News Release – 11/16/1966
Ford Division’s advance design Ranger II, an ultramodern idea in pickup trucks, will be one of the attractions of the Detroit Auto Show which opens at Cobo Hall on November 26 and runs through December 4.
The unique show vehicle in the F-250 class features a custom designed passenger compartment that expands at the push of a button from a pickup to a two-door sedan accommodating two additional passengers in the rear compartment.
When a four-passenger sedan is desired, a switch on the master control is activated and the rear portion of the cab moves 18 inches in to the bed of the truck, a roof section moves up into position and two additional bucket seats fall into place.
Other innovations include aircraft-type canopy doors that operate hydraulically at the trun of a key and a forward-hinged hood that opens hydraulically by a switch on the master control.
The ultra-streamlined windshield of specially tempered plastic-type glass, special high intensity headlights of rectangular design, contoured bumper, extruded aluminum grill, and a Clearwater Aqua finish give the vehicle a look of the future.
As a two-passenger pickup, the truck bed is six feet wide and eight feet long — the standard F-250 bed size. The cargo bed has walnut flooring, courtesy lights, aluminum loading rails, vinyl-covered side panels and padded wheel housing.
The functional interior features contoured bucket seats, and a host of options including power steering, tilt-away steering wheel, SelectShift Cruise-O-Matic transmission, AM/FM radio and a SelectAire air-conditioner.
The Ranger II is 57 inches high, 18 feet long, 84 inches wide and has a 120-inch wheelbase. Power for the special show vehicle is provided by a 390 cubic-inch V-8 with three carburetors.
From the News Bureau
FORD DIVISION of Ford Motor Company
Rotunda Drive at Southfield Road
P.O. Box 608
Dearborn, Michigan
Telephone: 33-77137
11/22/66
Special Thanks To:
Marguerite Moran
Archivist
Ford Motor Company Archives
For providing the information for this article.
