Galaxie 500 Spotted

During my daily commute home last week I got of my train as normal and walked towards my car that was parked up a side road. What greeted me was the unmistakable sound and rumble of a small block v8. The sound came from a monstrous sized American cruiser, the Ford Galaxie 500. As the car was waiting to move on I spoke to the owner about his car and he pulled over to let me have a look at it in more detail. This retired guy goes to America buys the cars, drives them around for a bit then brings them back over here in the UK to sell them on. That in turn pays for his next trip, nice living and good luck to him. Anyway this car was a 1967 v8 289, yes you did read that properly. This Galaxie had the smallest v8 option of the range, the lowest being the 289, the biggest being the monster big block 428ci. There was also an option for the inline six cylinder engine as well. The car was in great condition and had some cherry bomb exhausts on it. I took some photos as I had not seen one of these cars up close before, as the light was fading pretty quickly there maybe a couple of slightly blurred pictures so apologies. The engine was detailed with stainless braided pipes, plenty of chrome and an upgraded servo for the brakes. It all looked pretty good and done well, although I thought it looked a little out-of-place on such a big cruiser of family sedan. I would have preferred to see this in original spec for that reason, I didn’t see this particular model car as a street racer as such. Maybe the detail work would have looked better on the big block engines. Am I right or wrong, what do you think?

Thanks to the owner for stopping and having a chat. when it pulled away it did sound nice I have to say.

Did you know:

The Galaxie 500 was the third best selling convertible in the U.S.A in 1966, with 27,454 vehicles sold; it was beaten to the top spot by the Ford Mustang selling 72,119 vehicles outselling it by more than 2:1, and by the Chevy Impala selling at 38,000 vehicles in second place.

The name “Galaxie” was used for the top models in Ford’s full-size range from 1959 until 1961, this was an attempt by marketing to appeal to the excitement surrounding the Space Race at that time between 1957 and 1975.