The heavy foot, maybe. But not necessarily the extra inches, especially if you have a stock cam, an overdrive transmission, and a tame carburetor. I could routinely see damn near 30 mpg highway at 80 mph with an O/T SN95 Mustang. If your milage with a carburetor was slightly worse, you'd be getting high 20s being able to drive like a normal human in modern traffic. The key is the T5.
My 60 falcon was a no option car not even a radio got it to save gas going to college Highway was around 27 mpg but I took it to MoKAN and it was slower than 20 seconds. Found a 5000 mile fairlane 221 and 3 speed and swapped it in used a 59 ford 9 inch and VW buckets seats car weigh was just under 2300 lbs with a AFB carb it would run 15.6 and still got 25 highway It changed from a slug to a fun car.
I was getting a little under 20mpg, Kelly blue book says i should be getting 25. It's in the shop getting its first tune up right now (360,000km) hopefully that will help a bit.
I drove a 1963 Comet convertible with a 144 and a four speed in college. Don’t remember the mileage, but it was sure slow! Fun little car , though! Bones
I don't think I've ever figured out the fuel mileage on any vehicle I've ever owned, I guess because for so much of my life whatever I was driving was all I had so it didn't matter, if it needed gas I put gas in the tank as what was the alternative?, walking? Oh by the way, aren't we supposed to be doing something productive (like being out in the garage working on a hot-rod) instead of squandering our precious time posting useless information on the internet?
I venture to say most people on here won't drive their cars enough for it to matter the mpg. Spending thousands on overdrive and tall rear gears just to save a few dollars per tank. 1000 miles a year at 25mpg is 40 gallons of gas at 3.50 a gallon equals $140. 1000 miles a year at 15mpg is 66 gallons of gas at 3.50 a gallon equals $233. $93 difference divided by 6 months good driving weather equals $15.50 a month . If you can't afford the hobby maybe you should get out of it. I average $7750 a year on gas Between 5 cars. I don't watch gas prices daily or worry about the sky falling. Can we get back to hot rod talk?
When my Falcon still had the 144 and 3-speed, it routinely bested 30mpg. The absolute record was 32mpg. Those were steady-state freeway numbers, at the speed limit. It does not have a 144 or a 3-speed anymore, but can still get 28mpg, under the same conditions. I have not done a mileage check since I installed the AC (it has been cold), but that might take a few off. I don't drive daily, but when I do drive, I do drive that.
How did you get the 4-on-4-1/4" Pinto wheels on the 4-on-4-1/2" Falcon? I suspect that those were Maverick wheels.
Mileage stories are no different than quarter mile ET stories. Bigger picture here isn’t the Falcon, it’s that something is seriously wrong with dudes Hyundai that is only getting 20 mpg. Unless that’s what he’s telling the wife to justify the Falcon….. What I drive is based on fun. Not mpg.
Get the Falcon. Swap the distributor for a not Load-O-Matic one. Put a Weber 32/36 carburetor on it. I did just that, and drove my '60, with a 144, for several years. Those two mods will free up power that Ford did not bother to utilize. 65mph on the freeway was just fine. It climbed the Sierra Nevada mountains, over Donner Pass, just fine, too. Not a rocket-sled, but a fine commuter. Oh, and your other car is broken.
Back when the national speed limit was lowered to 55 the saying was "driving across Texas at 55 wasn't a vacation, it was a frick'n career"
I have a 63 Galaxie with a 302 2bbl and a 3 speed auto. It gets the best mileage of any of my vehicles at 23mpg.
I drove my 60 Ranchero for several years as my "daily".. it had a 200 with a Carter YF carb, factory duraspark from a 75 Maverick. Mated the 200 to a toploader overdrive 4 speed in front of an 8" from a Maverick fitted with 3.55 gears. Running 205-65/15s on Ford steelies. On the highway, I could routinely pull mids 20s for mileage and got 27 to 28 a time or two. Later I redid the motor after cracking the head. Put in 2.3 HSC flat top pistons, 302 valves, a mild cam and one of those chinese headers.. all in the hopes of cracking that 30 mpg. The mileage went down.. but the fun factor went up!
