1965 Ford Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe

Ford's "Fairlane" name was used in a number of different cars in different classes. The Fairlane was originally a full-size car, but then the Fairlane name was moved to Ford's new intermediate model in 1962 to bridge the gap between the compact Ford Falcon and the full-sized Ford Galaxie , making it a competitor for General Motors Corporation's A-Body senior compacts. With an overall length of 197 inches, it was 16 inches longer than the Falcon and 12.3 inches shorter than the Galaxie.

Like the Falcon, the Fairlane had a unibodied frame, but the body incorporated an unusual feature Ford dubbed 'torque boxes', four boxed structures in the lower body structure designed to absorb road shock by moving slightly in the vertical plane. Suspension was a conventional short-long arm independent arrangement in front, with Hotchkiss drive in the rear. The Fairlane was initially offered only in 2 door or 4 door Sedan body styles.

The 1965 Fairlane was new in its appearance as well as its design. It had a wider, more immense big car look which contributed to its new features including increased luggage capacity, new sound insulation package, and much more to offer in comfort and convenience.

The 1965 model year Ford Fairlane ranges consisted of a base Fairlane and Fairlane 500 two-door coupe and 4 door sedans, and Fairlane 500 and Sports Coupe 2 door hardtops. The Fairlane Squire wagon was dropped, but the standard station wagon was continued. All 1965 models featured 14-inch wheels as standard, in place of the earlier 13-inch wheels, and the Fordomatic automatic transmission was phased out, leaving the Cruise-O-Matic as the only automatic available for the Fairlane. Among the optional V8 engines, the 289cu in Challenger replaced the 260 cu. in V8 from the previous year and features a higher compression ratio of 9.3 to 1 while the Challenger High Performance comes complete with a chrome dress up kit and 4-speed manual transmission. Styling features for 1965 included body-color headlight bezels for the deluxe models and rectangular taillight lenses, a return to the 1962-1963 trunk lid, along with less chrome on the body and a small standup hood ornament.

Today, it's kind of rare to see a 1965 Ford Fairlane. I can honestly say that I haven't seen a '65 in person within at least the last two years., which strikes me as odd. It's a good looking car, and perfect street machine material. They also lend themselves very well as customs, in addition to looking very nice in the obvious option of being restored to their original showroom condition. They can range in price from about $7K for a restored base model sedan to upwards of around $18 K or slightly more for a 289/271 hp 4 barrel V8 equipped 500 hardtop sports coupe. The total series number produced  for  Fairlane's was 170,980 units in both 6-cylinder and V8. So...my question is...where the heck did they all go? Anyone seen where they're hiding? Who's still got one?