San Francisco Street Sighting - 1968 Ford Galaxie 500

With space at a premium, city dwellers often choose vehicles that are easy to park and will fit in small spaces. Not so the owner of this fantastic maroon 1968 Ford Galaxie 500 sedan, a car that probably has enough steel in it to build two Smart Fortwos and another four Vespa scooters. But screw those. San Francisco already has too many Smart cars and Vespas. Big boats are a dying breed and few of them are as straight and clean as this. Most are beaters that earn their keep until the day when their owners send them to an unceremonious death at Schnitzer Steel. This one looks like a car the owner is proud of and wants to drive, and has been shown the love a classic deserves.

We've already seen a '68 Galaxie fastback coupe here on California Streets, so a sedan is a nice complement to it. Both are powered by the venerable 390 V8, the engine that also propelled Steve McQueen's Mustang over the city's famous hills in Bullitt. I really like this car, because it's such a throwback to the car chase movies and police dramas that took place in and around San Francisco back in the day. I can imagine Dirty Harry driving this car, the whitewalls knuckling over and howling as the barge understeers wildly into a corner, or the rear end kicking out in true Hollywood fashion as he pursues the baddies, one chrome dog dish hubcap separating from the wheel and bouncing down the street away from the car. Or maybe Ponch from CHiPs could pursue crooks on his police bike as they flee a bank robbery in this car. I can only imagine how many of these plain-colored, low-trim V8 sedans were destroyed filming those kinds of scenes over the years. Thankfully this one has survived.