The Ford Motor Company has been building cars since 1903. Through sheer longevity if nothing else, the carmaker is bound to have built some great ones over 111 years. They’ve actually built enough great cars that it’s tough to pare the list down to 20. Okay, not that tough; we’re not coal miners or forest-fire smoke jumpers.
If you’re a Formula 1 or Indy 500 fan, number 20 was a shoe-in. But it’s all a question of how you measure greatness. And, well, our final working criteria is wildly inconsistent, contradictory, and irrational. So here, and with apologies to the late, great Casey Kasem, is part one of our countdown to the 20 Greatest Fords of All Time.
20) 1967 Lotus 49 Ford-Cosworth
More than just a powerplant, this all-new DFV engine designed by Cosworth for Ford in the first Formula 1 car of note that used the engine as a stressed member of the chassis. In short, it was a revolution. The Lotus 49 would finish second in the constructors’ championship for ’67 while versions of the 49 would win the title in ’68 and ’70. Meanwhile, the DFV engine would take drivers to 12 Formula 1 world championships and power cars to 10 constructors’ titles. Beyond that, DFV variants would win the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice and the Indianapolis 500 a full 10 times.
19) 2010 F-150 SVT Raptor
It’s the GT40 of off-road pickup trucks. Suspension travel and aggressive looks produce something no other manufacturer has yet dared to build. The SVT Raptor is rumored to be the most profitable vehicle Ford currently builds.
18) 2005 GT
It would be produced for two short model years, but the Ford GT announced to the world that the company was still capable of audacious designs and daring engineering. The styling was sort of a 13/10ths-scale version of the GT40, while a 550-hp, 5.4-liter supercharged DOHC 32-valve V-8 sat in the GT’s midsection feeding a six-speed manual transaxle. The GT is already a 21st century legend.
17) 1961 Lincoln Continental
After the hideous 1958–1960 Continental, Elwood Engel’s gorgeous ’61 Continental saved the entire Lincoln brand with its clean sides and flat hood and trunk. Influential beyond Ford, the four-door flagship inspired a generation of clean, muscular cars. And the suicide rear doors were way cool, too.
16) 1965 Shelby Cobra 427
Ford conspired with Carroll Shelby to build a whole new chassis under the AC Ace body and shove in the outrageous 427-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) “side-oiler” V-8. With between 425 and 485 horsepower it has set a high bar for the performance cars that followed it.
15) 1939 Lincoln Continental
Young Edsel Ford’s personal car became a spectacularly stylish, V-12–powered coupe and convertible. The first Continental remains the ultimate Lincoln.
14) 1955 Thunderbird
The original two-seat Thunderbird was the first truly glamorous Ford. After three years it would bloat into a four-seat mess, but the sight of an original T-Bird today is an instant trip back into a supposedly happier and pastel-rich past.
13) 1969 Capri
A straightforward attempt to leverage the Mustang formula in Europe, Ford’s Capri was basically a sexier body fitted to the mechanical bits of the Ford Cortina. And it was quickly embraced as an affordable platform for modification. Through two generations, it was sold in the United States by Mercury dealers, ending in 1978.
12) 1965 Ford Galaxie and LTD
This was a completely new full-size car that ditched leaf springs for coil springs in the rear suspension, setting new standards in ride comfort and quietness. Elements of this car’s engineering—including its front suspension—would become the standard building blocks of NASCAR stock cars. And 46 years later, when the 2011 Ford Crown Victoria finally left production, so did the last remnants of this design.
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11) 1982 Mustang GT
The “Fox body” Mustang had been in production since the 1979 model year and conventional wisdom was that no one cared about performance anymore. The most powerful V-8–powered 1981 Mustang used a crummy 4.2-liter version of Ford’s classic small-block, wheezing out a measly 115 horsepower. But the Mustang GT roared back in ’82 with the return of the High Output 4.9-liter small-block (marketed, duh, as a “5.0”) with a two-barrel carburetor and rated at 157 horsepower. That’s modest by 21st-century standards, but it started a horsepower war that, almost 33 years later, is still going strong. It was a small step forward but a big turning point.
Stay tuned for the conclusion of the 20 Greatest Fords of All Time with Car and Driver’s top 10 picks.
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