This world – she’s so vast and full of things I have no idea about! The entire discipline of herpetology, for example– I don’t really know shit about it. If you asked me, at knifepoint, to point which of the two reptiles you had thrown into the jacuzzi with me (just go with it, it’s a whole thing) was a crocodile and which was an alligator, I think I’d be getting stabbed. But cars you’d think would be pretty clearly in my wheelhouse, and yet here I am, encountering a ’70s Ford I thought I knew, only to find it’s called something I didn’t expect. Looks like I have a lot of growing up to still do.
Lemme show you what I mean: see that car up there? That’s a Gran Torino, right? I mean, it looks like a Gran Torino, probably sounds and smells and drives like a Gran Torino, but get this: it’s not a Ford Gran Torino.
It’s a Ford Elite.
Yep, an Elite! From 1975 to 1976, Ford took a trim level – the Gran Torino Elite – and made it its own model name, giving the world the Ford Elite, which was technically not a Gran Torino.
They also went out of their way to equate this car with the Thunderbird, which is a bit odd, since the Thunderbird wasn’t all that different than the Elite, really:
Sure, the Thunderbird made a bit more power from a somewhat bigger V8 and was a bit more upmarket, sorta. But come on, from 20 feet away and two gins and tonics in, you can’t really tell the difference here.
This ’70s “personal luxury car” era was such an odd one; it was one based on such a specific, ornate aesthetic, with downright baroque detailing with those double opera windows and “woodtone” inserts in steering wheels and hood ornaments with acanthus leaf wreaths and wire wheels and all that crap.
Also, this image of a woman using the crap out of that reclining seat:
…may be the stiffest, most awkward-looking example of car-napping I’ve ever seen.
I definitely appreciate the love given to taillights here, which have a full-width “red lens accent” and are described as “jewel-like.” Also, you have to admire that woman’s commitment to matching her outfit to her car.
Interiors of this era also never fail to fascinate me. That carpet! Look at the pile of that carpet! It looks like the whole floor of the car is covered in several piping-hot layers of the finest all-beef chili, which you can then slide your feet into, reveling in the sheer luxuriousitinessitude of it all.
All of this, and it’s still not a Gran Torino. It’s an Elite. Or, for about one year it was. I’ll do my best to remember.
Those seats rule!
These had a substantially different body than the regular/Gran Torino (“Gran” was a trim level), from the cowl back they were the same as the contemporary Mercury Cougar and they had distinct front sheetmetal Ford went on to use for the 1977-79 LTD II.
Yep, LTD II shared paired the front sheetmetal with new rectilinear doors and rear quarters. This is when the T-bird and Cougar began sharing bodies as well.
LTD II wagons kept the old doors though, along with the Mercury Montego wagon rear fenders, being a 1-year-only placeholder until the Foxbody was ready which would include a wagon on the other end of “midsize” (given those were barely smaller than the full-size ’72-78 wagons while the Fairmont was usefully bigger than a Pinto wagon).
The 1974 Mercury Cougar and Ford Elite used the existing Mercury Montego 2-door body shell with only variations in the grille opening panel, tail lamp design and minor trim. In the case of the Elite it got a unique hood. Both Cougar and Elite were minimal tooling investments utilizing an existing body shell.
And then this was replaced by the LTD II, which, as the longtime owner of several 1983-1986 Fox platform midsize LTDs, is the bane of my existence, because tons of people incorrectly call the Fox cars “LTD II.” If I had a dime for every time I corrected someone online about this, I could probably buy an LTD II.
I have to wonder if using the LTD name on a Fox was a last-minute thing on Ford’s part, for what would’ve been the midcycle facelift of the Fox Granada that had only taken over the wagon model from the Fairmont line the year before.
Injecting the use of the traditional LTD name along with a decent restyling did help boost disappointing sales of the 1981-82 Granada. The Fox LTD became a good seller and existed until it was eclipsed by the Ford Taurus after the 1986 model year ended.
Ahh yes, owned both an LTD II and a Fox body LTD in high school.
I worked in a garage back then and there was a group of cops who hung around the garage like it was a club. They all smoked constantly, dressed in tight polyester pants and blousy, colorful rayon shirts unbuttoned down to mid chest, and wore shiny half boots with side zips. My boss kept one sleeve of the Pepsi machine outside filled with beer. The selection button had a permanent “out of order” sign in it and there was always a box of quarters out of sight on top of the machine. These guys could drive in any time and grab a free beer, which they did daily, leaning on their cars, flicking cigarettes ash and butts all over the lot and talking and guffawing way too loud and whistling at women. It was almost funny to watch them practically jump to attention, thrust out their chests and suck in their guts and strut like roosters every time an attractive woman came to the garage. Sometimes they’d open a hood and all stare inside like they knew anything about engines. Maybe pull up the dipstick and nod. At some point, they’d all decamp, jump in their cars and, like ax school of fish, pull out and head for a local watering hole notorious for its female divorcée clientele. Their cars? Two Ford Elites (both black), a maroon Cougar, a bronze, full boat T-Bird, and a pale yellow Lincoln Mark IV all mid seventies vintage. Cars weren’t the only thing the Malaise era influenced.
