For 1960, the full-sized Ford line was sporting a distinctive new look that hadn’t been seen before and wouldn’t be seen again. This is the story of the Quicksilver Ford.
As they prepared for the 1960 model year, the styling studios across the Motor City were at a crossroads. They could see that the period of gaudy excess that was the 1950s was drawing to a close, but they were less certain about what was coming next, cautiously checking each others’ work. In styling, 1960 was a year of transition for Detroit, and it showed in the sheet metal at General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.
At Ford, 1959 had been a banner year with more than 1.4 million vehicles sold, and in the original plan, the ’60 passenger car was to be a mildly warmed-over version of the Joe Oros-designed ’59 body shell. But at some point, Ford’s intelligence sources caught wind of Chevrolet’s plans for ’59, including its flamboyant batwing styling, and panic set in with the top brass. Ford had nothing like it in its portfolio—except for an equally far-out design from Ford’s advance design team known internally as Quicksilver. It was too late for Ford to do anything about ’59 (a fortunate thing as it later turned out) but the Quicksilver design theme was sent into production for 1960.
Long, low, and wide, the Quicksilver shape had to be pulled this way and that to fit the production 1959 platform and black metal, and meanwhile the ’59 chassis was modified as well, with the wheelbase stretched one inch to 119 inches. This new Ford was a big one at nearly 214 inches long and a full 81.5 inches wide—in technical violation of the vehicle width regulations in many states. The ’60 was a departure for Ford in a number ways, but easily the most distinctive feature was the pair of horizontal rear tail fins—not as flamboyant, arguably, as the full-width batwings at Chevrolet, but eye-grabbing in their own right.
Unfortunately, we know how this comes out. Buyers rejected the full-sized Fords in droves and sales tanked. But luckily for Ford, the new Falcon compact was a winner, selling more than 435,000 units and pulling the Dearborn carmaker’s volume nearly back up to its 1959 level. For 1961, the Quicksilver look was retired and the big car line returned to a more traditional Ford look with pie-plate tail lamps and a formal greenhouse. But just to show how times and tastes change, if you ask the car enthusiasts of today what they think of the unusual one-year styling of the 1960 Fords, you’re likely to get two big thumbs up.
Brother-in-law bought a 60 ford like this. Was rusted out after 2 years.
Around 1960 Ford bought boatloads of recycled flat steel from Japan. The Japanese scrap dealers had got this from wrecked WW2 wreckage in the south Pacific and it was loaded with rust. Therefore 60 Ford cars where prone to rust out, had one myself.
I thought they were beautiful. Saw one on local dealers lot, begged my dad to buy it, but ended up with a 62 Fairlane.🤥
Dad ran the Motor Pool at an AFB and drove a fairly plain ’60 Ford sedan in a pale green (not the usual Air Force blue) home one day at lunch. I thought it was very cool looking, and it had a power bench seat that was so fun to play with for that very short time.
There sure is a lot going on behind the scenes in the motor vehicle world…..so much we never hear about until researchers such you dig in to the background.nthanks
OWNED A 1960 SUNLINER WHITE/BLACK TOP FIRST NEW CAR I OWNED JUST OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL REALY LIKED IT SHARP CAR
I was 12 when the 60’s came out and I will agree I wasn’t impressed with the full sized Ford. However, today I think it is a beautiful style. Guess my viewpoint has matured.
My high school car (1967) was a 60 Ford Starliner 292/at that I paid $175 for and sold it for the same amount a year later.
I think the ’60 Starliner is one of the prettiest of all Fords, before or since.
The ’60 really was a gorgeous machine, in hindsight. I used to think they’d somehow switched the ’60 and ’61 around because of how the styling was so jarringly different. One wonders if they’d done something as simple as using the “pie-plate” taillights, perhaps it would have been better received. The taillights on the ’60 Canadian Meteor could have been a more “traditional” option too.
My parents bought a Four-door Victoria new in 1960. I thought it was beautiful. Ford did have a model with a weird looking bubble back window that looked awful.
My first car, 352, with a power bench seat, my self and 2 friends were running the gut on a local town, another car of kids started following us looking for trouble, as we went around the back side of the drive-in I ran the seat up all the way, when they pulled up beside us we looked pretty good sized with our heads sideways against the ceiling, one look and they took off. 😀
My neighbor had a black ’60 base model. The 6 year old me really liked the style. I think it was one of their better designs to this day!. The neighbor traded it in on a ’67 base model that I wasn’t all that impressed with…lol..
I had a 1960 Starliner with a high performance 352 engine putting out 360 horsepower. It was one of my favorite cars of all time.
1960 Ford station wagons were always one of the most sought after demo derby cars for their strength in demo derby events
And 57 58 59 Barge Fairlane wagons were not the ultimate demo derby car?
Here in Oz that is all got, never got that model. Next one was a 62.