mmarshall

The Rancheros of that era (mid-late-70s) were actually pretty good-size vehicles. They certainly didn't get any of the downsizing that the Mustang did.

Margate330

That looks so good just wanted to see it again.

Margate330

Oh yea, I could do one of those even today just for cruising around local!
Always wanted one but never pulled the trigger.

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

I’ve never actually seen one of these Mustangs in person and I’ve been to a lot of muscle car shows/meets over the past 12 years. Definitely an interesting write up as I’ve only seen a picture of these Mustangs online a long time ago.

I’ll keep my eye out for these at Coffee and Cars, and some of the muscle car shows.

Felix

The 'chero's are cool, the only reason at the time, is cause Ford dropped the Torino Sportsroof for '74 as it wouldn't pass the roll over inspection, so the next Ford would be the 'chero as I didn't car for the Starsky/Hutch hardtop....But a Pantera would of been great.....$9995. at your local l/M dealer or at least Stanford l/M had a few.....

mmarshall

Don't want to get too far off-topic, but, not long ago, GM, with its ties to Australia's Holden, could (?) have brought the Holden Maloo over here to the U.S. as the Chevy El-Camino, which was the Ranchero's closest competitor. GM had already sold modified Holden products here as the Pontiac G8, GTO, and Chevy's SS. I suggested this to to their D.C. show-reps several times, and there was apparently some plans to market the Maloo as a Pontiac sport-truck, but then Pontiac itself folded. The project could (?) have been transferred to Chevy as the El Camino, but, of course never was. Sad. Then, even worse, GM dropped Holden altogether.

Felix

The Mustang ll was a great place holder & also a pretty good car vs the clydesdale '71-'73 cars.....btw they were widen to take the 385 series engine, but that turned out to be a one yr only option. The 335 series Boss was also a one yr only model as well...For '74 Ford went to a smaller platform for the Mustang, which was right size at the time. You'd have been there to know what I mean. Ford threw the ''Cougar'' on to the Torino Elite platform as that was a test bed for the Cougar, Thats a difference story for another day....

JDR76

When I was a kid, our neighbor had one of these Mustangs. It was black with red interior and had a license plate frame that said "honk if you like tropical fish"...

mmarshall

LOL.....That makes me think of the Plymouth Barracuda (which is a tropical fish)..........one of the Mustang's competitors.

Speaking of that, the original 1964 Barracuda actually beat the original 1964 Mustang to market by mere 16 days...so, technically, it was the first pony car on the market, although a credible argument can be made that it was not a true pony car....simply a Plymouth Valiant with a big glass rear roof. But it was no contest in sales.....the Mustang's tremendous popularity simply blew it out of the water in sales. And the Barracuda did not become a true pony car until several years later.

I owned a '64 Barracuda for about a year or so...my late father bought me a well-used one when I graduated from High School. I'll have to do a write-up on it one of these days. That's during the days (early-mid-60s) when Chrysler built some of their most durable products.