The name “Fairlane” first appeared on a vehicle back in 1955, when it replaced the Crestline as the top-tier trim on Ford’s full size passenger cars.
…But the Fairlane etymology goes way further back than that.
Home is Where the Ford Is
Most vintage Blue Oval aficionados will tell you that Fairlane is actually a mashup of “Fair Lane,” the name of Henry and Clara Ford’s sprawling estate in Dearborn, Michigan.
What a lot of Ford fans don’t know is that, in 1920, Henry and Clara Ford also nicknamed their personal private railway car “Fair Lane” too. (If you want to learn some more Ford railway trivia, click here.)
Construction of Fair Lane began in 1913 and wrapped in 1915.
The home’s original design was penned by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright—but the plans were refined by his assistant Marion Mahony Griffin, one of the first female architects in the United States, and ultimately completed by Joseph Nathaniel French, another famed architect.
The Fair Lane estate was donated to The University of Michigan in the late 1950s and in 2010, the property transitioned into the hands of a non profit group. Much of the estate is open for tours and there’s a museum and several historical artifacts on-site too.
You can still visit the Fair Lane property today, click here for details.
But Enough About Fair Lane—Let’s Talk About a Fairlane
This particular car rumbled into the Summit Racing Retail Store near Akron, Ohio earlier this fall and we were immediately struck by how clean and original it is. We don’t see many that retain their OE Magnum 500 wheels and stock stance, so this one’s a legit Blue Oval time capsule.
Toss a 289 V8 under the hood, and this Ford Fairlane is definitely Lot Shots material.
This one’s a 1966 model, and that’s significant because it was the first of the short-lived fifth-generation cars that moved onto a stretched version of the Falcon’s unibody structure. That new platform allowed the Fairlane to spawn several variants, including a coupe, sedan, ragtop, and wagon.
There was also a hot Fairlane GT model introduced in 1966 that came standard with a fire-breathing Ford 390 FE. (Oh, and Ford also cranked out a very small number of R-Code Fairlanes in 1966 that got you the fearsome 427.)
As an added bonus, this particular Fairlane carries the exclusive “500” trim, which for 1966 meant it came with a few more upscale refinements.
We spent an entire article dissecting some of Ford’s naming conventions (including the 500 trim), so if you want to get into the nitty gritty on that topic, check this out: This Ford Galaxie 500XL Asks “What’s In a Name?”
And that 289 badge on the rocker tell us this one’s packing a 289 cubic inch version of the venerable Ford small block V8, which made around 200 crank horsepower in stock spec.
As mentioned earlier, the Fairlane’s 5th-gen refresh didn’t last long, spanning only 1966 and 1967 before getting a facelift in 1968. We’ve got a whole spotter’s guide to help you pinpoint the Fairlane’s year-to-year changes. Give it a looksee here: A Quick Guide to Identifying 1955-’70 Ford Fairlanes
At any rate, seeing this Fairlane gave us a good reason to talk about Henry Ford’s Fair Lane estate—which got as all in the mood to pour a glass of nog, figgy-up some pudding, and put Perry Cuomo on the Hi-Fi to feel a bit nostalgic about being home for the holidays.
We hope you’re able to do the same.
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