(first posted 10/20/2014) The first generation Thunderbird has never been a car I’ve paid much attention to, but seeing this one outside a European car show in its patinated glory I was struck by how well the design holds up against its transatlantic contemporaries. Thunderbird week gives me the ideal opportunity to share a personal take on this model.
In the US during the early fifties, burgeoning suburbs and pay packets were bringing with them myriad consumer delights. Powered appliances allowed us more personal time. Multiple bathrooms enhanced our sense of personal space. Double garages were the excuse and station wagons were the enabler. With all that extra room in your family’s wagon, your second car could have a commensurate reduction in space. The second age of the personal car was about to commence.
Of course, personal transport first entered history about the same time rich people did.
By the 1920s and 30s, the personal car was enjoying its first peak. During this jazz age of conspicuous consumption, there were few greater expressions of wealth than the personal car. Gargantuan in scale and price, these two-seaters were invariably custom-bodied and paraded around by movie stars, rich playboys, bon vivants and the like. This 1935 Lincoln V12 Convertible Roadster by LeBaron existed towards the end of this period, while the Great Depression was still taking its toll.
In 1934, Edsel Ford built a personal car that was a harbinger of the future. It was a labor of love for Edsel; he was closely involved in its conception though he wisely left the shaping of the body to the sure hand of Eugene ‘Bob’ Gregorie. Inspired by the European racing car, it was a masterpiece of brevity and detailing.
Edsel’s brevity of length made its way to Earl’s brevity in height. Despite the fact that Harley Earl was a very tall man, his 1951 Buick LeSabre was still a very low car. This much-storied vehicle was Earl’s vision of the future; a concept car. But it was also his personal transport, used to ferry him from home to work or to the golf club. Very visible during Earl’s tenure, it was this car more than any other that reignited consumer dreams and desires for something more personal for themselves.
Unfortunately for buyers, the LeSabre was built to a production number of one. Sydney Allard and Donald Healey, both of Great Britain, were early to recognize the potential of this market. US industrialist Stanley ‘Wacky’ Arnolt was another; he ordered a series of Bertone-bodied specials based on an essentially pre-war MG platform and they sold well enough for him to do it again with the Arnolt Bristol. But these cars weren’t exactly cheap.
Personal cars were not just for the man in the grey flannel suit. For people who wore their undershirts out of doors, George Barris and his ilk were starting to customize and improve upon the Detroit production line unit. Chopping, channelling, nosing, decking, frenching, and shaving machines bought off the second-hand car lot became another way of the telling the world – or your neighborhood – of your personal tastes. But taste is in the mouth of the beholder (or something like that), and this sort of customization was not of broad appeal.
Fibreglass initiated the democratisation of the personal car. Now any man (or woman) with relatively basic mechanical skills could place an almost-individual, almost-European-looking two seater body over an older platform. The industry flourished in the early fifties with legion backyard and professional businesses churning out fibreglass bodies in the thousands. But accessibility in price came with its own price; these cars were crudely designed and constructed when compared with the production tightness of Detroit’s output.
Flashpoint: January 1953
Chevrolet displays the fibreglass bodied Corvette at the GM Motorama.
The story of the internal development of the Ford Thunderbird is thick with contradictions. What follows is a grab-bag of highlights from the time; for a more accurate assessment of the competing accounts I suggest you look at Aaron’s analysis at Ateupwithmotor.
First, where to start. For years the benchmark had been the Jaguar XK120/140. Released in 1948, William Lyons had wisely prioritised the US export market for this model, and the US fell in love with it. Despite the fact that it was designed using pre-war visual cues, this car had no equal for years after its launch. Here was a vehicle with the looks and refinement of a concept car and the speed and road-holding ability of a racecar. Never again would Jaguar build a single car as capable across all competencies.
Henry Ford II had already tried to mimic the Jaguar with not much success. Commissioned by the Ford Motor Company, and financed by Henry himself, the Vega was not ashamed of its styling influences. Built over two years by external designer Vince Gardner, this aluminium-bodied roadster was shown during Ford’s 50th anniversary in 1953. After that it was displayed at the Rotunda Exhibition Hall in Dearborn, then it just disappeared.
Hank the deuce had another car to spur the yet-unnamed Ford personal car’s progress. In 1952, Enzo Ferrari had presented Henry with this black Touring-bodied 212/225 barchetta. For a time it sat in the design studio and was an obvious influence on early sketches.
Frank Hershey, Bill Boyer, Bob Maguire, Damon Woods, Dave Ash, Dick Samsen, Alan Kornmiller and Joe Oros are all stylists named with the project, however it is difficult to say who penned the final design. There were competing factions within the Ford styling community, and accounts seem to be conflicted along those lines. The Thunderbird name was apparently suggested by stylist Alden Giberson.
