Damn disease
I learned to drive in Mum's '61 Strato-Chief with a 3speed column-shifted six. IIRC that also was a 261.
What I remember most about that car, besides all the room inside there for 5 kiddies plus Mum on two benches, was how stinking fast it could go ......... in reverse! Yeah I was practicing, alone in the car, when I found that out.
I can still see me, right-arm over the bench to anchor me, upper body twisted nearly 180*, my azz no longer on the seat, and my eyeballs peeled on the picture-window in the back, with the concrete flying at me, and my left hand twitching the steering wheel; and no seatbelts in a '61 .....
I won't tell you about any other tricks that car couldn't do, lol; afterall, it was Mum's car ...... IIRC, Mum made me buy two new rear tires tho....... or was that on the 67 Anglia that Mum got next? Oh wait, that's the one I had to rebuild the 4-speed on, cuz I wore out the synchros, and it was in the winter, and Dad had no garage ..... yeah I remember now. Mum's cars were allchit like that. lol