Ford's Rare Space Aged Bruiser - The Ford Galaxie Starliner

the full-sized Ford Galaxy has spanned the ranks of the Ford lineup from a large family hauler to even the rode TurnKey drag car specials few vehicles have had such a wide range of applications over their log production run but with the Galaxy's production spanning from 1959 all the way up to 1974 there was a very short period of time when Ford built what was to become one of the most desirable and captivating full-sized cars ever made and to match those stunning new looks Ford had a little trick up their sleeve in the engine compartment that would make all the difference this is the story of the 1960 to 1961 Ford Starliner the Ford Galaxy was introduced in 1959 as the new generation of Ford full-sized cars spanning from the coups to the sedans convertibles and even wagons as well the name Galaxy and subsequently the names like the Starliner Skyliner and Sunliner were deliberately chosen by Ford at the time to try and synonymize the car with the Space Race craze the space race was on the bleeding edge of technology and Ford wanted people to liken their new car to the same level of new and exciting Tech in 1959 the Galaxy and the fair Lane were essentially the same car underneath in the early days with the fair Lane being a less equipped more utilitarian version of the more upmarket Galaxy in 59 both of the cars still very much looked like children of the 50s but when 1960 rolled around the Galaxy and the fair Lane got their new space aged redesign like many other early 60s designs these new bodies bridged the era of design between the later 60s muscle cars and the 1950s coups these new galaxies still had the classic fins on the quarter panels although now they were much less pronounced and the rest of the shapes on the car got a lot more simplistic in terms of styling there were distinct Body Lines and the cars had an overall more smooth shape with the Galaxy and Starliner in particular this perplexed lots of buyers as comparing the prior 195 9 cars to the new 1960 cars was like comparing apples to oranges they looked wildly different the Starliner itself was a separate trim level slm model of the Galaxy if you want to call it that it was separated from the base model galaxy by its swoopy Fastback roof line that was unique to the Starliner the regular galaxies had their more standard roofs so even at a glance it was very easy to tell the difference between a regular Galaxy and the Starliner on the Space Age starliners there were quite a few design choices that made them look like they were precisely from the space theme like the half moon looking tail lights the three circular trim pieces on the side of the roof and more while at the time the Starliner was maybe a tad bit controversial when it came to its styling in 1960 today people look back at them and love the way they look especially the 61 cars which we'll talk about later but with the new Starliner coming out if Ford were to have given this new space age scoop a undesirable and lame engine under the hood people would rightfully be pretty annoyed thankfully though that was not the case with the new 1960 model year Ford would go all out with their new 352 cubic inch [Music] V8 [Music] the 352 Ford engine was the newest iteration of the Ford FE engine line which replaced the Aging Y block Ford design in 1958 the 352 engine for the 1960 model year was available in three configurations the two barrel which made 220 horsepower and 336 ftlb of torque the four barrel which made 300 horsepower and 381 ftlb of torque and the hypo version of the four barrel which made a very impressive 360 horsepower and 380 ft-lb of torque which made it the first factory Ford Road car engine to make more horsepower than it had cubic in of displacement which was quite the Milestone there was also the smaller 292 V8 available in the Starliner but at a measle 185 horsepower no one really batted an eye at that engine with the 352 and top trim essentially making double the power and to be honest if you look at the old performance numbers the hypo 352 was really the only one to have in the Starliner motorlife magazine in Period tested the 300 horsepower Starliner with the base four barrel configuration at the quarter mile and got an abysmal 20 seconds out of it in the quarter there's no sugar coating it that is very slow but when the same magazine tested the hypo 352 Starliner they were able to put a 14.8 second qu mile timeout which is over a 5sec difference which is absolutely Monumental these hypo cars also got a larger set of drum brakes a more robust drive shaft a new set of exhaust manifolds amongst other changes that would help set them apart from the rest the rear gear ratios of the hypo cars would have also been a 356 to1 some of the difference in the times here though could be attributed to the transmission choices as well with the hypo cars only being available with a manual transmission while the other cars could have a very slushy two or three-speed automatic and the only manual transmission available in the Starliner was a three-speed on the column there were no floor mounted four speeds available or were there see this is where the story of the Starliner gets really interesting so buckle up by 1961 this was the second production year of the Starliner the early 60s horsepower wars were gold strong and the marketplace was rapidly evolving at this point in the production Run for the 1961 model year Discerning buyers who were in The know could now get their Starliner equipped with a 375 horsepower Mill that was the new Ford 390 Fe and they could get it with a four-speed floor shifted manual transmission production numbers for this exact combo are extremely difficult to find but from what I was able to gather this exact engine and transmission combo for the Starliner was a oneyear only engine option more towards the end of the 61 model year and there were not many made at all but wait there's more in late 1961 Ford also introduced a new dealer installed Tri power carburetor package for the 390s these would come delivered in the trunk of the car for installation for what was allegedly track use only this setup would bump the horsepower all the way up to 41 horsepower out of that 390 which put these star liners into deeply fast t territory the Starliner was actually the NASCAR platform of choice for Ford at the time because of its more aerodynamic Fastback styled roof that provided less drag at higher speeds the 1961 Starliner also got a front end redesign as well as a rear-end redesign changing out the classic semicircle tail lights for more traditional full circle tail light setup and a more normal full width Grill which I definitely do prefer from a visual stand point the 61 cars compared to the 1961's on the inside the Starliner was a step up from the fair Lane in terms of interior appointments this was the era of body colors being carried over onto the metal surfaces of the interior which only added to that space AED feeli coupled with the horizontal speedometer and aircraft like switch gear on the dash from a suspension standpoint the galaxies and starliners used a body onframe construction with a full length frame and a typical set of leaf springs in the rear the Starliner itself wasn't super special from an engineering perspective but it was from a styling and impact perspective the Starliner only enjoyed a 2-year production run which started in 1960 and ended in 1961 as in ' 62 the Starliner trim and the Fastback roof all together were gone the end of the swooping roof line for the Starliner did though mean trouble for Ford in NASCAR as the new boxed roof only designed for 1962 ended up costing the Ford NASCARs and estimated 3 mph in top speed at some of the biggest tracks which was a huge blow Ford tried to engineer a workaround at the time by using a Galaxy convertible with a bolt-on fiberglass Fastback roof but that was outlawed almost immediately which would result in the 63 Galaxy being created with a swooping Fastback roof line as an option because that was so imperative for aerodynamic success in NASCAR which in a lot of ways makes the Starliner itself the big brother to the Fastback Galaxy which saw major success across racing categories it is said that just over 990,000 starliners in general were built during its production run but from the numbers that I can find high performance 352 cars and the crazy 390 cars are very very hard to come by from what I can gather it's estimated that probably less than 10% of the total production run were the 352 hypo cars and even less than that were the 390 cars the Legacy that the Starliner leaves though is one that's quite interesting visually after the years have went on people appreciate the looks of the Starliner but essentially as just another version of a galaxy lots of people don't even to know what the Starliner was and more importantly how its Fastback roof helped pivot The Styling of the Galaxy Fastback for years today these are hard cars to find the availability for body parts to restore these early 60 to 61 galaxies is sparse and it takes a lot of time to Source the parts to put one of these back together but just take one look at one that's completed and you can see why there are people willing to spend all the time keeping the starliners alive thank you all for watching another episode of our rare cars documentary series if you enjoyed this video we'll greatly appreciate it if you could drop a like and also share this video with other enthusiasts also please make sure that you were subscribed to the rare cars YouTube channel and smash that notification Bell for more documentary style videos just like this on the world's most interesting cars until next time enthusiasts

Channel: Rare Cars

Views: 272,470

Keywords: rare car, vintage race car, unique cars, unique car, le mans race cars, vintage racecar, world's rarest cars, world's most unique cars, car documentary, 1960's racecars, rare cars, rare racecar, racecar, le mans 1968, daytona coupe, Classic cars, ford, ford galaxie, galaxie, ford starliner, ford starliner 1960, ford starliner 1961, ford galaxie starliner, ford starliner hardtop convertible, ford starliner 352, ford 352 engine, ford 352 fe, ford 390 fe, ford 390

Id: 1DHBPv2ddIM

Length: 11min 55sec (715 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 06 2024