There was an automotive hierarchy on Woodward Avenue back in the 1960s. As the cruisers meandered between hot spots such as the Big Town, Maverick's, and Ted's drive-ins, where the hot cars gathered, to the Big Boy, where the girls were, there was a high-performance caste system that everyone understood.

"There were guys with regular cars out there, looking to meet girls, and there were guys with pretty hot cars who were interested in the car scene," says Tom Sawyer (yes, that's his real name). "And then there was the upper echelon of cars, the ones driven by factory guys and from the dealerships. They were on another level. We knew who they were, but we didn't mess with them, and they didn't mix with us, but we were all there on Woodward."

Tom is one of Woodward's original cruisers, raised in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham, which remains a central cruise spot during the summer months and during the annual Woodward Dream Cruise. From the late 1950s through late 1960s, he was a fixture on the Avenue, hitting all the neon-lit sites that have since been replaced with soulless strip malls and industrial parks.

He did it mostly in a 1961 Ford Galaxie Sunliner he purchased new. Five decades later, he's back on Woodward in the very same car. He has owned it the entire time, although it spent more than 40 years in hibernation in a northern Michigan barn.

"I was 20 years old when I bought the car, but nobody would lend a kid my age the $2,800 to purchase it, so my dad had to sign for it," says Tom. "A couple years later, he signed it over to me, officially selling it to me for $1."

Despite a penchant for performance, Tom ordered a loaded, comparatively heavy convertible. Actually, his father, a Ford employee, did the official ordering, on the company's A Plan. Bypassing the dealership made delivery a formality that took place at a Ford tractor outlet in Birmingham, which was razed long ago and is now populated by condos.

Tom's Sunliner was built at the cusp of the factory horsepower movement, with most power parts offered over the counter rather than in a specific model. Tom's car, however, was ordered with the high-performance package that included a four-barrel-fed 390 engine rated at 375 hp, heavy-duty brakes and suspension, 15-inch wheels, and electric wipers. Tom ordered the optional column-shift three-speed manual with overdrive. Stout stuff, no question about it, but it would be another year before Ford would offer the truly high-po 406 engines and a four-speed transmission.

As a stopgap measure, Ford offered a 6V, 3x2 induction system over the counter in 1961. It raised the 390's output to 401 hp, which was just four horses shy of the legendary 406's 405hp rating with a similar induction system. Tom drove his Sunliner for about a year, including banging off some mid-14-second e.t. 's at Detroit Dragway, before forking over more than a few of his hard-earned dollars for the performance promise of the triple-carb setup. He installed it himself, too.

"It all came in a box," he says. "Like everything mechanical back then, it was a pretty simple installation. You just pulled off the factory intake, laid down a new manifold gasket, and installed the new intake."

Well, there was a little more to it than that. For one thing, Ford reversed the position of the Holley two-barrels on the manifold, ostensibly to prevent interference issues with the distributor. That required a more complicated linkage that crossed over to the right-hand side of the manifold to connect with the carbs' throttles.

"Rather than vacuum-assist, like the Pontiac Tri-power, the Ford setup was an entirely mechanical linkage," says Tom. "You needed a ruler to measure the adjustable linkage rods, but after they were set and tightened, you basically never needed to touch it again, unlike the Pontiac system. I haven't touched the linkage on mine since we restored the car back in 2011."

Back in the day, the "backwards" position of the carburetors reportedly caused stalling or fuel starvation on hard stops because the fuel bowls were reversed. But Tom says he's never encountered the problem, then or now.

The same year he installed the 3x2 setup, Tom also replaced the original column-shift mechanism with a sturdy Hurst stick.

"The column shift was clumsy, was hard to power-shift, and the linkage broke often," he says. "Installing the Hurst shifter made a world of difference. Like the intake setup, I installed it myself, which included cutting a hole in the floor and getting the linkage rods set just so, but it's been banging off the gears in the car now for more than 55 years."

Curiously, Tom never swapped in a four-speed, preferring to stick with the original BorgWarner three-speed overdrive, the design of which dates back to the 1930s. It's an electrically operated system with a dashboard control that engages OD or locks it out. Even when engaged, a throttle-activated switch on the firewall disengages it at wide-open throttle.

"It still works great after all these years, and it really comes in handy on the freeway," says Tom. "At 65 mph, the engine is only turning about 2,800 rpm, and that's with a 4.11 rearend, which is what the car originally came with."

In the early years, Tom ran a 4.71 gear on the street, which really helped launch the S.S. Sunliner, but pretty much limited its practical top speed to 55 or 60 mph.

"That's just what everybody did back then," he says. "It's no wonder so many people blew up so many engines."

Tom cruised and engaged in the occasional backroad challenge until about 1967, when he parked the car in a barn on some property he'd purchased in northern Michigan. Although he didn't intend a museum-type preservation, the covers he used did a remarkable job of keeping the elements and critters at bay. He wasn't even sure he was going to keep the car when he pulled it out of suspended animation in 2011, but his wife Judy (no, he didn't marry a girl named Becky Thatcher) urged him to keep it.

