Everyone’s Sweetheart… Perhaps it started in the middle of the movie; American Graffiti. You might recall it. Ron Howard was in it – but was, of course, a very young Richard Dreyfus and Harrison Ford were also in the movie. At first what was notable were the cars that were drag racing. A bright yellow 32 Hi-boy was racing a 55 Chevy. But it wasn’t either of these cars that I fell in love with. It was the one that Susan Sommers was driving. Intentionally the director (George Lucas) kept her face obscured for a good part of the movie, but you knew that she was alluring, mysterious – and pretty. So was the car she was driving. Of course, I’m talking about the 1955-57 Ford Thunderbird (Susan was driving a 56 with a porthole, newly offered that year). She is arguably one of the prettiest and most popular Fords of the 1950’s and was beloved by both men and women alike. Yet, Ford was late to the game, perhaps. Chevrolet jump-started the American sports-car scene with the venerable Corvette, yet, Chevrolet (for all of Corvette’s stamina and success) underpowered the car originally with the 6-cylinder “Blue Flame” engine. In the beginning, she didn’t sell well. Ford’s delay to market only enhanced the success of the “Bird”, it might seem. In all honesty, Chevrolet advertised the Corvette as a sports car while Ford correctly marketed the Thunderbird as a “personal luxury car”. Ford never really cared about 0-60 times in their advertising. Ford stuffed their new “Y” block V8 into the Thunderbird and outsold the upstart Vette 23 to 1. Was it the V8 engine or the striking good looks, I can’t say? What I can say is that styling was (and is) extremely pleasing. In many ways, the Thunderbird defined the 50’s, in terms of style, certainly more so than the Corvette. Whenever someone views The Burt Collection, they invariably ask me “do you have a Thunderbird”. Alas, I never have owned one and for several reasons. Despite them being pretty, they were prolific – perhaps too popular and to many, always thought to be a future collectible, meaning not many were “thrown away”. I see this repeatedly in the Ford lineup – witness the 1956-7 Mark II, the 1957-59 Retractable – even the original Continental in 1941. I’ve always found the aforementioned cars to be beautiful but sluggish in the collectors market. A good 1955-7 Thunderbird (excluding the E-bird) have consistently underperformed in value. But who cares. They are simply so nice to drive. The automatic transmission models, despite being only a two-speed box (unless manually dropped into 1st gear”), still had adequate torque and are easy to drive. Anyone can drive a “Ford-O-Matic” automatic Thunderbird – wives or girlfriends included. Despite their T-Bird’s small(er) size and seemingly cramped interior, they aren’t as tight behind the wheel as you might think; surely not as snug as the 1955-7 Corvette. Let’s face it; none of us are getting any smaller (nor less wide). Is she worth collecting – yep. There is a good supply of them out there, and darn, aren’t they pretty? Interestingly. Ford purchased the name “Thunderbird” from a gentleman in Iowa (Mr. Crabbs – I don’t make this up). Prior to that acquisition, Ford was considering calling the Thunderbird the “Vega”. Yikes. Enjoy Paul
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 19:22:04 +0000
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