The third generation lasted from 1961–1963, and production stayed relatively steady as did performance, with a 390 cid V8 now the base power plant. The car got some slight restyling and added a convertible option in 1958, and production soured. The T-Bird quickly became popular with racing enthusiasts, they were a staple of 1950s and 1960s drag racing.įord produced the second generation of the Thunderbird from 1958–1960, and in 1959 Ford gave the T-Bird its first big-block V8 engine, a 430 cid V8 making 350 horsepower and 490 lb-ft of torque. The Thunderbird vastly outsold the Corvette even though they sold for similar prices. Ford created the Thunderbird to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette that General Motors had released a few years earlier in 1953. Available engines were either a 292 or 312 cid V8, and in 1957 a supercharger was added to increase horsepower and torque. The first generation of the Thunderbird lasted from 1955–1957. In 1967, Ford brought out the first four-door T-Bird in history, which was very successful at first, but sales soon slumped. Originally, Ford only made the Thunderbird available as a two-door convertible with a removable fiberglass top, but soon they added a Rayon-top option, and in 1958 Ford introduced a four-seater version. The Thunderbird sold well, almost eclipsing 100,000 cars annually for a few model years. The first six generations of the Ford Thunderbird spanned 22 model years from 1955–1976. Make sure to check out our other article for the 1977–2005 Ford Thunderbird. This article will cover the first six generations of the Thunderbird, from 1955–1976. From 1968–1971, Ford released the ThunderJet variant, which was essentially a muscle car with its 429 cid V8 engine pumping out 360 horsepower and almost 500 lb-ft of torque. The 1950s T-Birds are some of the most recognizable American cars of all-time, with their classic tailfins and headlights. It did make one last comeback from 2002–2005 for an 11th generation, but Ford has since retired the moniker again.Īlso known as the “T-Bird,” in 1957 the Thunderbird became one of the first production cars with a factory equipped supercharger. The original run of the Thunderbird lasted for 10 generations from the 1955–1997 model years, before Ford briefly halted production. First introduced for the 1955 model year, Ford marketed the Thunderbird as a personal luxury car that featured outstanding performance from big-block V8s. The small, circular windows on either side are called portholes, in homage to to their resemblance of submarine and ship windows.Spanning 50 years, the Ford Thunderbird is one of the most iconic cars in American history. Only 674 Corvettes were sold in 1955, almost causing Chevrolet to entirely discontinue the line! In the first year of production, the Thunderbird outsold the Corvette 24 to 1. It features a removable hardtop, but has not soft-cloth option. There are only an estimated 40 F-Types left in existence today. The vast majority were the D-Type V8, while 1,363 were E-Type, and just 197 were F-Type. In total, there were 21,380 Thunderbirds sold in 1957, each with one of three V8 engine options: D-, E- or F-Type. Then, just as competitors started following in Fords footsteps, Ford took another gamble and released the 1958 Thunderbird as a four-seater only, which did extremely well on the market. Other manufacturers were making cars bigger and bigger, whereas Ford went smaller. Retrospectively, releasing a small sports car in the middle of the 1950s went very much against the grain at the time. The Thunderbird was so easily accepted by the public because it strongly resembled other current Ford models. However, Ford engineers noticed the growing trend of war veterans importing many of the stylish sports cars being driven around Europe at the time, and decided to begin designing their own domestic variation. The decision to begin production on a small, two-seater sports car was a very risky move by Ford, as the public was deeply enamored with very large and over-the-top automobiles at the time. The first Thunderbird chassis left the factory for the 1955 model year and were already considered to be better engineered than their Chevrolet counterparts, due to their all-steel bodies in comparison with the fiberglass bodies found on early Corvettes. Ford was testing out the waters in the sports car world, as Chevrolet had also recently released the first Corvette with moderate success. The first Thunderbird made its debut as a concept car at the 1954 Detroit Auto Show. Transmission: 4-speed manual A Little History
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