'61 Starliner 390/3-sp Stick, Original Black Paint, Original CA Black Plate Car
 

This checks most of the boxes I'd want to have checked on a '61 Ford. I think these are just beautiful cars...and growing up in Milwaukee in the 1980s, these were already largely rusted into the ground - in fact, I don't remember ever seeing a '60-'61 Ford anywhere on the street, even when there were still quite a few 1960s era cars on the roads.

The American automakers really nailed the bubbletop look in this era.... Sorry to say, though, the Cooper Cobra RWLs are all wrong for this car.

Link to 1961 Starliner auction

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1J53Z152950

----Nice Ford, but there never would have been an engine callout only on one side. It's at least my understanding that one could tell the delivered from the factory engine by checking the serial #. That roofline is really good looking!.....Bill S

The fifth digit indicates the engine option, but for 1961 it wasn’t quite sorted for the rapidly developing hipo options. All 61 390 cars will have a “Z”. If you find a solid lifter 375hp (4bbl) or 401hp (3x2bbl) car, you need a window sticker or dealer paperwork to really prove it, even though just about everything under the hood is different than the standard 390/300hp car. There were dealer installed 4 speed transmissions in late ‘61, but I’m not aware of any documented factory installs. Identifying hipo Fords gets way easier in 1962, when the 375hp gets a “Q”, 401hp gets an “M”, and midyear they add 406/385hp (“B”) and 406/405hp (“G”).