1966 Ford Fairlane GTA Convertible

The 1966 Fairlane was the year Ford re-engineered the car to accept a big block, and the GT and GTA came standard with a 335-horsepower 390. The difference between the two badges comes down to a single letter and a single component. Convertible production across the whole lineup barely topped 13,000 cars, and the performance versions are a small slice of that. Read on for why this one keeps getting overlooked.

There is a car at almost every show that people walk straight past, and this is usually it. For a decade the mid-sixties Fairlane could not escape the shadow of the Falcon it shared so much hardware with, and casual buyers assumed a dressed-up economy car was all they were looking at. That assumption falls apart the moment you open the hood on a 1966 GTA, because what Ford put in there had nothing to do with economy motoring, and the badge on the fender differs from its better-known sibling by exactly one letter. That letter has confused people for fifty years, and the explanation is simpler and stranger than most guesses.

1966 Was the Year Everything Changed

The 1966 model year was the point where the Fairlane stopped being a compromise. Ford redesigned the car on a wider platform with stacked headlights and squared-off proportions, and critically, engineered the engine bay to accept a big block for the first time. Earlier Fairlanes had been limited to the small-block 289 and its relatives, which meant that no matter how the car was optioned, it was bringing a knife to the gunfight against a 396 Chevelle or a 389 GTO. The 1966 redesign was not cosmetic; it was structural, and it changed what the nameplate could plausibly compete with.

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A 390 Where a 289 Used to Live

The engine Ford installed was a 390-cubic-inch member of the FE family in its highest street tune, rated at 335 horsepower and 427 lb-ft of torque, fed by a Holley four-barrel carburetor. In the Fairlane’s relatively compact body, that combination made for a genuinely quick intermediate. It came standard on the GT and GTA rather than as an extra-cost item, so every one of these cars left with the big engine. Buyers who wanted more could look at the handful of factory-built 427 cars produced for drag racing, but those were competition specials rather than showroom stock.

One Letter, and What It Actually Stood For

Here is where the letter matters. GT and GTA were mechanically identical apart from the transmission. GT meant the four-speed manual. GTA meant the Sport Shift Cruise-O-Matic automatic, with the A standing for automatic and nothing more exotic than that. Ford’s Sport Shift allowed the driver to hold gears manually rather than simply selecting drive, which was a genuinely modern touch for 1966 and made the automatic considerably more appealing to enthusiasts than a conventional slushbox. The badge was Ford advertising a feature, not designating a higher trim level.

What Else Came in the Box

The GT and GTA package brought more than an engine. Cars received a fiberglass hood with functional-looking twin scoops, GT badging and side stripes, a heavy-duty suspension with stiffer springs and a larger front stabilizer bar, and wider wheels. Bucket seats and a console were standard inside, along with a sportier instrument cluster. Front disc brakes were available and worth having, because the standard drums were adequate for a Fairlane 500 and marginal behind 335 horsepower. Ford was assembling a coherent performance car rather than badging a family sedan, which had not always been true of the nameplate.

Convertibles Were Always the Rare Ones

Convertible production is where these cars become genuinely scarce. Ford built a little over 13,000 Fairlane convertibles across the entire 1966 lineup, and the GT and GTA share of that figure is a small fraction, since most convertible buyers were choosing the softer, cheaper trims. Hardtops vastly outnumber open cars in the performance versions. That imbalance is not unusual for the era, but it means a genuine 390-powered GTA convertible is a substantially rarer object than the hardtop most people picture when the model comes up in conversation.

How the Big Block Changed the Car’s Manners

On the road, the 390 gave the Fairlane an entirely different character from the small-block cars. Torque arrived early and stayed, which suited the automatic well, and period road tests generally recorded quarter-mile times in the fifteen-second range for a well-driven example. The car was nose-heavy, and the steering was slow by any modern standard, but the chassis was more composed than the Falcon underpinnings would suggest. Fitted with the heavy-duty suspension and disc brakes, it was a competent long-distance car in a way its Chevelle and GTO rivals could not always match.

Codes First, Cosmetics Second

Verification follows the same discipline as any mid-sixties Ford. The VIN’s engine code identifies the 390 in its GT tune, and the data plate confirms the body style, trim, and assembly plant. Because GT and GTA trim parts are readily available, clones exist in reasonable numbers, and a stripe kit plus a hood does not make a car authentic. Buyers should be checking codes first and cosmetics second, particularly on convertibles, where the higher value of a genuine car creates more temptation to upgrade a Fairlane 500 into something it never was.

The Restoration Bill Nobody Mentions

Restoration realities are worth understanding before anyone gets attached. Convertible bodies rust in predictable and expensive places, particularly the floor pans, the torque boxes, and the areas around the rear quarter panels where water collects. The 390 itself is a straightforward engine with good parts availability, but Fairlane-specific trim, the fiberglass hood, and correct interior pieces are much harder to source than equivalent Mustang parts. That gap in parts support is one reason values have stayed reasonable relative to comparably rare Ford products from the same period.

Still the Most Overlooked Car at the Show

Which brings the car back to where it started, still being walked past. The 1966 GTA convertible is rarer than a great many muscle cars that command double or triple the money, it carries the same engine family that made the Cobra Jet famous two years later, and it wears a shape that has aged considerably better than the market has acknowledged. For a buyer who wants genuine scarcity and does not need the crowd to recognize what they are looking at, the case is unusually easy to make.

Is the Fairlane GTA the most underrated Ford of the sixties? Tell us what you think below. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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