Country Squire

Spotted this Country Squire on our road trip last weekend near Murfreesboro, TN. Even tho it's not very clean and it's a F-F-F-F-Ford you still have to respect another longroof...


Mark

Those are great rides. Ten years ago, I was looking exclusively at 86-90 Grand Marquis wagons (port fuel injected 302's) to replace my tired old one... then I heard about something called an "LT1". Hence, the change. If you get a chance to drive a clean one, do it.

You think you hate it now, but wait till you drive it.......

Doesn't look like the owner respects it much

I always liked the girl in Bill and Ted movie who married Bill's Dad, lol

Sprocket wrote:

Doesn't look like the owner respects it much

I always liked the girl in Bill and Ted movie who married Bill's Dad, lol

Missy: Hi, Bill. Want a ride?
Bill: Sure, Missy.
[she draws a blank stare at Bill]
Bill: I mean....Mom.
[she smiles and puts on her Ray-Bans]
Ted: [whispering to Bill] Your stepmom's cute.
Bill: Shut up, Ted.
Ted: Remember when she was a senior and we were freshmen?
Bill: Shut up, Ted!!!!

81X11 wrote:

Sprocket wrote:

Doesn't look like the owner respects it much

I always liked the girl in Bill and Ted movie who married Bill's Dad, lol

Missy: Hi, Bill. Want a ride?
Bill: Sure, Missy.
[she draws a blank stare at Bill]
Bill: I mean....Mom.
[she smiles and puts on her Ray-Bans]
Ted: [whispering to Bill] Your stepmom's cute.
Bill: Shut up, Ted.
Ted: Remember when she was a senior and we were freshmen?
Bill: Shut up, Ted!!!!

EXCELLENT!!
Gonna have to get that movie on DVD

The fact that you have those lines memorized explains a great deal to me.This is why you keep
biting chunks off of one leg so easily.Mike I will PM you what I am talking about.

jimbeau wrote:

Those are great rides. Ten years ago, I was looking exclusively at 86-90 Grand Marquis wagons (port fuel injected 302's) to replace my tired old one... then I heard about something called an "LT1". Hence, the change. If you get a chance to drive a clean one, do it.

My first wagon was a 75 Grand Marquis Colony Park.

There is a bit of a story behind the car: The dealer's son, a salesman at the dealership, was ordering performance cars as "demonstrators" and racking up the tickets. Dad finally had enough and laid down the law. He decreed that the next demonstrator slated for his son was to be a family station wagon.

His son complied with the letter of the law: it was a wagon. But a one-off custom order: The son convinced the factory to install a 460 Interceptor and the complete Police Pursuit package. Dad clued in when the latest batch of tickets arrived and took the car away. It sat in a back corner of the lot for a few months. The dealership supplied my father with the trucks in his fleet, so when Mom needed a new wagon, he offered my father a real sweet deal just to get rid of it. My mother drove it as the grocery-getter before I bought it to in 78 or 79 to house my growing family.

It could pass anything but a gas station. 0-100 kph in 4.5 seconds. The ultimate sleeper. Ate camchains like potato chips though.

This is what my research has come up with.... and this in a 5000 pound hunk of steel and a 3 speed auto.....





Cyl CI Engine code HP TQ Comp Bore/Stroke

8 - 460 PI 4 bbl C 226 @ 4000 374 @ 2600 8.0:1 4.362 x 3.850


Specs of FORD LTD COUNTRY SQUIRE 400 V-8 Cruise-O-Matic, model year 1975, version for North America U.S. with 5-door wagon body type, RWD (rear-wheel drive) and automatic 3-speed gearbox.

Basic specs and characteristics: gasoline engine of 402.1 cui displacement with advertised power 158 hp and 276 lb-ft of torque.

Dimensions: this model outside length is 225.6 in, it’s 79.9 in wide and has wheelbase of 121 in. The value of a drag coefficient, estimated by a-c, is Cd = 0.58 .

Reference vehicle weights are: shipping weight 2198 kg / 4845 lbs. Official base curb weight 2286 kg / 5039 lbs .

How fast is that car ? Performance: top speed 162 km/h (101 mph) (theoretical); accelerations 0- 60 mph 15.6 s; 0- 100 km/h 16.7 s (a-c simulation); 1/4 mile drag time (402 m) 20.7 s (a-c simulation).

Fuel consumption and mileage: official: , average estimated by a-c: 9.7 mpg (U.S.) / 4.1 km/l, average estimated combined driving range of this car is 325 km / 201 miles.

I seem to recall my 75 460 PI got 12 imperial miles per gallon, which is pretty darn close to your simulation. What software did you use to come up with that?

The pictured vehicle is the new, downsized one; a considerably different and lighter car (79+) Mine felt very nimble.

buickwagon wrote:

I seem to recall my 75 460 PI got 12 imperial miles per gallon, which is pretty darn close to your simulation. What software did you use to come up with that?

