Just watched the "Wally buys his first car" episode again ($180 '53 scrub). According to the script, Ward gives his approval because it was safe & in good mechanical condition. In REAL life, most fathers selecting cars for their teenage sons likely picked the stovebolt since they knew it couldn't get out of it's own way (my mother had one). Right before that episode was filmed, I paid $200 for a stick-shift '54 239 Ford hardtop that would have run circles around it! Ran it flat out at 110 for nearly an hour (until a couple pushrods finally popped out and stranded us).

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA