A new appreciation for Overdrive

I decided to take a 150 mile trip up to college in my 68' Fairlane last weekend, and I made it without any major trouble. Which is a big relief considering the car had been a project and sat around for the better part of four years. I finally got it inspected during the last week of my summer break and managed to get 200 miles or so on it to see how everything was working together.

The trip has one large uphill grade where I saw the temps creep up to 200-210, on a cold rainy night. So that old 289 radiator will need to be replaced with one fit for the 351 in the car now. I wish I had a tach to know how fast the engine is spinning going down the highway, even 60mph sounds pretty loud. Looks like an AOD or T5 in my (distant) future. Filling up with gas at a modern pump is difficult, none of the hoses seem long enough to reach anymore. The prices are fun too. The week that followed was one swamped with rain, would have liked some variable wipers instead of on and off but it kept me dry and started up every time I asked.

Taking it back home to park for winter soon, but there is an autocross temping me to roll over next weekend. For you other students, Im wondering what the EcoCar folks will think when I pull up to our meeting in this old boat.

Once the rain stopped

Love your work. "Stance" and wheels look spot on. Very cool car.

Groovy

OD is cool! Brother changed from an fmx in a 70 Mustang 351W convertible to a T5 before an event in North Carolina. 27 MPG with air conditioning running..mostly 65 mph from East Texas. He did say that 5th was useless until he hit 60 because 65 had him at 1800 rpm.

His 3.8something Traction lock was acting up and we had good 3.2something open diff to put in for the trip.

I'd drive that any day!

Freeway RPM's.... I can tell you this as a starting point, 27" tall tires, 3.55 gears is 3000rpm at 65mph. But some assumptions that I see, prolly 25" tall tires and 3.0 gears, 2600-2700 rpm at 65. Adding a .7 OD gear makes it 1850rpm or so at 65.

Love those rims. Now thinking of it for my '63 Fairlane SC500 but with Mooneyes discs.

What size tires?

What a difference a few "years" make when a former mid-sized sedan is now considered to be "....this old boat."

I used to own a Mercury Cyclone GT of this same year, I can't imagine (though there have been 1 or 2) ever owning (again?) a car as big or bigger than this.

Please, Ford, STRONGLY consider building an affordable V6 and V8 4 door sedan this size. And heck, why not a station wagon while you are at it?

I like those wheels too.

integraguy wrote: Please, Ford, STRONGLY consider building an affordable V6 and V8 4 door sedan this size. And heck, why not a station wagon while you are at it?

They do... in Australia. But we Americans get the "good stuff" in the shape of a twin-turbo AWD Taurus (can you hear me rolling my eyes all the way over there? lol).

Another nicely penned car from that era. Love the wheels.

integraguy wrote: I used to own a Mercury Cyclone GT of this same year, I can't imagine (though there have been 1 or 2) ever owning (again?) a car as big or bigger than this.

I found this statement of big or bigger interesting so I pulled some numbers...

'11 Ford Taurus / '11 Fusion / '68 Ford Fairlane (inches)

202.9 / 190.6 / 203.9 Length
76.2 / 72.2 / 74.5 Width
60.7 / 56.9 / 55.9 Height
112.9 / 107.4 / 113 Wheel Base
4015 / 3285 / 3582 Weight

The Fairlane was the "mid-sedan" so I compared it with today's "mid-sedan" and "large-sedan."

I had that same car, same color, same engine in a two door. That is one car I wish I kept. Being a broke student at the time I could not afford to fix it.

jrw1621....SORRY, the missing word(s) :

MY EVER owning....

Luke wrote: Love your work. "Stance" and wheels look spot on. Very cool car.

I'm thinking about bringing the rear end of the car down another inch or two to level things out some. All new shocks, tie rods, ball joints, control arms, etc and mustang lowering springs up front but original springs in back. I did pick up a sway bar for the rear that needs installed now.

egnorant wrote: OD is cool! Brother changed from an fmx in a 70 Mustang 351W convertible to a T5 before an event in North Carolina. 27 MPG with air conditioning running..mostly 65 mph from East Texas. He did say that 5th was useless until he hit 60 because 65 had him at 1800 rpm. His 3.8something Traction lock was acting up and we had good 3.2something open diff to put in for the trip.

This car has a 2.79 rear and still gets loud on the highway. I'm thinking AOD for this car in the future, but I may be tempted to stray from carburetion and just go straight for a 5.0 HO/AOD swap. Carb tuning isn't my strong point, but this is my chance to learn.

phaze1todd wrote: Love those rims. Now thinking of it for my '63 Fairlane SC500 but with Mooneyes discs. What size tires?

The rims are 98-02 crown victoria steel wheels painted silver. The offset should have been right on but I still needed a 1" space up front to clear the upper ball joint.

Front: 205/55 R16 Rear: 225/50 R16 (from a Porsche at that)

Tire sizes are still stock height (25") so the speedometer is dead on.

integraguy wrote: What a difference a few "years" make when a former mid-sized sedan is now considered to be "....this old boat."

And this isn't even the biggest card I've owned. This was definitely larger. Wish I kept the Keystone wheels from it too.

Thanks for all the kind words guys!

Overdrive and sound deadening. I just got home (SE PA) from the vintage festival at Watkins Glen, doing the drive in my '72 GT6. 65 mph is at about 3500 rpm, but by the time I arrived at my final destination, my ears were ringing...

For a car like that, I'd lean towards the HO AOD option.