What is the estate on the right?

[pompei]

[Junkman]

1963 Ford Country Sedan

[Hertz]

1963 Ford Country Sedan

 

How do you know what year it is? I'm pretty good at spotting and naming models but I can't very easily get the year right as well (not seeing the reg plate obviously).

 

I see it a lot on American TV/Film when the "cops" are chasing an undesirable they always quote the year!

[Junkman]

40 years of avid yankshite spotting inevitably turns you into such a miserable anorak as I am.

[minolman]

The '62 has wooden trim on the side, like earlier models. The '64 has a different shape of pressing on the rear wing and doesn't have that rectangular louvred plate. In case you wanted the 'why', not the 'how'

[Junkman]

The '62 has wooden trim on the side, like earlier models.

 

Wrong. All Country Squires have the woodgrain overlay, all Country Sedans don't.

[minolman]

Wrong. All Country Squires have the woodgrain overlay, all Country Sedans don't.

Was I right on the metal trim plate and the pressing in the wing on the wing?

 

The pressing of the wing dictated the shape of the wood being changed on the Squire for '64

[HillmanImp]

I see a geek war breaking out here.

 

[Hertz]

So what your saying is that American cars generally changed something every year which makes it easier to spot?

 

I bow to both you Statto's by the way!

[dollywobbler]

They certainly did during this era - something Billy Rootes tried to copy, hence so many series and marks of Minx for instance. (IIRC, there was a MkIII, a MkIIIb and a MkIIIc of those).

[Junkman]

1962 Country Sedan

 

1962 Country Squire

 

1963 Country Sedan

 

1963 Country Squire

 

1964 Country Sedan

 

1964 Country Squire (OMGJB007)

[trigger]

EFA. 

 

 

I bow to both you Saddo's by the way!

[Junkman]

I see a geek war breaking out here.

 

Look up the word Geek in the Enyco Enocy dictionary, and you'll see my picture next to it.

[Junkman]

Was I right on the metal trim plate and the pressing in the wing on the wing?

 

Of course you are right. The sheetmetal was changed each model year.

[eddyramrod]

How do you know what year it is? I'm pretty good at spotting and naming models but I can't very easily get the year right as well (not seeing the reg plate obviously).

 

I see it a lot on American TV/Film when the "cops" are chasing an undesirable they always quote the year!

 

The cops recognise the differences in the different models.  For example, 1988 Chevy Impala:

 

1998 Impala:

 

1968 Impala:

 

1958 Impala (first year of the Impala model name):

 

I know which one I'd choose!

 

For several years, certainly all the way through the sixties, the model looked significantly different year on year, so it was easy to date them.  Since the beginning of the 80s though, maybe even further back, body shapes have been kept for more than just one year, and the cycles are getting longer.

 

Edit: bit late with that, sorry: the other Yank Geeks obviously type faster!

[minolman]

Those photos sure tell the story of the Sedan and the upmarket Squire, great stuff Junkman You've edjumacated me. 

 

Almost as bad as when I almost bought an '42 Ford V8. The model year on year changes from the mid 30s to the late 40s are staggering. Little tiny changes to grille, lights, but what I always wanted was the top of the range Sportsman convertible, sadly now a 5 figure automobile. 

[eddyramrod]

5 figures needn't be so bad, I mean people pay that for a Golf these days.  New Golf or 1939 Ford V8?  No contest, I'm going Blue Oval...

[Junkman]

[geek mode]

 

The first Chevrolet to wear the Impala moniker was some 1956 Motorama Show Shite:

 

 

Throughout the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Chevrolet had a quite elaborate lineup in their full size series, which was initially topped by the Impala commencing 1958. For model year 1966 they upped the ante with the Caprice, rendering the Impala to play second violin. In 1996 they discontinued the full size car production for good and the old nameplates were temporarily buried.

In 1999 they then dug up the Caprice nameplate by marketing the Holden Caprice with a Chevy badge in the US, and started to slap the Impala badge onto what hitherto was the Lumina, in a woefully inadequate turd polishing attempt.

 

[/geek mode]

[quicksilver]

Woah, back up a minute. The Country Sedan is a station wagon? That makes no sense whatsoever, those crazy 'merkins.

[trigger]

One of my Facebook contacts have one of these, it looks badass.

 

 

 

[Junkman]

Woah, back up a minute. The Country Sedan is a station wagon? That makes no sense whatsoever, those crazy 'merkins.

 

Nothing those caned yanks did during that era makes sense, that's why it is so easy to understand.

[eddyramrod]

I never cared much for the lines of the 63 as a sedan or coupe, but oh boy, it really works as a station wagon, doesn't it?

[Junkman]

1963 Wagonz rule, but I find a pov-spec 2-door post Galaxie in beige strangely appealing, too.

 

 

Fit mine with the semi-nuclear 427 Side Oiler, please.

[trigger]

Those Galaxies are great for cornering...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShiteRider]

I don't now how to nick pictures off the t'internet, but if i win the euros i'm having the "Tabacco King", with a '64 country squire towcar.

[Justin Case]

This looks like a good excuse to recall the Golden Age of saloon car racing; Jim Clark in the lead, Brands 1963. I've only seen them racing at the Goodwood Revival, along with the Alan Mann Mustangs, but they make a grid full of Ferrari 250 GTOs look tame.

 

[twosmoke300]

Im gonna call bullshit at 425hp

 

I maybe be wrong tho

[Barry Cade]

Yank car makers often underplayed power outputs to try and ease the pressure the Corvair hater and insurance companies were putting on them in the later years of the sixties. Gotta remember though, that their measurements were slightly different- DIN rather than BHP. Often there were restrictors and stuff to get a lower premium...A decent carb and intake on a yank of this age can easily be worth 50HP+.....Their gallons are smaller too...

[Junkman]

Gotta remember though, that their measurements were slightly different- DIN rather than BHP.

 

Yanks never ever used DIN PS, which are used by the entire world minus the British and the yanks.

Yanks traditionally use completely bonkers units for quantifying physical properties, really funny, hence pre-1974 they used SAE hp,

which is a completely theoretical value, hence real hp figures can only be estimated for those engines.

However, for many cars 1/4 mile figures do exist, so a fairly realistic real hp calculation is possible for those, and this was often done by the motoring press or consumer groups. In the USA, those were the golden days of the 'Horsepower Race' and horsepower ratings were anything but underplayed by the industry.

 

From 1974 they were forced by federal mandate to publish ratings in SAE Net hp, which is a fairly realistic (but only in the American sense) physical unit and quite similar to the British bhp (which of course is a real physical unit). It was then, when the industry also started to publish rather conservative figures to not upset the safety lobby and the tree huggers.

PHAKT is that at no time in American automotive history the real hp figures were published, which is in line with the rest of American information policy.

You simply can't trust people who tell you they play football and then pick something up that isn't a ball and carry it with their hands.

[chaseracer]

I like 60s American automobiles. A lot. This could be due to being 66 MY (December 1965 delivery) myself...