1978 Ford Futura

Huggie Bear is Laughing Out Loud But Ford Had the Last Laugh

As a lover of over sized LTD's and Impalas I was saddened by these "little" cars

It’s the dead of winter, if you can call what we’ve had so far “winter” and you know I must be running out of cars that I found last summer when I dig into the vault and pull out the Futura.

In the 1950s, the Lincoln Futura show car provided the basis for the Batmobile later used in the Batman TV series

When I came of car driving age GM, Ford and Chrysler (“The Big Three”) were going through their now legendary downsizing phase. I found GM’s downsizing efforts to be actually quite good on their fullsize line. The Chevrolet Impala/Caprice, Pontiac Bonneville/Catalina, Buick LeSabre/Park Avenue, Olds 88/98 and my faves, the Cadillacs were very well done. For the most part, though, I was clinically depressed by their mid size offerings; the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Buick Regal, Oldsmobile Cutlass and Pontiac Grand Prix. Not sure what to make of Cadillac’s Seville back then class wise. Wait, I know! It was in a class by itself. Haha. By golly I could’ve written ad copy for General Motors at the tender age of 14. Now, if I was bummed out by GM’s mid sizers I was nearly driven to dad’s sauce by all of the offerings from Ford and Chrysler. For the purpose of this essay we’ll focus just on Ford and their Futura (pictured) and Fairmont. Oh, for the record I hit the Coca Cola and Entenman’s rather than dad’s stash of Canadian Club.  

In the early 1960s, the Ford Falcon had a specialty coupe submodel called Futura. This Ford Futura was a submodel of the Ford Fairmont in the late 1970s.

Ew. Depression central for this car loving teenager in the late ’70’s who was a child of “bigger is better”. Fire up the time machine, Sherman, and take me back to 1964 because I didn’t want to see what came in the ‘80’s if cars like the Ford Futura were in any indication of what was coming in the future-ah. My dad, who was a car wonk like his middle son, would shake his head in disgust at the “small” cars coming out of Detroit back in the late ‘70’s. “Might as well be one of those Toyotas! That’s not a Ford!” Yeah, heaven forbid, dad.

Remarkably straightforward, simple and unpretentious design was a remarkable departure from what Ford had been offering prior

Beauty, as always, is in the eye of the beholder. For this car loving youngster nothing else but two tons plus and a giant all American V8 was going to suffice. What is OPEC anyway? Gas mileage? The environment? What?? C’mon, dude, you’re bummin' me out!

The simple and well thought out interior a refreshingly break from the clumsy designs of what came before it

Truth of the matter is OPEC and the two gas crisis’ they laid out on America forced the big three to rethink their product planning. That and the almost comically coincidental influx of Asian and European product in the ‘70’s. Aye carumba! Big cars didn’t stand a chance.

Key stuck in the ignition. Either that or the owner wants this car to be stolen.

There is some conjecture that GM knew that their all new for 1971 land yachts were too big and needed a sawzall. When the first gas crisis hit in late ’73 doubling the price of gas, sales of big iron went in the proverbial sewer. Not only were the cars gas guzzlers they also were hard to handle size wise. My dad’s 1972 Cadillac deVille so big that he routinely backed it into a tree behind our garage because he had trouble judging where the end of the car was.  And my dad was almost 6'-1". GM whipped out the blowtorch and lopped a foot of length and a thousand pounds off their big ones for 1977. Sorry. I’m Sunday driving here. Back to the Ford and their Futura.

You can take the car out of the '70's but you can't take the '70's out of the car.

As a big fan of Starsky and Hutch and their awesome Gran Torino, yes, that car was cool, Ford’s Futura here always left me cold. No doubt a spiritual, if anything, replacement for the “Gran Torino”, Huggie Bear would’ve had a great big belly laugh if he saw Starsky behind the wheel of this thing.  

The late '70's saw the dawn of massive warning labels on cars. Today, bells and chimes and flashing lights as well as restrictive electronic "nannies" protect you from yourself

When Ford came out with their new for ’78 Fairmont and our "sporty" Futura what fan of Ford's big ships could take them seriously? Not little young me at the time. But the thing is the ’78 Fairmont/Futura were breathes of fresh air compared to the lumbering land yachts that had come before them. Light on their suspensions with sprite acceleration from their way smaller engines that got much better fuel economy Ford had themselves a smash hit on their hands. So big in fact that first year sales of the Fairmont were greater than the 1965 Ford Mustang. That''s saying a lot. Huh? Yup. Imagine that. I being too young to drive and in a family that only drove block long Buicks and Cadillacs never got to drive one of these new but years later I did and I found them to be quite fun to drive. Not challenging to drive and maneuver like my dad’s Cadillac. Also, with an easy 20 miles per gallon these cars were the 40 mpg cars of their day compared to the 9-11 mpg dinosaurs back then. A car that’s fun and easy to drive and gets good mileage. Wow. What a concept. No wonder the Fairmont and the Futura were so successful.

The simple styling of the Futura inspired me to become a auto stylist. Who couldn't draw this, right?

Do I aspire to have one of these in my fantasy garage? No. While I’ve long given up on the notion that my taste in cars, new and old, is in any way shape matter or form in the mainstream of thinking, if I were to found an auto museum of American cars the 1978 Fairmont and Futura would have a slot behind a velvet rope as one of the most significant cars in Ford’s history. If not the entire history of American cars.