I found an issue of Motor Trend for May 1969. The cover has a picture of a Maverick, with the title "MAVERICK CHALLENGES IMPORTS". The story was written by Eric Dahlquest. Volkswagen sold 500,000 cars in the U.S. in 1968. This was the target market for the Maverick. The author says: " Engineering considerations aside, the Maverick's chances of seriously displacing Volkswagen in the economy field are about as remote as Volkswagen winning Stock Eliminator from the Cobra Jets. But, the Maverick will not be a failure What it is really,long hood/short deck is a $1995 Mustang for people who can't afford a $2600 Mustang." After describing engine choices it goes on: "Either of the 6s is lost in the large Maverick engine compartment. A 302 V8 is the next obvious step. Ford has already built a 302 Trans Am version for evaluation and it looks very promising, good enough so that a 351 four-barrel Maverick is on the way. I can only guess, but I think the oil crisis in the early 70s plus the emission and safety mandates by the government put the kibosh on the 351. I hope you all find this article from early 1969 interesting.
I have that magazine. It would have been nice to offer a 351 2V at least in the Grabber and Comet GT. The 4V would have required dual exhaust and many production changes. Its possible that there was not enough 351s to meets production demand in other cars lines. Also the Maverick was designed to be an economy car. Ford did offer a 4 cylinder in other countries. So there were many different engines offered in a Maverick. In Mexico the was a 302 4speed, O yea!
I recently sold a 1969 issue of Popular Mechanics to a member here that had a very similar article in it. Comparing the Mav to the hilarious little imports that were around back then.
