i didn't have a car of my own till i was 21. my grand parents let me use their mustang, or their station wagon. the wagon was surprisingly fast.
QFT on the wagon... I drove the family fairmont wagon for years and the V8 gave it a suprising amount of power and acceleration even with the 3-speed auto tranny. That transmission was AWESOME for what it was, reliable and with positive predictable shifts. If it would have had an overdrive gear it would have been perfect and I'm still kicking myself for not dropping in a different transmission with an OD gear when the transmission died at 190,000 miles.
When the original 255 threw a rod at 98,000ish miles, we rebuilt it using parts from a 302 bronco engine. Gobs of torque was the result, and overall HP didn't matter because it was top speed limited by gear ratio to about 125ish mph with the engine just SCREAMING. No idea what rpm we were turning at that speed since the car had no limiters of any sort and had no tach, but it was far above the rpm used for full throttle upshifts, so we just didn't go that fast very often.
Then I sold the fairmont to my brother and his wife wrecked it the first week they had it. Too bad, it was in awesome shape for an 18 yr old family truckster with 200,000 miles, many of those hauling a trailer or overloaded well beyond spec with a family of 6, full of stuff, and with 2 custom roof carrier boxes also full. Only bent the right rear spring just a bit