The performance car that wasn’t

Following on from the Plymouth Duster piece in our Summer issue, we continue our look at affordable alternatives to the more popular American 1960’s and ’70’s car models that hopefully will give you some inspiration to build something fun and exciting that won’t get lost in the crowd at the next car meet. This month, the Ford Maverick.

Marketed between 1970 and 1977, Ford's humble Maverick was on a mission. To counter the import invasion the Volkswagen Beetle started in the ’50s, but which the big three Japanese manufacturers were really making inroads with by the late ’60s.

styling was clean, simple and pleasing to the eye

The car was conceived by Lee Iacocca, the man given credit for the hugely popular Mustang some five years earlier. Falcon was actually FoMoCo’s first attempt at an affordable compact car, but sales of the model had been trashed by Mustang, so work started inside Ford’s styling