Grabber was an apt name for Ford's cut-price V-8 coupe: Maverick was grabbing for the low end of the performance car market with a machine that didn't offer any additional performance. Grabber was just a trim package.
The family that lived in the duplex across the street from us always had a "new" car. Or a new to them, new car. While they weren't brand specific, more often than not, it was a Ford that would find its way between their two long since chopped down Maples.
The Grabber package included simulated hood scoops with blackout paint, Grabber stripes on the sides, fender decals, grille-mounted road lamps, blackened grille, hubcaps with trim rings on 14-inch wheels and D70-14 tires, twin body-color sport mirrors, a decklid spoiler, bright window frames and drip moldings and a DeLuxe steering wheel.
There was the dark blue, 1966 Mustang, a 1967, wood grain trimmed Country Squire, a green with black vinyl top 1972 Mustang and the apple of my eye, a black stripped, yellow, 1972 Maverick Grabber.
Grabber production steadily declined after launch: 38,963 units in 1971, 35,347 in '72, 32,350 in '73, 23,502 in '74 and just 8,473 units for '75.
I thought that Maverick, which I referred to as, "The Grabbah", was very cool and if someone told me that it was all show and no go I wouldn't have cared; not that I would've understood what that meant anyway. To 8 year old me, the Grabbah was Steve McQueen.
2.1 million Mavericks of all stripes were built from 1970-'77 making the Grabber a pretty rare breed.
Their older son, who may have been 16, maybe 17 at the time, drove the Grabbah hard. Every time he'd get behind the wheel of it he would start it up with a huge roar and he would peel out making a huge cloud of dust. The Grabbah sure seemed powerful.
Early Grabbers were only available with a choice of 170-, 200- or 250-cubic inch, in line sixes. Starting in 1971, Ford added a 302-cu.in. V-8 .
The 1970's were a difficult time for cars in general and performance cars in particular. Even before the gas crisis and the Clean Air Act strangled the fun, insurance companies were charging huge premiums for performance cars. Those premiums stopped muscle car sales cold. That didn't stop manufacturers from selling cars that looked like they were performance cars when they were anything but. Act as if.
For 1972, Grabber added "full-width" seats in a choice of vinyl or cloth, carpeting, and four different colors of tape stripes
Ford made sure Grabber didn't check off any "sports car" boxes on insurance applications. When the first Grabber came out in 1970, there wasn't even a V-8 engine option let alone a limited slip differential or Hurst shifter available. "Grabber" was just a trim package. Even when Ford put a 302 V-8 in the Grabber for 1971, it was no tire melting "Boss 302"; that "F code" 302 provided performance that was marginally better than the 250, in line six. Although from the sound of the Grabbah across the street when ever that kid would tear out in it, you'd think there it had a Boss 429.
Two transmissions were available throughout the Grabber's life: a three-speed manual, which was standard on the Grabber and elsewhere in the Maverick range, and the C4, "Cruise-O-Matic" three-speed automatic.
I never knew what happened to that yellow Grabber; our families didn't exactly see eye to eye so there was minimal to no communication between us. I do recall, though, seeing that kid hobbling around on crutches for a while with the Grabber no where to be seen.
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