Back before the ponycar craze was ignited, Ford concentrated almost all its efforts in street performance on the Galaxie car line. Since 1960, Ford had shoved FE engines and, oddly enough, three-speed transmissions into the true fullsize Ford. By 1964, Ford saw the handwriting on the wall in the Pontiac GTO, but had nothing to counter with outside of the Fairlane 289 Hi-Po and the Galaxie packing the 427.
The Galaxie was truly a luxury car with power-kind of like Rambo in a tuxedo. With 425 horses on tap and a big spline four-speed to handle the monster torque in the top model, you might not win many battles at the stoplight, but you would reel in anyone foolish enough to tackle this freeway flyer on the highway.