and taking up space. This was probably the fate of the Ranchero Scrambler and the Mercury Super Cyclone.
The Fairlane GT A GO GO, based on a production car, presented a different set of problems. The first was tax liability, which would have come due as soon as any show car of this type ceased to serve its original purpose. The second was product liability. These cars were sent to outside contractors for modification. They were totally torn apart for repainting, custom bodywork/features, and interiors. During that process, certain parts critical to safety, emissions, or day-to-day function may have been removed and not replaced.
No one kept track of these items, but Ford and the other automakers were not blind to this fact and couldn’t risk one of these cars actually being driven, especially on public roads. Combined with the tax liabilities, this usually meant a one-way trip to the crusher.
But every year, show car barn finds surface; some were hidden by the designers who worked on them; some were just stored and forgotten long ago. Some collectors specialize in show cars. So not all disappear; we just can’t see them anymore.
Hurst-A-Matic 1970 SS Nova Giveaway Car
By Wes Eisenschenk
By 1970, the Hurst Corporation was large and in charge of the performance shifter market industry for muscle cars. Known mainly for its 4-speed transmissions, Hurst was one of the few businesses with whom Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, and AMC allied themselves in an effort to maintain an edge in the marketplace. Lagging behind in salability was Hurst’s line of automatic shifters. What the company needed was something to create awareness of its all-new shifter for 1970. Inside the corporate offices, a plan was developed for just that purpose. Hurst planned to give a 1970 SS Nova to the lucky person who came up with a clever name for its new automatic shifter.
And the Winner Is
Walt Trapnell was a salesman for M&H in 1970, selling racing slicks in Cleveland, Ohio. One day, he came across a Hurst display that was asking the public to get involved in naming the new Hurst shifter. Walt, a father of two boys, jotted down four separate entries for each member of his family. On his son Todd’s slip, he wrote “Hurst-A-Matic.” Thinking nothing more of it, Walt went back to work and let the contest slip out of his mind.
Todd Trapnell, the three-year-old Hurst-A-Matic Nova giveaway winner, salutes the cameraman with the V-for-victory sign, which he learned courtesy of Linda Vaughn. (Photo Courtesy National Dragster)
A few months later, he received a phone call from Hurst corporate notifying him that he was one of 147 entrants who had submitted the name Hurst-A-Matic in the Hurst Nova giveaway contest. From the pool of 147, Hurst had conducted a drawing to whittle those down to 25 contestants. The gentleman on the phone told Walt that they were going to be conducting a final drawing