One of Lee Iacocca's creations, the Ford Galaxie 500/XL was the perfect full-sized performance saloon which could appeal the Baby Boomer generation. Introduced in 1962 the 500/XL was a feast for those liking big cars with big engines: equipped with the standard 292 V8 it offered a range of engines like the Thunderbird 352, Thunderbird 390 and competiton-ready Thunderbird 406 High Performance and Thunderbird 406 Super High Performance. Customers could choose between a traditional 4 speed atuomatic gearbox or Ford's own three speed Cruise-o-Maic automatic. Due to the high popularity of NASCAR races, The XL definition was never clarified from Ford, but as Galaxie enthusiasts continued to appreciate this American classic, they indentified such model name with "Xcellent Lee", indicating Iacocca's fantastic work done during the development of this model. Certainly Ford wanted to put the Galaxie as the pinnacle of both fiery muscle-car performance and joyful living, and it presented the Galaxie in three forms, as a two door coupè as a sedan and as a two door convertible, also known as Sunliner. Epitomizing the concept of "live it up...with the live ones from Ford" and wanting to give its most enthusiastic customers a car they can enjoy, Ford offered the Galaxie until 1970 as the ultimate performance machine with full sized dimensions and equipment.