Let’s face it. For those of us old enough to remember when Mavericks were new cars on the streets, most of us didn’t think of it as serious hot rod material. Sure, some of those Grabber graphics were pretty cool, but still it took a back seat to all the serious performance cars. Then here you are, years later at All Ford Day at Beaver Springs Dragway, and suddenly you can’t take your eyes off the brilliant red Maverick of Steve DePalma. DePalma is more than happy to share a little about his journey with this car as he shares, “I’ve had it about four years now. Took about a year to get it to the place the way you see it. You know it’s just a fun car to drive and it was relatively low bucks. I like everything about it. Mavericks make cool drag cars. It was a drag car when I bought it, needed some detailing work, it needed transmission work, and some little things, but other than painting it and cleaning it up and rewiring, it’s pretty much the way I got it. And it’s just a fun car to drive.” The phrase “fun car to drive” is a theme DePalma repeats during this interview. The more you know about the car, the more you know and understand why.

Most of us have their favorite model of car, so I asked DePalma exactly what it was that drew him to the Maverick. With a big smile on his face, he says, “You know, my dad had a Maverick when I was in high school, he had ’74, so when I had those important dates, I used to borrow dad’s Maverick. His six cylinder is a little bit different than that (as he pointed to the engine in his drag car) but they just have great lines. I think Ford really made a mistake and not really coming out with a real performance Maverick. I guess that story is they didn’t want it to compete with the Mustang at the time but it’s just a great platform. They make great race cars and it’s unique. Now you’re starting to see more of them. It’s interesting, I used to come to the track and they’d only be one Maverick and today I think there’s about 5 of them here. This one is relatively stock, still has the shock towers and things like that. I think that if I did another one, I would probably take the shock towers out. I did spend the whole morning changing the spark plugs, it’s not a fun task but other than that it’s a great car to drive. I have a good friend out in Ohio, Mike Weaks, who set up the car for me and he just basically gave me a perfect car to drive.” And just how perfect was it to drive today? “Without having any time shots this morning, I threw a number on and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody break out that bad. I put an 11.4 and ran a 10.7 so it’s all good. Like I said it’s just a great, great car. Hopefully we’ll get it, we’ll get another win the next round.”

It was a great start to his day of racing, especially since the time shots left him with an unexpected challenge. DePalma explains how his morning testing was almost totally derailed, “What had happened this morning was, I didn’t realize it but my car was dumping fuel out of the rear vent and it loaded up all my cylinders. I thought my battery was dead and I didn’t realize I was hydrolocking the cylinders. When I took the velocity stack off I saw the fuel coming out. I guess some junk must have must have jammed up the needle. I took the needle out, blew it clean and it held. I lowered the fuel pressure a little bit but then I had all the fuel in the cylinder so I had to take all the spark plugs out, clear the cylinders, and put them all back. It’s just not an easy task. They always get the spark plugs that are right in front of the shock towers that you can’t get and at home you have the special tools, the wrenches that are bent just that way. Here at the track it’s a little bit different but you know it’s good, the track people are great, the guy next door to me had a special socket just to remove these spark plugs and we got everything out. That last one was probably my best pass here at Beaver Spring so it’s all good.”

At this point of the interview, DePalma was starting to relive all the enjoyment of owning and developing this car into what it now is. His smile and excitement grew as he shared more details, “It was originally a green car and when I got it, it was red but I had to repaint it. I had a little accident over at Island [Dragway] somebody backed into me and I changed it. I wanted to put the Boss 429 scoop on the fiberglass hood. This was an air conditioned car so I used the center air conditioned dock for my switch panel and I took out the shelf in there and I kind of didn’t really want to gut it, gut it and have a bare interior but I wanted it, you know, I like the carpeted look to finish it right. The shop that that does a lot of my fabrication work fabricated the different panels, but it still retains the Maverick character and this one was nice. I have a ‘67 Fairlane and I think the guy who built it must have been six foot five because I can barely reach the pedals. When we set this car up, I actually sat this seat exactly where I wanted it put the shifter exactly where I wanted it and I think I’m probably the only one that can drive this car. My six foot two son can’t get in here and he’s got to twist his head to get in. It was just a great, great platform and you know it’s s a fun car to drive. It was interesting, I sort of was forced to do door panels because when you have the [roll] bars here they interfere with the stock armrest so I had to take the armrest out and I’m like ‘all right what do I want to do?’ You know, if you leave the black door panels with the holes for your arm rest it doesn’t look good and again Mike Weaks and his shop fabricated the aluminum panels. I just used the original door pulls and it looks great. This is the way I sort of envisioned a super stock car to look. I almost wish now when he wired it up, I kind of figured that this was just going to be a dedicated drag car so the wiring package that I got, I didn’t put signal lights I didn’t put brake lights on, and I almost wish that I did because I would drive it on the street and who knows maybe I’ll do that. It’s just a great car. I have a Cobra car that I built when I was a lot younger and I can park the Maverick in front of my house and more people will ask me about the Maverick than the Cobra. Everybody’s either had a Maverick or knew somebody that had a Maverick and you know you just don’t see them anymore. It’s the same thing with Pintos, Vegas, and Dusters. They used to be a dime a dozen and now it’s sort of like a rarity. And this is one of my favorite cars. There is a whole Maverick following, guys will convert the later cars to small bumper cars. First year I had this I got hit in the pits at Island and I was backing out of the trailer and when he took out my fender and my door. I had to search for a door and a fender. The more you learn, the Maverick doors from 1969 ½ all the way up to ‘76 are all physically, dimensionally the same but inside you need ’70 to ’72 because there’s no steel reinforcements in there so it’s a lighter door. I ended up buying out a Maverick parts collector and I would go to Ford Carlisle and sell Maverick parts and I met the best people there. I mean, it’s just there’s a whole Maverick following. I found a couple of junk yards here in PA that have a lot of Mavericks and it’s just been very interesting. The Maverick people are cool people and it’s just a great car. Can’t say can’t say enough about it.”

One of the nice touches that really sets off how the car looks was how the striping on the sides adds to the overall look. DePalma was quick to explain how that came to be as well. “That was the Grabber stripe but I didn’t put the Grabber on it because it’s technically not a Grabber. My wife didn’t like the yellow but I wanted the yellow and then I added yellow around the hood and I like the Boss 429 scoop on the Maverick hood. The true Grabbers on the back end they have black around the lights but I kind of I like the way the chrome looks. I just built this the way I liked it. It had a fiberglass bumper and I’m like ”I want chrome bumpers,’ I like the chrome around the tail lights and I did it the way I wanted it. The CalTracs, they work. It’s just a great suspension setup and C4 [transmission], it’s just a good combination. That nine-inch rear, C4, and the 347 stroker, that’s almost bulletproof. And it’s low buck when you compare it to like building an FE, a 427 FE. This just the way I wanted it and it came out really nice. A buddy of mine in Ohio painted it we got to take it down to the bare metal. It’s a race car but it’s a little nicer than the average race car. The whole package works.” And it definitely works both for looks and speed. I have to say this is a wonderful example of a Maverick, and if Steve DePalma can’t convince you with his words and this car, well, maybe there’s no hope for you. For everyone else, I’m betting a large percentage of readers will be checking prices on Mavericks after this.

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