Hitting the market a few months before the start of the 1964 World’s Fair, I can’t help but to think of these second-generation Falcons as being tied to that expo just as the Ford Mustang had been. The seller has this nice-looking 1965 Ford Falcon Sprint posted here on craigslist in Keystone Heights, Florida and they’re asking $14,500. Thanks to Pat L. for sending in this tip!
I don’t want to be any older than I am now for the love of Mike, but I really wish I could have somehow attended the 1964/65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows. Or better yet, the 1939/40 World’s Fair on the same site. Even better? Both fairs. It was such an interesting time and I have quite a few books and fair guides from those fairs that are among my prized possessions. Of course, if I would have gotten to see the newly-designed second-generation Ford Falcon at the Ford Pavilion at the fair, that would have been the best.
Ford came out with this generation Falcon in 1963 and they were made for model years 1964 and 1965 and the design really changed for 1966. These lipstick red seats remind me of the ones in my Audi TT, it’s almost impossible to have a bad red interior for me. Being a Sprint model, these Falcons came with a small V8, a more-throaty exhaust, and a tighter suspension. This one is basically priced at Hagerty’s #3 good condition value so it seems like a very fair asking price.
The newly-introduced Ford Mustang could be had with those same features and since it was an instant success at the World’s Fair and elsewhere when it was introduced, the Falcon Sprint model didn’t go over as well as Ford had hoped and it was dropped from the lineup after the 1965 model year. This car has an aftermarket air-conditioning system but there’s no word on whether it works or not. The interior that we see from these two lone photos sure looks great, doesn’t it?
Thanks to the seller for popping the hood and showing us this nice 289 cubic-inch V8. It would have had 200 horsepower which isn’t a lot but for a 2,900-pound car with 282 ft-lb of torque, it should get up and go very nicely. The seller says that it runs strong and this is an original car. It sure looks great to me. Have any of you owned a second-gen Falcon? Bonus points for a Sprint.
Thanks for getting me hooked on Highway Patrol Scotty. Those 156 episodes are going to keep me busy over the holidays!
Ha! I literally have it on right now, Pat – Season 2 Episode 39: Rabies. It’s a great show with maybe not so great acting but fun to watch. Have a good weekend!
How can i stream Highway Patrol?
Rob, I found a website with dozens (hundreds?) of great old shows:
https://solie.org/alibrary/index.html
You can choose the genre and then there are a few dozen shows under each listing and sometimes dozens of episodes of each show.
Here’s Highway Patrol:
https://solie.org/alibrary/HighwayPatrol.html
2150-bye
I’ve seen most of the episodes. Even though they were done on the cheap, they always had beautiful women on the show, and the newest cars. Broderick Crawford was such a drunk, they had to get the filming done before noon. He’d lost his license, so he had to do his driving, mostly on back roads. I saw him for a few seconds as he was leaving a Cape Cod restaurant where I worked, back in 1973.
You can find most Highway Patrol episodes on YouTube.
Nice car. I was at that World’s Fair in Queens. I was 4 years old. My earliest memory.
I was there when I was 4 too – I dont remember seeing you ! lol
i was there too at the age of 6..
Nice car. I was at that World’s Fair in Queens. I was 4 years old. My earliest memory.
I was one of the big kids… I was 10
Hey me too.!…..I was 11
Wwhat was the display..Mustangs?.that were on a track that went in a circle?
Somewhere I’ve got a snow globe……..
I was also at the 1964/1965 Worlds Fair. About 15 or so years ago I visited the remains at Flushing Meadows since I was in the area. The Unisphere is the most visible remnant and the only one that is still actively maintained as far as I know.
Nice car but I am pretty sure it is not a Sprint. Sprints had front bucket seats and console as standard equipment and a nicer steering wheel, also chrome valve covers. This Hemmings report seems like a good reference point.
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/1964-65-ford-falcon-sprint
That said, I LOVE the 1965 Futura hardtop, the contrasting body side moldings are one of the sharpest treatments of any car. I owned a ’65 that had been set up for straight-line drag racing (out with the 3 on the tree, in with the 4 speed toploader that snapped through the gears effortlessly), the owner likely blew up the motor and swapped in a junky 302, but everything else was survivor level back in1989 when I bought it for $1900. Mostly rust-free body needing a minor floor patch and a repaint, you can’t find a similar car for less than $15,000 these days.