I didn't. Pulled that info off of 3 or 4 different sites. Made sure everyone said the same thing before i posted.....

Jim, I know, I had the 78 LTD. The picture is the LTD II, the midsize version. Someone mentioned a '75 that did 0-60 in 4.5. Not sure about those numbers as my wife's *new* 6.0L 361HP/385TQ with a 6 speed trans does it in 5.3 in a car that is under 4000LB.

I don't know, maybe the laws of physics was different when I was a kid, sure felt like it though..... all of the clocks DID run slower back then...

Krzdimond wrote:

... I don't know, maybe the laws of physics was different when I was a kid, sure felt like it though..... all of the clocks DID run slower back then...

Well, he WAS talking about "imperial miles". Maybe they are different from regular old US miles.

I meant the gallons. A US quart is 32 ounces, and Imperial quart (which is what Canada used before we went metric) is 40 ounces.

The difference was better sounding MPG figures. Well, that and how far a quart of whiskey would go down there VS a Canadian "fourty pounder"

I was just kidding about the 'imperial miles'.
40 ounces, eh? I think I can see a new malt liquor coming out here in the States
for city dwellers called: "Imperial Malt", or something similar. haw haw

Yes, I sure do like a station wagon, no matter whose name is on it. V8/RWD/body-on-frame adds points, but if it's a real wagon...it's OK in my book!

I wouldn't mind having an LTD wagon of some kind, as my grandfather had one back in the day. A big beautiful dark brown thing of a car.

The port fuel injection 302's were damn good in those wagons. F Ford haters.
It took GM 8 more years to offer it in THEIR big bread & butter rides.

Well GM is usually behind a few years.

My 73 caddy with a 472 in it went to 60 in about 8 sec and that was with your head mashed back into the head rest. gotta love a big torque motor.

Interestingly I almost bought a 75 Colony Park with a 460 last year. Saw it, called, it was sold a day earlier. A week later I was at the junkyard.....yep there it was sans motor/tranny. Sad really, was in decent shape for it's age.

My first wagon was a f, f, ,,f ,,f ffo

well it was a country squire, 390 2bbl, i really liked that old car,. did a lot of entertaining in it,.
couldn't afford a "boogie" Van.
no window tints in those days,. it was strictly custom made curtains,.

Nick

Sprocket wrote:

Well GM is usually behind a few years.

My 73 caddy with a 472 in it went to 60 in about 8 sec and that was with your head mashed back into the head rest. gotta love a big torque motor.

Interestingly I almost bought a 75 Colony Park with a 460 last year. Saw it, called, it was sold a day earlier. A week later I was at the junkyard.....yep there it was sans motor/tranny. Sad really, was in decent shape for it's age.

Carlos Bosch had a hate on for GM for many years. New management at Bosch fixed that in a hurry.

First "new" car I ever bought was an 87 Crown Vic. Leasing rules here in Canada said that in order to write off a car lease, the purchase price could not be more than $20,000. Bought the Vic for $19,900. Best I could get from GM (what I was looking for) was 4 grand over that.

Put over 700,000 km on it (400,000 miles) before the body disappeared from around the drivetrain. Other than normal maintenace stuff like waterpumps, alternators, starters etc. (and a rod bearing under warrantee) never cracked open the engine or transmission and drove it to the bone yard, still licensed, 15 years later. No electronic issues, which I was really worried about when I bought the car, and the fuel mileage was very Un-Ford like. High 20s (IMP) most of its life. Engine and tranny still ran as advertised up till I pulled it into the wrecker.

Can't really say anything bad about the car other than it ate shockabsorbers. Became a maintenance item every two years. Hate to say it, but it probably was the best car I ever owned. Only ever had 1 other Ford, a 76 F100. Same story, only thing that killed it was the rust.

Tell me again why I love GM?

Bill

convert2diesel wrote:

Tell me again why I love GM?

Bill

Brand engineering and platform sharing = an abundance of spare parts?

GM historically HAS been the smartest of the big three. But, this superiority has waned since the seventies.

Parents bought a brand new 73 country squire with the 351 cleveland and the 2 bbl carb and the
0-60 time was the same as the 1/4 time,yes it was that damn slow and got about 11 MPG.It
was a dangerously slow car to drive in heavy traffiic but because nothing else ran any better
they kept it.Later dad bought a 69 mercury colony park 390 4 barrel with the tow pack and that
wagon would fly and got reasonably good mileage as long as it was premium.All the american
builders made good cars and bad cars back then.If the japs cars were not so damn good we
would still be driving american junk but our cars now hold their own against anything comparable.
Now if we could just afford the new cars that would be great!

I remember my '78 LTD wagon had the J78-15 tires on them. Had issues converting to the "modern" standard when a tire blew out in '94 when I sold it.....

You think YOUR tires are expensive?

http://www.cokertire.com/tire-styles/bias-ply-tires/j78-15-bf-goodrich-7-8-whitewall-tire.html