Muscle Car Fan

Posts Tagged: Ford Galaxie

Ford Galaxie 1964 to 1968

by Ross Mills

Rev up your engines, folks! The Ford Galaxie, from 1964 to 1968, was a star on and off the racetrack. In ’64, it flaunted a sleek, aerodynamic look, thanks to NASCAR tinkering. The Galaxie XL hardtop coupe was a collector’s dream with its comfy bucket seats and a V8 engine that could make even the most stoic driver grin. By ’68, this beauty boasted horizontally mounted headlights and a cigarette lighter – because who doesn’t need a smoke when cruising in style? Buckle up for a ride through automotive history!

Classic black vintage car parked on a street with trees in the background.

1964 Ford Galaxie 500 427 4-Speed R-Code

by Kiril

A high schooler in 1964 who never forgot the sound of an identical car lighting up his street. An Air Force veteran turned away by dealers who wouldn’t sell him one. A rumored history running moonshine through the Georgia mountains. V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week tracked down a Raven black 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 packing the rare R-code 427 rated at 425 horsepower and a 4-speed manual. What was actually bolted under that unassuming black hood?

A vintage 1956 Ford Fairlane car with its hood open in a garage.

1966 Ford Galaxie 500 XL Starts after 30 years

by Wes

After thirty years sitting untouched with its original one owner, this 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 XL — a genuine 428, four-speed big-block — fires back up on camera in Hotwoods Pontoon’s footage. Commenters flooded in with memories of nearly identical family cars from the same era, and one pointed out the fitting choice of Hotel California playing as the engine came back to life. Watch to see whether three decades of silence was enough to keep this 428 from running again.

A classic red convertible car parked on a sunny day.

Ford Galaxie 500-1964 images

by Ross Mills

In 1964, Ford squeezed a race-bred 427 V8 into the Galaxie 500, and NASCAR promptly banned the racing version as “too exotic” before it could dominate a single superspeedway. Only 3,140 R-code Galaxies were built that year, and just 76 are known to survive today. Here’s the story behind Ford’s short-lived big-block gamble and the handful of survivors still turning heads.

Man standing next to a classic white convertible car outside a store.

Just Cool Cars: This early Pontiac GTO is an original

by Kiril

Pontiac’s planners expected to sell about 5,000 GTOs for 1964. They sold 32,450, and General Motors dropped its displacement cap on mid-size cars the following year. That is how the muscle car era actually started, and it started as an option package that skirted a corporate rule. A genuinely unrestored early example, still wearing its factory paint and drivetrain, is worth chasing precisely because so few survived intact.

Bright orange 1970 Dodge Challenger on display at a car show.

Jay Leno’s Favorite American Muscle Cars

by Wes

Jay Leno owns more than 180 vehicles, but when The Drive asked him to pick his favorite American muscle cars, he skipped the obvious answers entirely. His list includes a 1971 Dodge Challenger, a Ford Galaxie 500 with a forgotten 7-liter engine, a 1,000-horsepower Oldsmobile Toronado, and a crate-engined Buick Roadmaster sleeper. Every pick rewards a level of car knowledge most muscle car fans do not have. See exactly why Leno chose these four over anything more obvious.

1965 Ford Galaxie 500 muscle car in dark red with classic styling.

Review and Breakdown: 1965 Ford Galaxie 500R Code 427

by Wes

This 1965 Ford Galaxie 500R looks like any other full-size family car of its era, right up until you learn what is under the hood: a dual-quad 427 side-oiler paired with a 4-speed manual. Viewers are calling it their favorite Muscle Car Of The Week episode yet, and the comment section is already lobbying for more full-size sleepers like it. See the burnout that sealed the deal.

Classic blue vintage car parked on a sunny street.

Video: That Dude’s 1966 Ford Galaxie Retro Review

by Kiril

The 1966 Ford Galaxie is one of the most underrated classics of the era, and the engine list explains why: it ran from a 150-horsepower inline six all the way to a 425-horsepower 427, with the brand-new 428 and the one-year-only 7-Litre model sitting in between. Underneath was a coil-sprung rear suspension most competitors did not offer. Read on for what separated the mild versions from the genuinely fast ones.

Ford Galaxie 1962 and 1963

by Ross Mills

Ford’s full-size Galaxie went from a solid family car to a NASCAR-chasing fastback in the span of about eighteen months, culminating in the legendary 63-and-a-half model with a conservatively rated 425-horsepower 427 under the hood. That same 427 also proved itself on the biggest stage NASCAR had to offer just months later. Read on to find out how the Galaxie went from showroom curiosity to Daytona winner.

1956 Ford Galaxy convertible displayed in a classic car showroom.

Restoration Blog: 1966 Ford Galaxie, Ultimate Edition

by Wes

Jay Leno ordered this 1966 Ford Galaxie as a sixteen-year-old, reportedly behind his father’s back, and decades later he’s calling its restoration ‘finally’ complete for the third time. Along the way, one exchange about a muffler and a rocketship has become, according to his own fans, one of the best stories Jay has ever told on the show. Watch to see what took the Ultimate Edition build so long to get right.

A vintage white muscle car with its hood open at a car show.

Ford Galaxie 1963 Legens

by Kiril

A modern Coyote 5.0 crate engine and a nearly sixty-year-old full-size Ford should not look this comfortable together, but this 1963 Galaxie makes the case. Tan PPG paint, a custom brown leather interior, and a Tremec manual behind Ford’s four-cam V8 turn a car built for NASCAR ovals and dealership showrooms into something genuinely usable. Read on for what the 1963 Galaxie originally was, and what it takes to modernize one properly.

The Ford Galaxie 1959 to 1961

by Ross Mills

The Ford Galaxie’s first three model years hid a genuine engineering experiment behind conventional full-size styling — a batch of roughly 200 lightweight race-only cars built to shed weight nobody expected Ford to bother losing. Add a one-year-only retractable hardtop and a short-lived Starliner body style, and the 1959-1961 Galaxie turns out to be far more interesting than its reputation as just a big sedan suggests. Read on for what made these years different.

Classic red convertible car parked outdoors with autumn trees in the background.

Ford Galaxie 1965 427 R-Code

by Kiril

A 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL convertible with the R-code 427 was one of the strangest performance cars Ford ever sold: a two-ton, four-seat drop-top carrying a dual-quad big block that the factory refused to pair with an automatic transmission. Checking that single order-sheet letter changed the suspension, the driveshaft, and the brakes before the car ever reached a dealer. Read on to find out why so few of these survived the decade they were built in.

Classic maroon muscle car parked indoors with black rims.

Ford Galaxie 1965 500R Code 427

by Kiril

A full-size four-door family Ford that could humiliate a pony car at a stoplight sounds like a contradiction until you find the fine print on a 1965 Galaxie 500 order form. One option code brought two four-barrel Holley carburetors, a solid-lifter camshaft, and compression north of ten to one, all behind a grille identical to every other Galaxie on the lot. Almost nobody checked that box. Read on to find out what Ford was hiding and why so few buyers ever asked.

Scroll To Top