1957 Ford Ranchero. More than a car! More than a truck! In 1957, Ford hit the target. In the center.
Half car, half truck – the idea seems logical enough. In these days of sport utes/station wagon hybrids, we are used to mixed breeds. In the Fifties, though, this was radical stuff. 1957 Ford Ranchero wasn’t the first to plow this ground in the states; Hudson and Studebaker had done so decades before. But, buyers weren’t ready then, and the concept crumbled. When Ford revisited the idea in 1957, people listened with open ears – and wallets.
To understand how big a deal this was, you have to know what pickups were like back then – from the inside out. You sat bolt upright on a three-wide, thinly padded bench seat. Before you was a steering wheel just slightly smaller than the Latham Traffic Circle. A single speedometer gauge was centered ahead, and to the side, a smattering of switchgear: wipers, heater controls, perhaps, and maybe even an AM radio. Remember, hot feet and cool tunes were still optional, back in the day.
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The standard engine for the 1957 Ford Ranchero was a 223 cubic inch inline six delivering 144 horsepower. Buyers could upgrade to a 272 cubic inch V-8 with 190 or a 292 cubic inch Thunderbird V-8 with 212 horsepower.
Available transmissions for those engines were a two-speed automatic, three-speed manual with overdrive, and a three-speed automatic respectively.
Seen in this light, Ranchero seemed downright decadent. Essentially, a two door Ranch Wagon with the top back chopped, Ford Ranchero had a passenger car cabin with all the power options (seat, windows, steering and brakes) that trucks never offered. The cow-belly frame sat low, so Ranchero was a half-ton hauler that handled unlike any other pickup.
The first Ford Rancheros appeared at the New York Auto Show in December, ’56, and 21,705 rolled off the showroom floor in the first year of production for model year ‘57. Ranchero rode the car/truck wave until it finally flagged, 22 years later.
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