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1958 Edsel Pacer Hardtop 1/25 (fs)
In the early 1950s, the Ford Motor
Company became a publicly traded corporation that was no longer entirely
owned by members of the Ford family. The company was now able to sell
cars according to current market trends following the sellers' market of
the postwar years. The new management compared the roster of Ford makes
with that of General Motors, and concluded that Lincoln was competing
not with Cadillac, but with Oldsmobile. Since Ford had an excess of
money on hand from the success of the Ford Thunderbird, a plan was
developed to move Lincoln upmarket, with the Continental broken out as a
separate make at the top of Ford's product line, and to add another
make to the intermediate slot vacated by Lincoln.
Research and development on the new intermediate line had begun in 1955
under the name "E-car", which stood for "experimental car." Ford Motor
Company eventually decided on the name "Edsel", in honor of Edsel B.
Ford, son of the company's founder, Henry Ford. This represented a new
division of the firm alongside that of Ford itself and the
Lincoln-Mercury division, whose cars at the time shared the same body.
The Edsel was introduced amid considerable publicity on "E
Day"—September 4, 1957. It was also promoted by a top-rated television
special, The Edsel Show, on October 13, but the promotional effort was
not enough to counter the adverse public reaction to the car's styling
and conventional build. For months, Ford had been circulating rumors
that led people to expect an entirely new kind of car, when in reality,
the Edsel shared its engineering and bodywork with other Ford models.
In the first year, 63,110 Edsels were sold in the United States; an
additional 4,935 units were sold in Canada. Though below expectations,
this nevertheless represented the second-largest launch for any new car
brand to date, exceeded only by the Plymouth introduction in 1928.
While generally considered a marketing failure, the Edsel remains
beloved within it's demographic of dedicated collectors and fans.
Features:
* 361 cu. in. V-8 Engine
* BF Goodrich Silvertown tires with white wall inserts
* Poseable Front Wheels
* Separate Frame and Floor Plan
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