Rust in the car was blessedly minor for an early-1960s Michigan car, but Tom had accumulated a number of N.O.S. parts through the 1970s, including front fenders and rear quarters. The door skins and other sheetmetal, such as the decklid and hood, were in great shape and were retained before five coats of paint replicating the original Monte Carlo Red were sprayed on the carefully block-sanded flanks.

The original steel wheels were painted, too, and as time passed they have become treasures in their own right. The reinforced 15x5.5 wheels from Kelsey Hayes are what Ford installed on its higher-performance models, but with the production numbers so low—and the fact a good many of them were dumped for being boring, heavy steel rims—precious few survive. The dog dish hubcaps were mandatory, too, because Ford didn't have a full wheel cover for 15-inch rims.

"We called those hubcaps 'dimes' back then," says Tom. "I don't know why. Probably because of their resemblance to the coin, but that's what we called them."

The rest of the car received more of a cosmetic refurbishment, as Tom sought to retain as much of the car's originality as possible. That includes the red-and-white interior, which features the original carpet, sill plates, and upholstery. Some of the original red paint is wearing off the steering wheel, but it simply enhances the car's authenticity. And before any of you Ford concours nuts sends us a note to tell us the interior door handles are backwards in the photos, Tom knows. He reversed them more than 50 years ago.

"You always had wise guys doing stupid stuff in the parking lots," he says. "One of them was reaching down and opening doors for no reason. Flipping the handles over prevented that."

There aren't too many jokers like that anymore on Woodward, and there certainly aren't too many owners whose stories with their car date back to 1961, but Tom Sawyer is assuredly a Woodward original.

At a Glance

1961 Galaxie Sunliner convertible

Owned by: Tom Sawyer

Restored by: Owner

Engine: 390ci/401hp V-8

Transmission: BorgWarner T85 3-speed manual with overdrive

Rearend: 9-inch with 4.11 gears and limited-slip differential

Interior: Red and white vinyl bench seat

Wheels: 15x5.5 Kelsey Hayes steel with hubcaps

Tires: P215/75R15 BFGoodrich Silvertown Radial

Special parts: Dealer-ordered 3x2 induction system, vintage Hurst shifter

See all 24 photos The body man who replaced the quarters on the Sunliner assumed they were repro parts and was shocked when they fit like a glove. His boss reminded him that they were N.O.S. parts that owner Tom Sawyer had collected 40 years earlier.

See all 24 photos Dealer-supplied 3x2 6V induction bumped the 390's output to 401 hp and 430 lb-ft of torque. The air cleaner lid barely fit under the hood with the original, very short air filter element. Taller replacements caused the front of the lid to rub against the hood, so Tom milled down the front of the lid for clearance. The engine compartment also shines with an original chrome dress-up kit.

See all 24 photos The 3x2 setup uses backward-mounted Holley two-barrel carbs, reversed ostensibly for distributor clearance. The mechanical, progressive linkage requires essentially no adjustment when set properly. These are the original carbs that came with the over-the-counter intake system back in 1962.

See all 24 photos The interior is essentially unrestored and features options such as a padded dash, padded visors, and very rare seat belts. The front belts appear tan but have faded from their original black over the decades. The red-and-white vinyl upholstery is original and has held up well over the years and the car's 80,000 miles.

See all 24 photos The dashboard-mounted control knob engages or disengages the electrically controlled overdrive for the three-speed manual transmission. When it's pushed in, overdrive is engaged. When it's pulled out, it's disengaged. It automatically drops out of overdrive at wide-open throttle.

See all 24 photos This Hurst shifter has been in the Sunliner since 1962, an aftermarket upgrade made after the original three-on-the-tree column shift couldn't keep up with quick-shift demands on the street and strip.

See all 24 photos

See all 24 photos Like the Hurst shifter, the vintage Sun tach is an original day-two enhancement that's been with the car for nearly 60 years. It works a lot better, too, since being converted to electronic actuation. The original tach controller remains under the hood and looks just like it did in 1961, but it is virtually empty inside, with only a small circuit board replacing the original guts.

See all 24 photos The car rolls on rare 15x5.5 Kelsey Hayes-supplied steel wheels, which are stamped on the inside with the rim size. The hubcaps on Tom's car were used primarily in 1960 but bled over into early 1961. Ford didn't have a full wheel cover for a 15-inch wheel at the time.

See all 24 photos Owner Tom Sawyer, a former girlfriend, and the Sunliner, in Birmingham, Michigan, on delivery day, May 1, 1961.

See all 24 photos Before the 6V induction system was installed, the nearly 4,200-pound convertible with its original four-barrel 390 turned 14-second e.t.'s on street tires at Detroit Dragway.