You already know the lineup in the cool hardtop list from the 1960s.
There’s the Chevelle SS family, the ’68-9 Chargers, the GTOs and the ‘63 (and up) Ford Galaxies.
They got the spotlight, but what about the unsung two-door hardtops?
Jerry Sutherland
Start by looking at the 1968 Ford LTD Brougham two-door hardtop with the 428 Q-code. Ford invested in a facelift with the 1968 lineup when they drifted away from the vertical headlights (1965-67), and back to the horizontal look.
They upped the game by giving this car classic 60s hideaway headlights, so that, and the 428 under the hood gave the LTD a look that matched the Q-code power. You won’t see two of them at your local car show, but they are cars that carried a big presence—especially with that massive engine option.
The 1963 Olds 98 two-door hardtop was the kind of car your sporty great-uncle would order from the local dealer. An Olds 98 guy wasn’t a spotlight guy—he was a refined guy with refined tastes.
That’s why the two-door option was so unusual in the big Olds 98, but it might have been a feature that made older buyers feel sporty. That–and the legendary 394 Olds V-8 with 335 horses made the two-door 98 magic, but the taillights were the icing on the cake.
The 1967 Rebel SST (343 cubic inches, 285-horse) was AMC’s answer to the 60s muscle car wars.
They only made 15,000 of these classics, so you’ll 1000 examples of a Chevelle SS396 for one ’67 Rebel SST at a show and shine. It had a ’68 Road Runner vibe even though it pre-dated the Runner by a year. You can’t help thinking Chrysler had a few moles in the AMC design studios.
The 1966 Imperial was the kind of car your local bank president would drive because they were first class in every way. Most of them were four doors—think Milbourne Drysdale of ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ fame.
That’s why the ’66 Imperial Crown Coupe is so rare because typical buyers like Drysdale liked the extra doors. Two doors were for punks, so Chrysler only sold just over 2000 of them—but every Imperial had designer Elwood Engel’s fingerprints all over them.
The last unsung two-door hardtop of the 60s was the 1966 Mercury S-55 Super Marauder with the big block 428 cubic inch, 345 horsepower option.
This wasn’t a typical sporty 60s car because Mercs were big cars and nobody expected them to dominate on the street. The 428 evened the odds because a full-size Merc was usually something your librarian would, but a big-block version changed the game.
These cars don’t have the cult following of the most famous 60s two-door hardtop, but in 2026 they are rock stars at car shows for a simple reason. They are rare, but most car guys remember them as background players to the 60s street wars.
These are two-door hardtops with no press agents, but they didn’t need them with their built-in cool factor.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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