Ralph Marquardt's 1963 Falcon Cayuse Convertible is one of 3 Built and is one of the rarest Ford Falcon in existence. It has the following features: Engine: 170cid Special Six, Transmission: Dagenham 4spd. In 1962-63 Ford Motor Company was looking to build a car that offered sporty European styling, bucket seats, and a shifter located on the floor by using the reliable and proven Ford Falcon suspension and un-body components or restyling the Ford Falcon.  FoMoCo. contracted Vince Gardner, who at the time was one of the top automotive stylists in the country to work on one of these projects.  Vince headed an experimental design and styling group that offered these services to Detroit auto manufactures and after approximately 750 hours Dearborn Tube and Steel handled the transformations.  The effort was called" Project Cayuse" and restyled three 1963 Falcon Futura convertibles into Cayuse Falcon convertibles.  The Cayuse Falcons featured  many redesigned components and styling changes, the front end treatment has a horizontal chrome steel bar grill work that's surrounded by a fiberglass shell.  A new fiberglass hood  that features a functional asymmetrical hood scoop was designed and used, there weren't many cars built in 1963 that offered a functional hood scope!  The wheel wells were re-shaped and all Falcon emblems and lettering was remove.  The rear styling was also much different, again the horizontal chrome bar theme was used along with customized tail light lenses and buckets and a rear license plate mount being used and moved to the rear tail light panel.  The rear bumper was restyled by removing the recessed area were the license plate normally mounts on a production 1963 Falcon convertible's bumper and sectioning in part of another bumper and re-chroming the new bumper.  The rear gas tank cap and fill neck was repositioned to the inside trunk area.  One of the three "Project Cayuse" Falcons was shorted 18 inches to make it a two-seater and was renamed the "Coyote".  The "Project Cayuse" cars were displayed through out 1963 as part of the Ford Custom Car Caravan and even though attendees liked the styling concepts, FoMoCo never use them on the Ford Falcon, Lee Iacocca choose a different "little horse"  the Ford Mustang to go after the sporty youth market and after 1965, the convertible and hardtop models were dropped entirely from the Falcon line all together.  One of the most interesting things about the Cayuse Falcons is that being a concept car  and not a production model FoMoCo  usually crushed  it's concept cars, all three car still survive today!  The first Cayuse Falcon built is owned by a man in Ann Arbor, Michigan and was featured in Custom Rodder magazine, this Cayuse has not been displayed since the 80's.  The second Cayuse built is the one featured here and owned by Ralph Marquardt, he purchased it in Detroit, Michigan. Previous owners include two Canadians. It has been repainted and has 39 thousand original miles.  The third and final Cayuse that was built, shortened 18 inches making it a two-seater and renamed the Coyote is owned by a man in Flat Rock, Michigan and has not been shown since the late 60's.