{"id":26526,"date":"2024-06-15T00:01:56","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T07:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=26526"},"modified":"2024-06-14T06:22:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T13:22:42","slug":"a-1961-ford-starliner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/06\/15\/a-1961-ford-starliner\/","title":{"rendered":"A 1961 Ford Starliner"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

I was having a bad day and I was in a blue funk, but new friend Chuck and his magnificent 1961 Ford Starliner came to the rescue.\u00a0 \u00a0Read on and you’ll understand.<\/p>\n

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A white that is almost a very faint gray.\u00a0 \u00a0Chuck’s 1961 Starliner looks great; I think it would look even better in lipstick red.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The blue mood story goes like this: I have a 2018 Subaru Outback that I love except for the entertainment system.\u00a0 That’s the touchscreen, the backup camera display, the navigation system, the Bluetooth phone system, and the radio (including Sirius XM).\u00a0 Subaru calls it the entertainment system, but it has been anything but entertaining.\u00a0 It went out repeatedly in the first couple of years that I’ve owned the car and the Subie dealer replaced it three times.\u00a0 God only knows how many times I’ve brought the car back to the dealer to have them reflash the chip, the part in which miracles occur that govern everything.<\/p>\n

After it was fixed, the entertainment system still had its moods.\u00a0 When I ‘d hang up after a phone call, the radio (even if it wasn’t on before the call) immediately went to max volume.\u00a0 When I start the car the radio turns on, even if I turned it off previously. The nav system scrolls through screens whenever it feels like doing so.\u00a0 The touchscreen stops taking inputs.\u00a0 Maybe Subaru named it correctly.\u00a0 It has been entertaining.<\/p>\n

You can guess where this story is going.\u00a0 As a 2018 model, my Subaru is off its warranty, and the entertainment system went out again.\u00a0 I took it to the dealer and they charged me $215 to tell me my car needs, you guessed it, a new entertainment system.\u00a0 The price?\u00a0 Close to $2500.<\/p>\n

So that’s what put me in a foul mood.\u00a0 If you go online and Google this topic, Subaru entertainment system anomalies are all over the Internet.\u00a0 There are literally hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people who have experienced the same issues.\u00a0 I think Subaru should have extended the warranty and addressed the underlying design problems.\u00a0 I called Subaru of America and bitched about my situation and they “opened up a claim” (whatever that means).\u00a0 They are supposed to get back to me later next week.<\/p>\n

On the way home from the dealer, I stopped for gas.\u00a0 It’s dropped $0.20 per gallon recently, which puts regular unleaded at $4.79 a gallon here in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia.\u00a0 That’s still way too high.\u00a0 It added to my blue funk.\u00a0\u00a0Then I saw the Starliner.\u00a0 As I shut off my Subaru after pulling up to the pump, I saw this cool rear roof profile and heard the deep rumbling of an American V8.\u00a0 You know, sounding the way an engine should sound.\u00a0 I could feel the vibrations of its thumps through the ground.\u00a0\u00a0The way God intended automobile engines to be before Gen X, Y, Z, or whatever we’re up to now started saving the planet.\u00a0 At first, I thought this anti-Gore convenient truth was a Buick, or maybe an Oldsmobile, because all I could see from my vantage point was the rear roof line, with what looked like the three portholes that graced the fenders of early Buicks.\u00a0 But I was wrong.\u00a0 It wasn’t a GM product at all.<\/p>\n

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390 cubic inches and 375 horsepower.\u00a0 Lots of chrome.\u00a0 No chips.\u00a0 America at its best, in my opinion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Tri-Power. Three two-barrel carburetors, if you come from a generation denoted by a letter. A great time to be a teenager, the 1960s were.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I spoke to Chuck, the owner, and he told me I was looking at a 1961 Ford Starliner, one of fewer than 30,000 Ford Galaxie variants made that year.\u00a0 Even fewer were made with Ford’s 375-horsepower, 390-cubic-inch, Tri-Power engine.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 Tri-Power.\u00a0 I hadn’t even heard the term, Tri-Power, in maybe 30 or 40 years. The car has a 3.55 rear end and Posi-Traction (another term I hadn’t heard in a while).\u00a0 Chuck opened the hood and showed me the engine.\u00a0 I was in heaven.\u00a0 I forgot all about my Subaru woes.<\/p>\n

I told Chuck about the ExhaustNotes blog and asked if I could take a few photos.\u00a0 “Sure,” he said.<\/p>\n

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A retro-modern interior, with the period-correct aftermarket Sun tachometer. Cue up the Beach Boys or Jan & Dean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A Hurst shifter, with a genuine Hurst T-handle. I had one of these in my GTO. Wrapping your hand around a Hurst shifter handle is a sensual experience. It was cool when being cool meant something. If you know, you know. If not, go play with your cell phone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I asked about the wheels.\u00a0 They’re made by Ford, but they weren’t the wheels that came with the car.\u00a0 Chuck pointed out that the rear wheels are wider than the front wheels.\u00a0 His Starliner now has disk brakes, an upgrade from the original equipment.\u00a0 \u00a0Everything about this car was appealing.\u00a0 Especially the, you know, exhaust notes.\u00a0 It sounded heavenly.<\/p>\n

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The wheels just worked on this car. They looked great.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The view from the rear quarter. It was an amazing car. Made my day, that Starliner did.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chuck told me the car was for sale.\u00a0 The ticket in was $35,000.\u00a0 That’s just about what I paid for my Subaru 6 years ago.\u00a0 “It’s nice, but I couldn’t swing it right now,” I told Chuck.\u00a0 “Not enough people are clicking on the ExhaustNotes popup ads.”<\/p>\n

The gas pump on my Subie clicked off, setting a new record:\u00a0 $77 to fill my tank.\u00a0 I didn’t care.\u00a0 The Starliner had me in a good place, and I was going to stay there.<\/p>\n

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