1965 saw the debut of an all-new Galaxie at Ford. It had much more sharply-creased styling and vertically-stacked quad headlights.
It was available as a two-door coupe or convertible, as well as pillared or hardtop sedan, with each version coming in several levels of trim. In 1965 you could get your Galaxie 500 converible in either the regular flavor or the more bling-y Galaxie 500 XL form. The badges on the rear fenders of this '65 ragtop in Vintage Burgundy tell us it's an XL.
The base motor in an XL convertible was the then-new 289 2-barrel small block V-8, called the "Challenger" in Ford ad copy and rated at 200 SAE gross horsepower. The next step up was the 250-horsepower 4-barrel Thunderbird 352 cubic inch FE big block V-8. Power-hungry buyers could opt for the 300 horsepower 390 or the 425 horse 427 "side-oiler" big block.
The smaller two engines only came with the 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic slushbox, while the 390 could be had with an auto or a four-on-the-floor, and the hairy 7 Liter only came with the manual.
While the car magazines of the time all focused on the wild-eyed 427 monsters, the majority of Galaxie XL ragtops had the base motor or, like this one, the 352 FE mill.
This one was photographed with a Canon EOS-1D Mark III and an EF 28-70mm f/2.8L zoom lens in July of 2022.