I used to have a sticker in one of my Camaros that read "there's more to life than gas mileage". True that! I don't check my mileage, but my favorite cars in my garage are plenty thirsty. The HAMB friendly car I have owned recently that fuel seemed to rot in was a 62 Nova. Gawd I hated driving that car. Moral of the story? Less MPG = More F'n Fun!
Quite possibly were. Got them out of a local salvage yard unattached to anything and the yard man said they were Pinto's. Took him at his word but they fit and did what I wanted to. Brought the mileage up.
I seem to remember a Henry Gregor Felsen hot rod novel where the main character, a young guy with a blue hot rod with a gold lightning flash on the side, was always getting in trouble speeding. He got talked into driving his car in a fuel mileage race and lost. After realizing how his tuning setups and driving habits were affecting his mileage, he changed both and wound up winning. Not a very inspiring story at the time but later on, it made sense. And your comment about getting out of the hobby if a person can't afford it sounds just a little bit "elitist" to me. I do what I can with what I can afford.
Having cars with inaccurate gas gauges (old MoPars), knowing my typical gas mileage is pretty useful. As far as Falcons, I had a '64 Ranchero with a 260 and 3 speed which always got low 20s on the highway.
I had a Lincoln mark111 that would get 21 mph if you kept under 65 5 thousand lbs. 460 cu. in. 1 4 barrel 365 hp just my 3.5 cents live learn & Die a Fool
I always thought that was a sheep or a goat with you in the car in your Avatar... now I see it's a big dog! But I still like the idea of having a farm animal riding shotgun.
Between broken gas gauges and pinching pennies, I have always tracked milage, and in daily driving, always gotten better than average economy through mindful application of the pedals. Tracking mileage also helps with tuning, and diagnostics. If your mileage drops drastically, but you are driving the same, something is wrong. If you make a mechanical change, and mileage goes up, likely power/efficiency also went up. 10 years ago, my wife and I had a '64 comet sedan, I6, 2 speed auto, pretty good running with a fresh tuneup, but bad U joints. Got 28 mpg on a 400 mile highway trip. Replaced the U joints, and got 24mpg on the 400 mile trip home, but we took the blue ridge parkway. We did NOT run 70, or worry about 'keeping up' with traffic, except to get out of the way in choice spots.
My old '72 LeMans with a 455 would get 19 mpg on the highway; it was geared pretty tall (2.75 in a Ford 9") because the 455 had so much torque, but would still smoke off the tires if I stood on it. A few years back I borrowed a 2015 Ford truck to get an antique oven. I got 17 mpg out of it, but my friend said he never saw more than 12. Driving technique can do a lot for fuel economy...
The Falcons were lighter than the 1st gen. Mustangs. Hemmings says 2300 lbs for the Falcon; 2800 for the Mustang. However, without highway gears and overdrive, I agree that 20 mpg probably more realistic. That V8 swap getting 25 mpg must have overdrive and highway gears. My 88 5.0 Mustang LX convertible was capable of 25+ with cruise control set at 65-70, level ground, light traffic, and stock engine with AOD and 2.73 gears.
My 2017 Ram 1500 4 x4 Crew Cab/w Hemi and 8-speed transmission, and 3.90 gears has yet to see 21 mpg, and that's with cylinder deactivation in "Economy Mode." I have bumped 20 mpg, under optimum conditions (cruise control, light traffic, flat ground, no head wind). Around town mileage is 12-14, and I don't have a lead foot. It's a heavy truck/w shell, and it's a lot of weight to move from a dead stop.
If I had a goat or sheep that liked to ride, fine with me. Had a cat that loved to ride and would jump in the wife's car when she wasn't looking; then pop up down the road scaring the poop out of her.
The Jalopy Journal