Offered for sale in October 1954, the steel-bodied 1955 Thunderbird trounced the Corvette 16,155 sales to 700. It was a great year of design for Ford. The full-size range looked smart and cohesive, and the new Thunderbird was a welcome addition to the family. Cues were shared between the ranges, particularly the hooded headlights and taillight treatment. At one point, the ‘uptick’ chrome featured on the full-size bodyside was considered for the T-bird, but thankfully was omitted.
Though it was fast, but it could not really be called a sports car in the same sense as something like the Jaguar XK120. It was based on a shortened full-size frame and chassis with not much extra development to improve its roadholding. So the sporting aspect was better left inferred by its minimally adorned and rakish bodyshape. Ford promoted its Thunderbird as a ‘personal car’.
For 1956, the Thunderbird received a ‘Continental Kit’ covered spare tyre hanging over the rear bumper. Of course, this only made handling worse but at least the model was given more power, softer rear springs and an optional midget tweedsman behind the wheel.
The 1957 Thunderbird featured a redesigned grille and bumper at the front, and also lost the twin nacelles from the previous two years. At the rear, the Continental Kit was ditched and the spare tyre placed inside a longer redesigned rear end. This final (extended) model year was the best in sales with over 21,000 coming out of the factory. But by now, Ford was developing the next generation of T-birds and this attractive little two-seater body was about to be made redundant.
In a final ignominious touch, the Budd Company, who had built the original Thunderbird bodies for Ford, attempted to resuscitate the first T-bird shape over a shortened Falcon platform. Presented in early 1962, Ford rejected the XT-Bird and Budd had the body redesigned and shown to American Motors as the XR-400. Again, Budd was turned down.
And what of the Thunderbird’s sporting pretensions? By 1957, Ford was offering a supercharger mated to the 312 V8 that produced 300 hp and could take the car to a theoretical top speed of 124 mph when optioned with the Fordomatic. Only 208 supercharged Thunderbirds left the factory that year.
There were still some within Ford who felt the Thunderbird needed to compete with the Corvette on the track. In 1954, Alex Tremulis was engaged by Fomoco to conduct wind-tunnel tests on a variety of 3/8 scale models. The result of this was the supercharged 1956 Thunderbird Mexico which, alas, never made it to full scale. This sophisticated shape embarrasses the fairy-floss that Ford was putting out as display concept cars at the time, and featured pioneering ground effects and flow-though aerodynamics.
Meanwhile, with engineer Zora Arkus Duntov involved, the Corvette was developing into a more distinctly sporting-type of car.
But the Ford Thunderbird was headed in another direction. For its next generation, the fairly nebulous idea of a personal car was about to undergo another transformation.
Further Reading
The next generation of Thunderbird
Some of the nice cars coming from Europe after the war
I do like the slight changes Budd made, resulting in a very clean design, but it still looks mid/late ’50s so I can see why they got nowhere in 1962.
Apparently it started as a Lee Iacocca idea. In my research it mentioned that he had one of his execs look into a 2+2 version of the first Bird in the early 60s when he was casting around for what would eventually become the Mustang. Budd took it on their own to make it a two-seater and present it back to Ford.
It’s too bad there just wasn’t room for a car like that at the time. I think the Budd XT-Bird looks great, but not quite as great as the Bullet ‘Bird.
The Australian sun isn’t kind to paint.
True.
Another excellent history lesson. I’d not heard of the midget tweedsman prior to this entry…fascinating. If any CC-er knows the details of the rumble seat option (aka birdsnest) for the ’55 – ’57s please share – I’ve seen a photograph in a SCM auction report years ago and looked about unsuccessfully since. Thanks Don, a fun read on and around the subject.
The midget tweedsman option had me rolling! Great article on the development of the original T-bird. I really like some of the later ones, but the original is still the best. Hard to recapture purity.
I remember learning all about these Thunderbirds when I was nine back in 2002, with all the media hype surrounding the “retro” 2002 Thunderbirds. The ’55-’57s were such elegant looking cars, much more attractive than the stubbier, pudgier Corvette (funny how this would quickly change). Great brochure and ad pictures, btw. The golden age of advertising.
Excellent treatment of an important car – and your subject car is a great find in the wild!
When I was a kid in the 70s, the 2 seat T-Bird was one of the really hot 1950s collector cars. As time has passed, it seems to have been eclipsed by the Tri-five Chevy and the 59 Cadillac. Perhaps the Little Bird is just too elegant to fit into what many today consider 1950s style.
Since most of us aren’t “midget tweedsmen” perhaps the full size cars are simply more comfortable and usable. 😉
It was a collectible already ten years earlier. In 1962 or 1963, we had a young couple as neighbors for a year or so; he was associated with the university. And he drove a black ’55 T-Bird as their only car. It was considered a collectible at the time already, given it’s unique status as a two-passenger car for only a brief period, as well as its rather timeless good looks.
