If you’re as old as I am, you’ll remember the nation’s 200th birthday as a Very Big Deal back in 1976. Now that I’m no longer under the age of ten, nothing seems as impressive as it did back then, but for some reason today’s 250th birthday doesn’t seem nearly as grand, and I know exactly why: few manufacturers gave us any cheesy special editions to celebrate the occasion.
For 1976, car companies went wild with eye-searing red, white, and blue paint jobs on virtually every car you could imagine:
Actually, it wasn’t just cars, since trucks received the treatment as well. Ford’s Bicentennial F-150 had a dramatic gold stripe that terminated in an eagle that was trying to fly away with a banner left behind by some bell-bottom clad partygoer.
You could even get a more tasteful all-white version:
Now, fifty years later we all pretend that we’re too cool to drive around in colorful cars, and we’re barely getting any special edition rides to honor the occasions of the 250th. It’s probably just as well, since they’d likely offer us something in three shades of grey with a subtle, barely visible “1776-2026” logo on it.
No, we need a REAL semiquincentennial, sestercentennial, or quartermillennial version or whatever you want to call it. I think the Maverick perfectly fits the description of “most American vehicle” for today, so it probably should be the one that gets the “250” makeover. Ford actually offered a special colors-of-the-flag Maverick back in the early seventies when the Maverick was still a car; the fact that they were making pre-Bicentennial versions even three or four years before the event proves how big a deal it was.
YOu tend to forget how the old ‘Mav was actually a pretty cool looking mini-Mustang kind of car in coupe form:
This USA 250 Maverick would get the wheels and body mods I made to the Maverick Grabber edition I proposed a while back, but with some red and gold accents to really push it over the edge.
We’re semi-closed here at the Autopian today in honor of the holiday, so we won’t have a Ford Friday or an Autopian Asks, but I’m curious if the rest of you miss these club-you-over-the-head with apple-pie-and-baseball multicolor sticker job cars. Maybe one of you will be inspired to go out to Pep Boys today, get fifty bucks worth of striping and turn your dull white Escape into a true tribute to the Land of the Free. Let us know if you do.
Man, that Maverick is so awful that I think I like it. Have a great holiday everyone!
topshot source: Ford
I miss both cars and government that don’t suck. Cars weren’t great in 1976, but there is a LONG list of 1976 cars that I would cheerfully buy, unlike 2026.
I’m not American but your design looks amazing. I hope Ford see’s it and options it. The depth of the white accents and those wheels are perfection.
I recall the Bicentenial celebrations well, but like you, I’m almost old.
Those wheels look great on the Maverick. The red/white/blue paintjob is a bit much for me, but all the trim bits/etc… look like a production special edition… very cohesive.
When will Toyota bring us the Stout or whatever it’s gonna be called, so there can actually be a Maverick competitor in the market. It’s been like five years already! That’s long enough to develop something from scratch, let alone adapt an existing hybrid drivetrain and platform.
Nobody asked, but I MISS SAAB. 🙁
Same here. You never forget your first car.
My cousin had the Spirit Mustang. I can remember the seats and listening to Foghat on the 8-track. Kid me thought it was amazing.
“Jammin’ to Foghat on my 8-track
With a case of malt liquor and a bong in back…”
-Killdozer, The Pig Was Cool
250 years and the Americans still can’t make a proper cup of tea.
😉
We threw it all away in that harbor and never looked back
I was in grad school in 1976 in Cambridge, MA. For the celebration we went down to the Charles River to see fireworks. There was no wind at all. Except for the first few, all the fireworks were obscured by the smoke from the previous fireworks. Quite the dud. About 25 years later I was working in Japan and got to see a great show near Niigata.
I have to admit that the best fireworks show I have ever seen was the year there was an OOPS on the barge in Casco Bay that they used for Portland Maine’s display. All of it went up at once. It was SHORT, but it was *spectacluar*. Thankfully, the crew bailed overboard and nobody got hurt when it blew.
I’ve seen a few spoiled by no breeze too.
Another awesome year I was flying home from a work trip on the 4th up the East Coast right after sunset. Got to see dozens of fireworks displays all at once. Really cool from 30K feet. I’ve caught the nightly fireworks at Disney World from the air a few times too flying home to Sarasota. Usually into our descent by then, so a lot lower as we pass over Orlando too.
The best overall July 4th fireworks I ever saw was during a delayed Northwest flight from Newark to Minneapolis. We took off just as it was getting dark. I had a window seat and I got to see the fireworks from every town and city from above pretty much from New Jersey all the way to around Chicago, where it clouded up. Even then, I got to see the clouds lighting up with all the different colors from below.
In the 1976 Bicentennial celebration, my dad worked for the perks department in our East Texas town. He was responsible for coordinating the Bicentennial Parade, so the day before, he brought my sister and I down to some facility, and we got to ride around in the Shriners Model T wheelie wagon, complete with wheelies and wheelstanding spins! It was amazing!
Nice recoloring and stripe work on the Mav. I’m happy the plastic around the bed isn’t black and to see the extended roof/wing. And, the wing on the tailgate is cool, too.
I didn’t see any gold as you mentioned in the article. But none needed.
Plus, I’ll echo others to have a reduced wheel size to allow more tire sidewall.
You created a fun looking Mav, one worthy of running around the streets. I do like it.
I miss paint-job-and-decal special editions in general, so I definitely lament the lack of America 250 themed cars.. And I think more people would have been interested in buying them if a certain King Midas in Reverse weren’t trying to put his imprint on all the festivities and ruining them in the process.
Dude, yes! What happened to all the colors? Black, white, and every shade of gray in between is BORING.
People. People are what happened. We live in a boring, everything must be so safe, age. It’s a grayscale world right now. Maybe like the Wizard of Oz, color will wash over us again at some point.
The hot pink wrap on our Golf R finally failed and had to come off, and the cost to get a high quality full wrap has more than doubled, which makes it pretty hard to justify. So now i drive a black car and it makes me sad.