You’ve got the beginnings of a novel or screenplay there.
Related: Both “Chico and The Man” and “Starsky & Hutch” are available streaming on Tubi.
I am hereby outing Tom Waits’ lyricist.
My god I hated being alive in the 1970s.
I knew a girl who drove one of those! It was red with a white vinyl half-top.
As someone who started driving in the late 90s I can’t wrap my head around these cars with 6 feet of hood. It seems like driving them would be a nightmare.
It was something at an intersection. Luckily the lap belts only let you lean way ahead to see what was coming from the sides. The worst part about these big cars were the constant sawing the steering wheel back-and-forth right and left just to keep going straight on the road because the power steering was so mushy and over boosted and then stopping and cornering was awful beyond description.
The hood ornament marks the end of the vehicle and the 4 corners were square and visible from the driver seat
Line up the hood ornament with the white line and send it.
The hood ornament was super helpful, but these cars in particular had bumpers that stuck out a little ways from their corners and I seem to remember the hood sloping down such that it wasn’t quite as easy to gauge where the corner was compared to a Caddy or even that T-bird pictured up there.
Pittsburgh native – cresting a blind hill in one of these was a exercise in faith! Also, the bottom on the front bumper on mine was permanently gouged due to the massive front overhang. IIRC there was about 18″ of air between the bumper and radiator on these.
That was a great place to chill a case of suds while heading to a party on a cold night.
I grew up in the Appalachians and learning to drive in cars this big in the mountains was terrifying.
These things never went fast enough for you to ever see what was in front of you anyway.
The just a bit older and just as big ones could go over 100mph and that was wrestling with the angel of death in those things.
Angle-driving one of these into a narrow garage or something like a carwash stall was certainly a good exercise in how well one could estimate the outer-dimensions of something they couldn’t see which was a long ways away. And be careful not to scuff the opposite side door while concentrating on making the turn.
Those of us who were there knew about these – and the big difference between the massive Mark IV-based Thunderbird and the midsize Torino-based Elite, which was Ford’s version of the Montego-based Mercury Cougar.
The success of Elite proved that Ford could successfully downsize Thunderbird onto the midsize platform in 1977. Those 1977-79 Thunderbirds became the most successful Thunderbirds ever.
Back in the 70s Ford, GM, and Chrysler were all trying to figure out how to sell cars in a stagnant sales market. This is why so many one off trim lines like the Elite came to into existence. Pontiac had their own take called the Grand Ville Brougham which was based on the Bonneville.
I think I lost my virginity in the back seat of this car.
To the woman in the pink tennis outfit or the lady in the brown pantsuit?
To my 90lb. self proclaimed girlfriend with mosquito bites instead or bewbs, mousy early 80’s curly hair that smelled like cigarettes, that didnt like my choices in music (CCR, Pink Floyd and Ian Dury), and complained about everything. – – She was looking to make claims on a guy before graduating high school, I was just looking to get some without becoming a baby daddy.
I’m pretty sure this is what Charlie drove when he wasn’t on the phone with his Angels.
TBH, these cars would look a lot better if you de-chrome everything. And paint it black. Sorta like George Barris’s The Car, which was a Ford or Lincoln.
So. much. brown…
It’s pretty clear that Ford and Chrysler were cheating off of each other’s homework back in the mid-70s.
Chrysler gussied up the Dodge Charger and voila! Chrysler Cordoba, Ford kinda did the opposite with the Mercury Cougar, moved it slightly downmarket, gave it a different front end and came up with the Elite.
Chrysler just had better marketing.
… and Fine Corinthian Leather
The Cordoba and Charger were really developed together, one wasn’t derived from the other (the Cordoba itself was originally supposed to be a Plymouth before they decided to move it further upmarket pretty late in development, which made the Charger the cheaper model)
I’m still amazed at how the ’55 T-Bird and ’55 Bel Air look like siblings. What would the T-Bird have looked like if the Corvette had been styled like the Bel Air?
Both look great, by the way.
If the idea was to sell a slightly smaller, cheaper car that people would still associate with the Thunderbird, you wonder why they didn’t just call it the “Thunderbird Sport” or “Thunderbird II”
Thunderfledgling?
The Thunderchick, now available in CougarFalcon trim.
Thunderbird Lite? Diet Thunderbird?
Thunderbird Tab, at least until 1982 when Diet Thunderbird was introduced
Wow, I had no idea either. I always thought this was a different model year and/or trim level of the Thunderbird.
This is likely the most anonymous Ford from the 70s. Mixture of Granada, Torino, and add a cup of meh.
I’d say it’s cynical but it’s actually not unlike Chrysler swapping bits around, then calling it a new model.
Hard to believe Ford moved about 270,000 of these, since they were just a thinly disguised Granada, which was based on the Maverick. Which was based on the Falcon, dating back to…1959!