FWIW, it was one of my first exposures to the idea of collectible cars used as a daily driver, or in other words, perhaps my first CC! I used to gaze at it, and got to sit in it once.
But when the baby came along, the T-Bird had to go away. And it wasn’t replaced with a four-seat T-Bird either; a Falcon 🙁
Nice article .
When I was living & working in Guatemala City , C.A. in 1975 , here was an over drive equipped ’55 T-Bird sitting off in the corner of the shop , it has been lightly wrecked and repaired / re painted but they couldn’t find a radiator so it just sat there….
-Nate
Nice history. Your first picture is so good that I involuntarily put my hand up to shield my eyes from the bumper sun-flash!
When I was a small child, my parents realized that I had a HUGE interest in cars and one saturday morning a friend of my father’s drove up in a nearly new 55 or 56 T-Bird, it having been pre-arranged that I would get a ride in one of my favorite cars. Unfortunately, I was a very shy child and my parents had done too good a job in training me NOT to accept rides with strangers.
My memory of that car is that it was small, low, almost jewel-like. The only modern car that would be similar is a Mercedes SLC ?
Interesting stuff Don, with info I hadn’t read before. I like these T-birds and perhaps it is only that so many have survived and the subsequent contempt-breeding familiarity that has kept values low. That and the undisguised 1954 Ford underpinnings. For that reason a resto-mod one would be a nice exercise. I bet you could have gotten another indigestion article from the cars parked around the Como Park show.
Yep, found some interesting things researching this. Alex Tremulis’ Mexico was the find of the story for me. The linked article has great pics of the various wind-tunnel cars including a 55 sedan with super-large fins and a reverse canted windscreen.
The Mexico has become one of my favourite Fords; here it is with a nosecone.
I just love how all the car brochures and ads all the way until the late ’60s drew the passengers smaller than normal, and stretched out the car on the page so it looked monstrous.
I have a 1955 Thunderbird, and it is very low, even compared to modern cars today. I am 6’2″ tall, and the top of my head is higher than the top of the windshield. With the top up, you have to develop a bit of a stoop and be careful entering the car, otherwise you may crack your head, and also kneecap yourself on the dogleg of the door opening where the back of the windshield meets the body door opening. The “C” pillar of the convertible top also inhibits your vision greatly, which is why the porthole hardtop became popular.
Drzhivago138:
Have you been “up close and personal” with a car from the 50s? While I will admit the drawings in the sales material is idealized, and these cars were probably drawn a bit lower than they actually were, cars like the Ford sedans pictured were kind of tall. I seem to remember my family’s Country Sedan being as high as a late 90s Explorer. And as a small boy, the 55 or 56 T-Bird I was offered a ride in sure seemed as low slung as my TR3.
Heights:
1955 TBird: 52.2″
1955 Ford: 61″
1999 Explorer: 67.5″
As a rough scale the tweed midget has a 7.5″ tall head! The figures in the Lincoln are worse still
That Lincoln V12 Convertible Roadster by LeBaron would have had a 136 inch wheelbase and the picture shows very little overhang. Compare with the T-Bird’s 180 or so length.
The from headlight area of that “Chicagoan” looks a lot like a Pinto or a Matador Coupe…
And it has a loop bumper! Have we discovered the real father of the loop bumper, Alex Tremulis?
Earl’s LeSabre was a stunning car and must have turned heads when it passed people in the 1950’s. The Jet Age was surely upon us they must have thought.
That is why Earl was such a visionary he saw things then that seemed futuristic back in the day but are now fact in cars. Only he did not stand by and wait till others decided to build it. He had them made himself.
The Lesabre concept car replaced a attractive and futuristic car called the Buick Y-Job which was his daily driver from 1938 to 1951. The Y-Job was a stunning car back then(and is even stunning today) It pioneered electric hidden headlights (in the past hidden headlights were controlled by a handles) and the Buick grill that adorns Buicks to this day.
I am sure this car also influenced the T-Bird designers somewhat as it has influenced a lot of car designers.
Great write up Don. One of the first “classic” cars I was aware of as a kid was the 55-57 T-Bird. My friend’s mom had a white ’57 with personalized plates that said “Moz Car”. One day he had me over to take a look. I told the mom how much I liked the car and how cool the Ma’s Car license plates were. I had never seen those before.
Her eyes rolled back in her head and she shot back at me… “that’s not Ma’s car that’s Mo’s car as in Maureen’s car that’s my name!” Whoa.
The dad was cool and told me later he paid $10,000 for the T-bird and gave it to “Mo” as a gift. Wow, $10,000 I thought. This was around 1974 because I remember listening to the song “Energy Crisis ’74” in my friend’s room. Only in the 70s could you have a Top 40 hit song about a gas shortage.
