First Drive Review
On February 20, 1954, at the Detroit auto show, the company led by Henry Ford II turned the place upside down with the introduction of the Ford Thunderbird, a two-seat V-8 roadster that was designed to combat the influx of British, German, and Italian sports cars as well as to smack down the six-cylinder Chevrolet Corvette. For the first time, the Ford Division had two car lines to sell.
The 1955 Thunderbird was good-looking, as well as a technology leader, ushering in the era of padded dashboards, deep-dish steering wheels, shatter-resistant mirrors, power seats, and a radio that automatically increased volume with vehicle speed. In short order, there was multiple carburetion on the larger 312-cubic-inch V-8 and eventually a $500 supercharger option.
The original Thunderbird roadsters accounted for a mere 53,166 cars in 1955-57, or about as many F-150s as Ford sells in a fortnight. Thereafter, the Thunderbird went on one of the wildest rides in the industry, starting with the Square Bird in 1958, the Chrome Bird of the 1960s, the Big Bird of the 1970s, including a four-door variant, and the Awful Square Bird of the early 1980s. The Aero Bird that debuted in 1983 made designer Jack Telnack a star and put the Thunderbird back on the Winston Cup map, especially the Super Coupe version built from 1989 through 1995. For the past three years, the Thunderbird has been MIA, a victim of slow coupe sales.
And then, on January 3, 1999, 45 years after the debut of the original Thunderbird, Ford design boss J Mays showed the world's automotive press a pastel-yellow new Thunderbird, porthole and all. It had the same proportions as the original, the same look and feel and flavor, the yellow paint hiding a powertrain and chassis undreamed of in 1955. It got a standing ovation when it came down the ramp at Detroit's Cobo Center, and Ford promised production for 2001 as a new and much-needed flagship for the Ford Division. The buzz hasn't stopped since.
The official lid lifter for the production Thunderbird comes on September 25 in Dallas when the Neiman Marcus flagship store shows the special black-and-silver Christmas-catalog Thunderbird, only 200 of which will be sold through a special Ford toll-free number to those who must have one of the first Thunderbirds and are willing to pay a premium for the privilege.
After the 200 Neiman Marcus cars are gone, which Ford estimates at two days, there will be a quiet period, and then the car will reappear at the 2001 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, in all the production colors, with perhaps a surprise or two thrown in (Ford is already working on the face lift and on a sports-roadster version of the car with headrest nacelles like the ones on the 1962 model).
Ford marketing officials have told us the company will be more than happy to build about 25,000 Thunderbirds in the first year the car is on the market, commencing in the spring of 2001. All will be sold in North America, none exported.
Mays, who had something to do with two previous auto-show sensations, the VW Concept One (it became the New Beetle) and the Audi TT, wants it clearly understood that this car is not retro.
Rather, it is a re-creation of the optimistic Eisenhower 1950s mood in an equally optimistic early 21st century. He calls it "a relaxed sportiness, like you get on a Harley-Davidson, as opposed to the extreme forward-leaning, wedgy sportiness of a Japanese crotch rocket."
Ford started with six different designs for the new Thunderbird. Mays says, "There were mixed visual messages. What I tried to do was act as editor, to edit out what wasn't communicating 'Thunderbird' clearly and concisely. Some were too technical, some were too trendy, some too German, others too Italian, some retro to a fault, some overtly fashionable. We ended up with a design that is American, bold, confident, and free. There are only two lines on the car, and they slope toward the rear, making it relaxed and friendly, like a La-Z-Boy chair. The car is very minimalist in many ways."
