We had a couple of Mavericks, one two-door and one four-door. It was a replacement for the Falcon, and IIRC, was the last American production vehicle priced under $2000. The Mercury Comet was retooled to be virtually the same car, as it had been in relation to the Falcon. I learned to drive a stick-shift in my dad's 1974 four-door Maverick.
And I learned to drive an automatic in Mom's 1974 Gran Torino station wagon. I found racing better in the Torino, which had a 400 cc engine with a four-barrel carb. Sucker would move! The engine was big enough to propel it off the line in a snap, and the weight of the thing carried you past the finish line on pure inertia. Of course, you were pretty much out of gas by then, so coasting across the line was your only option.