The ’65 Sprint didn’t have the chrome valve covers and the console was optional in the hardtop (the console was standard in the convertible). The ’65 Sprint was just an option package as opposed to a separate model. The ’65 does have the advantage of the 289 instead of the 260 and is rarer than other Sprints (the Mustang was owning that market by ’65) but overall is less distinctive than the earlier cars.
When I think of mid-60’s Falcons, I see rust buckets. Not this one, it looks great. I’m with William, the bodyside molding with the simple side sculpturing comes across well. It would be something a bit different at a show. Folks from Ohio should like the paint/interior color scheme.
Is it a 3spd auto or is that 3 tree 🌳?
Cool car nice torquey motor should move out fine.
Did this come with the good gears also with the Sprint pack ?
Stan, if you blow up the 2nd interior pic, you can see the tail end of the shift indicator, definitely an automatic.
I was working doing electronic deliveries back in 1978 and I pulled into a parking lot at a HP factory and in the parking lot was a 1965 Futura with a big for sale sign on it. I make the delivery and ask to use the phone and talked to the woman who was selling it. She had inherited it from an aunt and had no interest in it and wanted $350 for it and I bought it on the spot. It had 35K miles on it, 289 auto with the strangest jungle print interior I had ever seen.
I drove that car for a couple years, sold it to one of my brothers, he drove it for a couple years and passed it on through my other 2 brothers thru the years. That car had to be one of the most reliable cars I owned. When my baby brother decided to sell the car, he traded it in on a turbo Trans Am and I was pissed as I would have given the money he got to get it back but no such luck.
I guess this is my cue …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deUsssEl0s8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L74j6Y-nSh0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPHbVY-Kq_A
Odd that Ford or Chrysler, i believe, never sponsored anything at any Disney park, but GM had World of Motion, which became Test Track.
Wonder what my ’64 Sprint convertible is worth.
Scott,
I was 11 years old for the ’64/’65 World’s Fair. Living in New Jersey we actually went twice, once in ’64 and again in ’65. I remember the Mustang on it’s pedestal. There was a giant Sinclare dinosaur near it.
My mother went to the ’39/’40 World’s Fair. We have photos of her trip.
Here’s one when I went to the ’64 WF
’39/’40 World’s Fair
In the early seventies I had a ‘64 Sprint this same color combination. If this were a convertible I’d be interested.
Nice color combination. Does anyone know the reason why the core support would be all beat to hell by the radiator?
Looks like the core support was formed (bent) to accommodate a wider radiator tank. It might have happened when the aftermarket a/c was installed, or possibly later when the original radiator proved to be inadequate.
My late brother had a 65 Sprint. Now I don’t like to disagree but I know for sure his had a 6 cylinder engine with a bench seat, and it was definitely a Sprint 2 door hardtop, white with red interior.
Lived in Jersey and went to 64 worlds fair with cousins from Long Island
The radiator support doesn’t look beat up just rusty but the firewall and shock towers look like they have nasty overspray and the passenger inner fender has red- maybe primer? Showing so probably a repaint otherwise it’s a nice car and like the ranchero same underpinning as mustang so all mustang performance parts are pretty much bolt in
As a child of the seventies I wasn’t born yet in 19and a64, ’66 actuallly, so in no way shape or form could I have attended that Worlds Fair. And just imagine if Ford had not brought out the horsey little Mustang. No pony cars from anyone.
There would be no Camaros, Firebirds, Cudas or Challengers. No Cougars. Just think of it. Steve McQueen would have chased that black R/T Charger in a Torino, or even an undercover full sized Ford. Hmm. I could see that working okay.
I wonder if any Shelby Falcons would have been constructed had it not been for the little pony.
Well there would have been Barracudas , their debut was a week or so before the Mustang
I was 11 in ‘64 when my Dad and I went to the Fair, he had gone to the ‘39 fair with his Dad. We may of, not quite sure, driven up there from Philly in his 63 Falcon convertible.
MECUM had one last night, done, gorgeous. Under $12K.
Owned two 1964’s convertibles’ both with bench seats and automatics. Fun cars…..and maybe my picture at the Hemisphere 1968 in Houston….is my avatar ?