I was looking through the teardown manual on a friend's 86 Mustang, and that year came with three motor options: 4, 6, and 8 cylinders. The picture of the front of the 6 cylinder motor seems to show a direct drive timing setup - the cam gear meshes directly into the crank gear, without a chain or belt.
Is this actually what I am seeing? If so, how do the gears last compared to a chain-driven cam? It seems like this would be a more common design if there weren't any drawbacks to it in comparison to a chain.