Talk about recouping costs.
The platform stayed in production through 1991, they definitely got their money’s worth out of that R&D
Nope – That platform died with the 1979 model year.
No it didn’t, Ford continued using it in Argentina for another 12 years
They build and sell cars in more places than the US and Canada, you know
What models used the Torino platform in Argentina through 1991? I’m fascinated by the oddball Fords they had down there and knew the Elite name continued down there using Fairmont and Fox LTD bodies.
That was in relation to the above comment RE the Granada, the Granada’s platform survived to 1991 with the South American market Ford Falcon
Ohhh, I see now. You were replying to Schrödinger’s Catbox’s comment about the these being on the Falcon platform which dates back to 1959. You are correct that the Falcon continued on in Argentina through 1991, but Schrödinger’s Catbox’s comment about these being on the Falcon platform is incorrect, as these were based on the larger Torino/Montego platform. I thought you were saying the Torino/Montego platform that the 1974-1976 Elite was built on was the platform that continued on in Argentina.
Of course, the Panther platform wasn’t quite as much a total clean sheet as Ford wanted everyone to believe
“Hard to believe Ford moved about 270,000 of these, since they were just a thinly disguised Granada…”
It’s hard to believe because it’s not so.
Elite was based on the Torino/Montego midsize platform – not the smaller Falcon/Comet platform.
Yes. The Fairlane/Torino was based on the Falcon platform until 1970, for ’71 it went to an all-new body on frame platform that Ford used the hell out of in the ’70s.
Wrong size class, this was larger than the Granada (and its Maverick and Falcon predecessors).
And to all those fellow Autopians who corrected my incorrect statements, thank you. I try to be accurate but sure missed this time. But, it did spur some good comment so, I guess that’s a good thing?
I got a say the taillights on this thing are reminiscent of the US Granada.
My parents owned this car. Red with a white top. Took my drivers test in this in November with Midwest snow and thankfully passed.
I hated it. Mom hated it. Dad for whatever reason didn’t. Over 30 years since driving it mom still talks about how much she hated this car. I remember when we bought it and I suggested pretty much anything but this but dad didn’t listen.
Red with white? That’s almost Starsky and Hutch, but classier!
It was not classier. It tried to be though.
https://www.flickriver.com/photos/zappadong/28041087799/
Ssshhh… That’s the quaaludes kicking in.
I wonder how many of these are still car shaped and not vaguely car shaped rust piles in a junkyard someplace.
I would think most Elites were crushed in county fair monster truck shows by the end of 1986
Don’t forget demo-derbies, figure-8 races, and that “Hobby-class” a lot of midwestern dirt-tracks ran back in the day.
This actually was a different car from the Thunderbird in ’75. The T-Bird didn’t move down to the Torino/LTD II “midsize” frame until 1977. In 1975 -76 they were still on the full size frame.
The tennis lady is not napping. She was drugged, and she knows what is going to happen with her. She was warned about Chad in the country club, but she thought her frenemy was just being jealous.
That’s dark.
It’s all good, just the usual post-match Jynnan Tonix with a two-Quaalude chaser.
The Malaise Era did not relate just to cars.
Ooof.
Bill Cosby did a lot of commercials for Ford in the mid 1970s…
See what I meant?
The late 70s early 80s was just an awful time. Your comment reminded me of the movie S.O.B.
Spot on.
You’ve been hanging around Jason too much! 😉
Well, I have a thing for dark literature, so there’s that.
I think she was keeping the racket close at hand in case Chad got handsy.
Too late.
My grandmother had an Elite when I was a kid. She lived in the middle of nowhere (outside Del Rio, Texas), so she took that malaise era machine up to triple digits regularly on deserted highways.
She was a fun old lady.
1975 Ford anything is not great. Full size pickup is the best product from this era.
1975 Ford Grenade, I mean Granada, now that is garbage.
A friend of mine had a rotting brown Elite in the 80’s that he “improved” by covering it with graffiti. It was a truly hideous vehicle.
You would think that offering a cheaper, almost-T-Bird would’ve cannibalized sales, but no. During this era, Thunderbird was like the #2 seller behind the Cutlass Supreme. They cranked them out by the hundreds of thousands.
And that guy in the topshot sure looks like Herb Tarlek. PLC forever!
Herb Tarlek wishes he could afford a Ford Elite!
Uh, Herb had a lovely, pearl white, second-gen Cordoba, which definitely cost more than a Ford Elite.
I would have sworn he had a ragged out Chevette or something like that (Dodge Aspen?). But it has been a long time since I listened to Dr. Johnny Fever.
I remember it so clearly because at the time, my old man also had a second-gen Cordoba. When Herb exits the car, the same door-open-keys-in-the-ignition sound happened.
Ah, my mother drove a first gen, so I guess the second gen just didn’t resonate with me.
My grandpa and uncle had first-gens. Sunday night dinner at grandma’s looked like a Chrysler dealership.