It's a fairly audacious move to use a
ship's porthole as a car window, but that's just what Ford did when it
facelifted the Thunderbird in 1956. The T-bird formed part of the
American Dream in the post WW2 era. Like the rest of the world North
America had come through the depression only to be dragged into a
World War.
Flamboyant living was put on hold for the better part of
20 years. By the early 1950s there was a new attitude. Some could
call it rebellion. Rock 'n Roll launched liberation. It was only a
matter of time before cars also became liberated, away from the
functional form of machines and into the new world of art and style.
Style sells cars.
It is said the first generation
Thunderbird was meant to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette, but the
reality is more likely Ford's Thunderbird was inspired by the
opposition's sports car which in 1954 was also just a dream of
Chevrolet. The two were simply not in the same segment. Corvette was
always about brute power. The Thunderbird was a boulevard or turnpike
cruiser. In today's world it's like comparing a BMW M5 to a Lexus SC
430.
When the T-bird first hit the streets
in late 1954 it was a head-turner. Big, brash, prominent headlamps,
smallish fins not unlike a Studebaker Hawk, a two seater with a
fairly big V8 plonked under the ample sized bonnet. It came as a
convertible or with a removable hard top. The styling was clean with
bling kept to a minimum. It started life with a 292 cubic inch V8
borrowed from the Ford family of cars. Options included an auto
transmission and power steering. This meant the big car was more than
user-friendly. Plenty of go, cruisy, comfortable soft suspension, no
gear shifting unless you wanted it and light steering for parking.
In fact the big car was marketed by
Ford as being the `personal luxury car'. That certainly did not hint
of pretensions of being a sports car. Nor, by the way, does the
luxury Lexus SC 430, which could also be tagged as a `personal luxury
car', 21st century style. The fact Ford launched the car
with the word `luxury' used in marketing shows how dynamic the US
economy was in the mid 1950s. People were positive and they wanted
cars to reflect that. We don't know how that port hole fits into the
picture, but it does guarantee the Thunderbird gets its share of
looks.
Being a two seater the car was selfish
but this also guaranteed it to have a good size boot. On the down
side people wanting this sort of cruiser in many cases also wanted a
rear pew. Cruising with two people on board is ok ... with four
people it's more fun. So the first series T-bird lasted just four
years in two seater format. Changes were made on the way through.
The 1956 model was upped to a 12 volt electrical system, upgraded
interior and the V8 was upped to an optional 312 cubic inches.
While the first and second incarnations
of the T-bird were nice looking cars it was really our featured car,
the 1957 bird that took it into orbit. There were not wholesale
changes, just refining of an already sweet-looking set of wheels.
1957 was certainly a year for classics. This was also the year of the
magnificent Chevvy Bel Air Coupe, sedan and convertible that are so
popular as collectibles, the boat tail Chevrolet Sting Ray, Buick
Special, Studebaker Golden Hawk and Chrysler New Yorker ... each
arguably the best looking models of this era for each brand.
The Thunderbird has it roots as a
concept of Henry Ford 11 in 1953. He wanted a two-seater sports and
his company responded with a concept called the Vega. It was down on
power, European in appearance. The project was canned. Designer Frank
Hershey then started work on a design more along American lines
including the need for a powerful overhead valve V8 and a clay model
was ready by later in the year. The concept car was launched at
Detroit in early 1954 and launched later that year as the 1955 model.
Purists will note plenty of Ford-family styling
cues. The taillamps are typical 1950s Ford sedans and similar to
those used on the early Falcons while the single headlamps also
reflected Ford sedan style at that time.
The prominent bonnet scoop gives the
car some `toughness' and is about the only non-essential part of the
main body styling. Corvette and Thunderbird did not compete in the
same segment, but invariably comparisons are made. One of the easiest
to make is sales and in that race Thunderbird won hands down with 700
Corvette sales well behind the 16,155 T-birds that found homes in
1955.
The 1956 Thunderbird's most noticeable
change was the moving of the spare tyre to a continental style
outside the boot, to make more boot space. This was reversed in 1957.
The port holes also made their appearance in 1956 in the fibreglass
roof to assist in side vision and the front bumper was curved to
improve the aesthetics of the front, particularly around the larger
grille in 1957. For 1957 the tail fins were also enlarged as were
the rear tail lamps.
For 1957 the engines were also revamped
with the 292 cubic inch still available as well as the 312 and
hotted-up variants of the 312 with two four barrel Holley carbs and
one with a Paxton supercharger, that these days are as rare as
rocking horse manure. But, this the greatest of the Thunderbirds,
was due for a major overhaul that would see the car change
dramatically. To increase the already healthy sales Ford believed the
T-bird should accommodate four people. And that's what happened in
1958.
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