11/16/2023 0 Comments Thunderbird car 50s![]() Now, instead of an American “sports car”, the Thunderbird program was morphed into a larger unit “body buddy” with the 1958 Lincoln so that both of them (and the Wixom, Michigan plant where they were to be built) could become paying propositions. After all, immediately after the drama of the 1955 model attention shifted to Robert McNamara and his green eyeshade-style of automotive management. Perhaps the 1957 Thunderbird’s styling became an afterthought in automotive history because the car was an afterthought during its development. If the story of the ’55 is murky, that of the ’57 has been almost ignored despite the fact that it was undoubtedly one of the most successful refreshes in the history of automobile styling. What is fascinating is the way the 1957 restyle has received so little attention through the years. It has been argued that without the 1953 Corvette there would have been no 1955 Thunderbird, and without the 1955 Thunderbird there would have been no 1956 Corvette.Īfter two years of success the 1957 model would require a restyle. Even with its new V8 engine, Chevrolet could only manage to move 674 Corvettes that year. The Thunderbird had two seats like a sports car, but was really meant for the boulevard or the country club.Īlthough Ford had projected a 10,000 unit initial run, the company sold 16,155 Birds in 1955. While everyone else was trying to build an American Triumph or Jaguar, Ford created a uniquely American style accessory that was more of a cross between a Jaguar and a Cadillac. However, in the way that seemed unique to Ford in those years the car and its designers stumbled on the secret to success. The 1955 Thunderbird turned out to be not a sports car, exactly. Success, as we all know, has many fathers. There are versions crediting Frank Hershey, Bill Boyer and Joe Oros, each of whom worked under Ford’s styling VP George Walker. The crib notes version is that the original Bird’s styling story is a bit murky. And one that Aaron Severson has ably chronicled at Ate Up With Motor. The story of Thunderbird’s birth in the fall of 1954 is another story for another time. When Chevrolet introduced the 1953 Corvette, it almost certainly was. By 1952 the idea of a sports car must have been on Henry Ford II’s mind. As the second half of the twentieth century got underway, the most backwards auto company known for selling tough but thoroughly obsolete products had transformed itself into a modern company that was quite competitive. Too Big To Fail was a thing in the 1940’s too. ![]() By 1952 the company had made amazing strides from the company of less than a decade earlier, which was closer than many realized to closing up shop. And there were, of course, many sports car prototypes and show cars from various Divisions that made the rounds of GM’s Motorama shows.Īnd then there was the Ford Motor Company. been less invested in revamping the standard lines. Even the 1953 Studebaker Starliner/Starlight was considered as something of a sports car, albeit a more practical one with a back seat.Ĭhrysler was busy with a series of Virgil Exner-conceived one-offs, any one of which could have made it to showrooms had K. The Nash-Healy, the Hudson Italia and the Kaiser Darrin all made it to production. In addition to the most famous one (the 1953 Corvette) there were many others. Sports cars were all the rage in the early 1950s. The basic story of the Thunderbird is well-known. It is this one: The 1957 Ford Thunderbird. And the 1950’s? Sorry, but it is not the ’57 Chevy. Then there was the 1941 Lincoln Continental and the 1965 Mustang, two cars that reached a kind of styling perfection in the 1940’s and the 1960’s. ![]() The 1936 Ford (or the ’39 if you are a contrarian like me) did the same thing the following decade in that each was virtually perfect in its own way. Think about it: in the 1920s it was the Model A, one of the most beautiful cars of its era, never mind its diminuitive size. However, it seems that once every decade it was the Ford Motor Company that hit the stylistic home run which made all other cars seem ordinary. Names like Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell are well known for the long stream of attractive and trend-setting cars that they guided from paper to clay and into showrooms everywhere during the company’s long term domination of the American auto industry. It is generally accepted that General Motors was the long-reining king of automotive styling. At least not without its older brothers along. Hard as it may be to believe, in all of the years that curbside classics have been gracing the pages of Curbside Classic, we have never given the 1957 Thunderbird its day in the sun. ![]()
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