Introducing Personal Luxury

On the heels of Chevrolet's release of the Corvette sports car, Ford gave their own answer in 1955 by rolling out the two seater Thunderbird. Unlike it's rival, though, the T-Bird was not marketed as a sports car. Rather the brain trust at Ford decided to sell it as a personal luxury car.

Henry Ford II had the genesis idea for a two seat car in 1953. The plan was to call it the Vega. The Vega had tried to copy European styling but suffered from little power and was estimated to be a high sticker price. Still wanting to bring a two seater to market, Ford turned to William P. Boyd to lead the team that ultimately presented the Thunderbird in 1955. Though it had the look and feel of a traditional sports car, more emphasis had been put on creature comforts than

Perched on a 102 inch wheel base that was shorter than other Ford offerings, the Thunderbird used a Mercury derived 292 cubic inch V8 Y Block engine. While the speedometer was able to read all the way to 150 miles per hour there was any chance of the car reaching those lofty speeds. A year after its introduction a few changes were made, especially the moving of the spare tire outside of the trunk mounted on the rear bumper. Also, a 312 cubic inch engine became available.

The success of the first generation (it outsold the Vette 23 to 1 in its first year) spawned other automakers to enter into the new personal luxury car market. This first generation ran for three years and started what would become an early trend for the Thunderbird. Second generation cars hit the streets in 1958. Highly re-styled, they came to be nicknamed the "square birds" because of their design. It too ran for three years, ending in 1960, and seeing sales increase each year. In fact, in 1960 nearly 93,000 Thunderbirds were sold.

1961 saw the introduction of the third generation of the T-Bird and with it came something entirely new, a rear seat. The Thunderbird was fervently grasping its personal luxury car image and expanding its size yet again. While the car was bigger, so too was the engine. Now a 390 cubic inch V8 that was pushing 300 horsepower became standard. There was also a highly innovative hard top convertible model that mesmerized many who saw it in operation.

Keeping in the tradition of having three years for each model, Ford released the fourth generation T-Bird from 1964 through 1966. Finally, with the coming of the fifth generation in 1967 did they change this tendency. This fifth generation Bird flew from 1967 until 1971.

The Thunderbird ran concurrently for 10 generations, until 1997 before it was given a break. It returned for an 11th installment, a very sporty looking retro design, in 2002. This version of the car ran through the 2005 model year. With each subsequent model and generation, though, the Thunderbird remained true to its personal luxury tag.