EDSEL TURNS 50

COX NEWS SERVICE Frank Harris (left) and Steve Durham stand among several of the rare Ford Edsels they own. The Edsel, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer, was a marketing flop in its day, but you'd never guess it by driving through a subdivision between Griffin and Orchard Hills, Ga.

At any one time, there are at least a dozen Edsels in garages there, thanks to Frank Harris and Steve Durham, who share a passion for the chrome-laden cars that have become cherished by collectors despite their initial unpopularity.

Production ended early into the 1960 model year after just two years and one month on the market. Only 110,000 were built, far fewer than Ford Motor Co., Edsel's parent, had hoped to sell in that period.

The failure is reported to have cost Ford more than $350 million.

Too bad for Ford there weren't more car buyers like Harris and Durham.

Harris, a machine shop owner and operator, has the larger of the two collections, about 20 in all including a dozen or so parts cars.

His most prized car, a red 1960 convertible that was the first of its kind built that year, has won awards across the nation.

Durham, a Griffin dentist, has a top-ofthe line '59 Corsair, a '59 convertible and '59 wagon.

It was a five-year project, but it turned a car that was once a storehouse for a pair of squirrels into a car listed for sale at $200,000.

Like Durham, Harris strongly disagrees with the criticism that dogged the Edsel in the '50s.

The most notable dig at the Edsel came in a Time magazine article that said the Edsel's trademark horse-collar-shaped grill "resembled an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon."