But if I had been a shareholder of Ford Motor Company at the time, I would have been standing on my chair, applauding as the sales results for this new model rolled in.The great American sports car collection gets a new team member and more power under the bonnet with the addition of the Breitling Manufacture calibre 01. As a gearhead, I wish the T-Bird had gone on to become a Corvette fighter. The Square Bird is another example of enthusiasts’ losses resulting in a bottom-line gain for the car company. Perhaps the new owner of this Bird has similar fond memories. One of our older buddies, whose dad let him take his ’60 T-Bird on dates, did find the rear seat had some advantages at the drive-in. My own Gold Medallion ’57 once lost a point because of a wrinkle in a hard-to-see underdash trim edging.Īnd finally, maybe the Square Bird offered a moment of nostalgia for the buyer. Third, its concours victories are at Vintage Thunderbird Club International (VTCI) events, where judges are probably as compulsive as those at Porsche or Corvette gatherings. Even a restoration that goes perfectly-and none of them do-will take twice as long as you imagine, cost three times as much as you expect, and will cause the antacid consumption in the house to go up ten-fold. Second, the car was already done, and ready to be shown at the Hamptons Concours. Once again, a buyer paid for a restoration and got the underlying car for free. Why the record price for this car? First, like most well-restored cars, the sale price was less than the restoration itself cost. Its massive 490 ft-lbs of torque cut 0 to 60 times to 8.2 seconds, but its greater bulk only made handling matters worse. V8 with 350 horsepower was an option, although rarely ordered. It featured high compression, improved breathing and a front-mounted distributor. So, as a solution, he just put a lot of stuff on top of the tunnel and invented the automobile center console, which was widely copied by Ford’s competition.Īn all-new 352-c.i. William Boyer, a Ford designer who flew airplanes in WWII, was used to having a big mass between the pilot and copilot. However, due to the new lower body, the driveshaft tunnel was quite tall. There was more interior space than in a full-size Cadillac 62. Monocoque construction was new for Ford, and allowed the seats to be recessed into the floor pan, reducing overall height to an unheard-of 52.5 inches (as a comparison, the 1960 Chrysler 300F stood 55.1 inches tall). In its own way, the Square Bird was a revolutionary car.
The money rolled in, with Ford’s reported profit being $1,000 per unit (about $6,000 in today’s money). And it outsold Corvette during the three years ten to one. By the time the “Bullet Bird” replaced it in 1961, over 195,000 Square Birds had rolled out of the Lincoln plant in Wixom, Michigan-almost four times the two-seater’s total production. hired to save Ford, had invented the “personal luxury” car. McNamara, the ex-Litton whiz kid that Henry Jr. We all swore never to buy a Ford.īut in the market at large, the car was a smash hit, as 37,892 Square Birds-more than 70% of the entire three-year 53,155 production run of the “Little Bird”-were snapped up in the first year. The suspension is much too soft for superior handling…steering is excessively slow.” Just while Chevrolet was turning the Corvette into a serious performance car, Ford had invented our father’s Olds before Oldsmobile did. One report alleged, “that while smooth and comfortable for freeway travel, it is not particularly maneuverable. Then the first test reports came out, showing the two-ton sled to take 13.5 seconds to get to 60 miles per hour (as compared to 9.3 seconds for the ’57 T-Bird). We budding car nuts couldn’t believe that Ford had scrapped its sleek two-seater for a four-passenger barge with squared-off lines and too much chrome. I’ll never forget that night at the local drive-in, 45 years ago, when the first pictures of the’58 Thunderbird were passed around. This represents a new record price for a “Square Bird.” Vintage Thunderbird Club International (VTCI) PO Box 2250, Dearborn, MI 48123 316/794-8132ġ961-66 Olds Starfire convertible, 1960-61 Chrysler New Yorker, 1964 Chrysler 300K convertibleĪt Christie’s Rockefeller Center auction on May 18, 2002, this T-Bird brought an amazingly high $47,000, including buyer’s premium.
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