Pure Ford

Forget fat fenders and running boards, modern cars of the postwar era would have “envelope” bodies that tidily tucked everything within sleek styling. Think of it as the engineering blueprint that the entire American industry would follow for the next 35 years.

Arguably, this is the best-looking truck ever made (just ask any street-rodder). It got even better in ’56 when a wraparound windshield perfected the design. And thanks to a modern chassis underneath, the beauty was more than skin deep. Although many of these have been customized into hot rods, some are still working hard every day.

This was a simple, straightforward car, with a front engine and rear-wheel drive, that made Ford almost as British as it is American. Deeply beloved in the United Kingdom, it became a fierce rally car and a performance icon. (1970 model shown.)

As American cars grew ever larger, the rest of the world needed an honest small car to deal with higher fuel prices and congested former cart paths. Anglia production didn’t ramp up until after World War II, but it firmly established Ford as a worldwide company.

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, many years later, is still going strong. It was a small step forward but a big turning point.

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.

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.

Young Edsel Ford’s personal car became a spectacularly stylish, V-12–powered coupe and convertible. The first Continental remains the ultimate Lincoln.

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.

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 su***de rear doors were way cool, too.

The first of two reborn GT supercars would be produced for two short model years, but it 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 supercharged 5.4-liter 32-valve V-8 sat in the GT’s midsection feeding a six-speed manual transaxle. The retro-flavored GT featured here is already a 21st-century legend—a status the Le Mans–winning third-gen GT is already well on its way to achieving.

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 was rumored to be Ford’s most profitable vehicle, so it’s no wonder a second-gen model based on the latest aluminum-bodied F-150 was approved for production. Ask about engines and twist our arms, and we’ll tell you we prefer the roar of the 6.2-liter V-8 offered in the first truck, but the second Raptor—which has an extremely stout twin-turbo V-6—is about as excellent as a truck can get.