1979 Ford LTD Coupe - Little Big Ford

My fervor for coupes stems from my "Wonder Years" occurring during the heights of the personal luxury car boom of the 1970's. Personal luxury cars evolving from the primordial ooze of the muscle car craze of the '60's; most of those being coupes as well. I gravitated towards two door versions of four door sedans because, in general and somewhat magically so, they were much cooler than four door cars. However, my love for all things coupe began to fade come the great downsizing epoch that GM started in 1977. While the cars were absolutely much improved transportation conveyances, from an aesthetics standpoint, none of them were an improvement over what they replaced. These "big little" Fords that followed GM's suit in 1979 were even worse. This here is a 1979 Ford LTD. 

Unlike GM that used the bones of their 1973 intermediates as a starting point for their downsizing, Ford developed an all new chassis known internally as "Panther". Lighter and smaller than the still very large chassis GM was using, with a blank slate, Ford had a chance to finally do something right  and...like the Cleveland Browns and New York Knicks, they blew it. This the cake topper of a decade that also brought us the Ford Pinto\Mercury Bobcat, Ford Maverick\Mercury Comet four door (the pre 1974 coupes were cool), and the Mustang II.

In retrospect, the downside to downsizing was it ushered in the age of automobile function over form. For decades designers were unencumbered by safety and emissions regulations not to mention CAFE or "corporate average fuel economy" standards. Their, at times fabulously whimsical or ridiculous designs led to some spectacularly dangerous and awful cars. Oh, but weren't they great?



I get that cars had to get smaller, safer, more efficient and pollute less but they didn't have to get so damn boring looking. We could spend all day discussing why cars are not considered true "classics" if they were made after downsizing began but there's more to it than the fact the cars were smaller. Quite simply it's because they just weren't as good looking as the cars they replaced.

Despite its inauspicious beginning, though, and somewhat ironically too, the Ford Panther platform, which also underpinned the Mercury Marquis\Grand Marquis and the Lincoln Town Car, became the longest produced automobile platform in North American automotive history. The last Panther rolling off the assembly line in 2011 after thirty-three model years. Quite the run for a boring old, big little Ford.