![]() ![]() ![]() Or the kids to the game while Mommy was shopping in her Country Squire. The T Bird was there to take your impressed friends for steaks at the supper club after mai tais in the Polynesian-themed rec room of your new rancher. ![]() Its first taste of the personal-luxury market was juicy, and Ford was hooked.īut if the Thunderbird was to really fly, to truly be the winged aspiration of late-fifties suburban optimism, it needed to be a four-seater: a social vehicle. Lesson learned: Ford would forever leave Chevy to fight for a share of the marginal sports car market. It handily outsold the ‘Vette, by a huge margin too. Its ’55-‘57 incarnation as a two-seater may have had a sporty air but it was all pretense it was the antecedent to the long line of Mercedes SL soft-roadsters. The Thunderbird was born as a response to the ’53 Corvette and other sports cars. The industry has never been the same since. They foreshadowed the complete fragmentation of the modern marketplace, which previously had been dominated by full-sized cars. And like their respective buyers, they are each other’s polar opposites ying/yang, right brain/left brain, thrifty/exuberant, grounded/aspiring. They each carved out major new segments of the popular-priced market, on the opposite ends of the spectrum. ![]() If this series of revolutionary vehicles had been of just two cars, the T-Bird and the VW would be it. And after it crashed, and had its wings tacked onto a blinged-out Torino, a piece of the American dream died with it. Perhaps it tried to fly too high, or the dream changed, because it soon fell back to earth. And for a dozen years or so, the Thunderbird soared, and revolutionized the industry by creating the attainable personal luxury genre. If Ol’ Henry could fulfill the once unthinkable dream of putting every American on wheels, then surely Hank II and his Whiz Kids could do the same with wings. Once the realm of the privileged few, luxury and exclusivity was now in the grasp of every hard working dreamer after all, the T Bird was still a Ford. The 1958 Thunderbird was the embodiment of the dream where everyday folks would fly above the humdrum of dull workaday existence and dowdy sedans. I could never tell them apart as a kid anyway.īehold the mythical winged dream machine. I hope the dissonance won’t upset the purists here. The Ford Thunderbird went on to great heights with its evolution, sales, and success becoming an integral part of American automotive history.īut, over the years, the T-Bird lost its wings and transitioned from an icon to just another average car, eventually getting discontinued in 2005.NB: The car pictured here is a 1959 Thunderbird, but my article is about its near identical 1958 predecessor, because of its historical significance. Ford called it a "personal luxury car" and although it was a competitor to the established Chevrolet Corvette, the T-Bird took a different approach and was more of a luxury grand-tourer than an outright muscle car.įord actually pulled a masterstroke with the car as it was a luxury car with all the bells and whistles along with enough muscle to keep you happy. There were a plethora of muscle cars, but the choice was unequivocally the Ford Thunderbird, if you wanted an outright luxury offering. The year is 1955, and you want to buy an all-American car. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |