![]() ![]() The combining of such fantasy with sheet metal as bold as the dream of a moon landing by decade’s end created a heady mix. There were no turbocharged Cadillacs, nor were Impalas fitted with ComfortTemp Climate Control. While early-’60s General Motors products tended to throw in a lot of wizardry, it wasn’t limited to one model. At the time, its standard power steering and power brakes were luxuries normally reserved for top-rung models, and other innovative “luxury” highlights swiftly became the wind beneath the ‘Bird’s wings. Not only was the “Bullet Bird” closely related to the definitive car of the 1960s, it came equipped almost as fully as a Continental itself. Plenty of its 93,000 sales in 1960 came at the expense of the Olds Ninety Eight, Buick Invicta and, tellingly, Mercury Park Lane as it burst open the upper echelons of the medium-price market. The Squarebird proved that you didn’t need a premium brand to sell a premium product to the (relative) masses. Say what you will about the heavy-handed George Barris styling, but that blind C-pillar defined hardtop elegance for the better part of a decade. ![]() While not the first of the breed (at least in my view I bestow that honor on the ill-fated Studebaker “Loewy Coupes”), it was one of Ford’s two biggest wins of the late ’50s. Next came the genre-defining personal coupe. Nothing says sporty like a Continental kit and opera window, right? Not enough trunk space for a set of golf clubs? Then damn the already-middling handling–throw in at least a hundred pounds more behind the rear axle! The Thunderbird’s ridiculous factor started pretty early, from where I stand. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that my favorite is the first version to really jump the shark: Landau bars and eight-tracks, anyone? Out of all the cars that make no sense–at least on paper– I’m willing to give the beguiling bird a pass. Video below.( first published ) The Thunderbird: So irrational, so illogical, so often successful. Courtesy of Ford Heritage at the UK’s National Motor Museum, we have this nicely preserved dealer film singing the praises of the Thunderbird for ’65. As car-crazy little kids in the ’60s, we were impressed by these neat gimmicks. The Flair Bird’s marketing tagline, “the private world of Thunderbird,” spoke to the nearly endless list of standard and optional luxury features, but the two most memorable items, even to this day, were the fabulous wrap-around rear passenger seat and, brand new for ’65, the gee-whiz sequential turn signals. As the pioneer of the personal luxury class, the T-Bird outsold the Riviera by a comfortable margin, too: nearly 75,000 units, compared to not quite 35,000 for the Buick. With a base price of $4,394, by far the most expensive model in the Ford model line for ’65, the Thunderbird was priced a bit higher than even its upmarket rival, the Buick Riviera. The fourth-generation models of 1964-66 are known by T-bird fanciers as Flair Birds, though we’re not sure if that name has stuck quite as well as the other Thunderbird handles.īy its fourth generation, the Thunderbird had departed far from its origins to become an all-out luxury car with barely a trace of sports car flavoring-the curb weight was now over 4,500 lbs. ![]() First come the 1955-57 two-seater Baby Birds, then the 1958-60 Squarebirds, followed by the 1961-63 Bullet Birds. By 1965, the Ford Thunderbird had grown into a luxurious 4,500-lb boulevard cruiser with some memorable gee-whiz features.Īs we’ve chronicled before here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, each successive generation of the Ford Thunderbird earns a nickname from the car enthusiast community. ![]()
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