The thing about these T-birds that amazes me now is how little they’ve gone up in price. I don’t know what $10,000 in 1974 dollars is today but it’s a lot more than $35,000 which is about what it would take to buy a nice baby Bird. That’s a steal if you ask me.
They have always been over shadowed. Originally the 2 seat T-Bird was brought in to have a 2 seat sporty car to compete with the flaccid first generation Corvette and also those small imported 2 seaters. In the 1960’s those sporty euro cars started going away and GM made the choice to make the Vette into a sports car with some umph in it and thus created the Stingray and the vette legend began with the first generation becoming collectable due to the cult of the Corvette.
The T-Bird sadly then got over shadowed by the Mustang.
While GM’s top management could do what they wanted, the group that started the Corvette always intended a sports car. Ford was probably not quite sure where the Corvette was going with a 6 and powerglide.
With Ed Cole and GM riding high during those years, they could afford to go ‘all in’ on the Corvette.
Henry Ford II couldn’t quite bring himself to the same kind of commitment for such a low-volume car. Considering he’d be going toe-to-toe with GM, concentrating on more high-volume personal sporty or luxury cars built on run-of-the-mill existing platforms was probably wiser in the long run.
The timing is a bit curious then, as to why the Corvette came out in 53 rather than acting as a showcase for the new V8. On the other hand, why wait and risk someone else stealing their thunder or better yet steal more sales from MG, Triumph and Jaguar.
It’s not really that curious. When the Corvette was first conceived in 1950–51, Earl did think about a V-8 car, but at that time, the Chevy small block as we know it didn’t yet exist even on paper. When the Corvette was approved in ’52, it was specifically intended for the 1953 Motorama, so it had to be developed very quickly, using mostly off-the-shelf stuff just to make it work in time.
Chevrolet most certainly did NOT go “all in” on the Corvette. It was kind of like the E-Type Jaguar (which was also conceived as a show car, not a production model), with a lot of shortcuts and last-minute improvisations, including the fiberglass body, which they adopted because it was much cheaper than tooling for steel.
While General Motors and Chevrolet specifically could certainly afford the occasional indulgence, they really didn’t think that way. Individual people like Harley Earl and Ed Cole may have, at least sometimes, but even they had to make some kind of business case to get anything approved beyond experimental projects or show cars.
Actually putting the Corvette into production at all was an afterthought and they only did it because so many people at the Motorama had gone crazy over it. (I don’t think Chevrolet was under any illusions about selling 100,000 units a year or anything, but when you have thousands and thousands of people asking how they can buy something, it’s not unreasonable to think, “Well, hell, we probably sell enough of them to get by, and look at all this publicity.”) If Chevrolet had realized that the Corvette was going to be as much of a commercial disaster as the early cars ended up being, it would almost certainly have remained a Motorama show piece.
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: While people like Cole, Earl, and Mitchell certainly liked cars, big corporations are really not that sentimental about product decisions. Occasionally, they might grudgingly tolerate something that’s not a big-volume seller, but any time something is not making money, you have a whole squad of finance and accounting people sharpening up their axes, no matter how much publicity or prestige value the product may have. If you keep that in mind, the decision-making process becomes a lot easier to understand, if no more likeable.
Or could it be that he was already committed to the fantastically expensive (and money-losing) Continental Mark II as a “halo car” and couldn’t afford to sink a huge development budget into another potentially slow-selling, potentially money-losing gamble?
Cheers Aaron, ‘curious’ is probably not the correct word as in hard to fathom, interesting would have been better. I have to say I don’t know much about the origins of the Corvette, but from debut at the Motorama in January 53 to going into production in June is a remarkable turnaround period but of course they had to act quickly if they were to take advantage of the buzz. I suppose you might compare it to the Viper or as I think you might have meant the Jaguar XK120?
I dare say investigating the production realities of fiberglass would have been a worthwhile exercise too, by way of justifying the project.
I understand that financial projections (rather than saying realities because there have been some wildly optimistic or reality-free projections) are important, but certainly there are people who have the power to make cars go ahead regardless, eg Ferdinand Piech with the Bugatti Veyron and VW Phaeton.
You have to wonder about the influence the ’55-’57 Thunderbird had on continuing the Corvette. Consider that if Ford had ‘not’ built the Thunderbird, GM might actually have abandoned the Corvette after the lackluster (to put it kindly) ’53-’55 cars.
But, with the advent of the now legendary SBC and a decent, cohesive body restyle in 1956, combined with competition from the T-Bird, it was probably inevitable that the Corvette would continue, at least through 1957. By then, changes in the Corvette’s focus from an American Jaguar to its own distinctive niche had made it worthy of continued production.
@ John> Ack, yes, I meant the Jaguar XK120, not the E-type.
I’ve had a life-long flirtation with the T-Bird; starting with these. I remember them vividly; they were the first cars I liked as a kid.
When my car nut dad bought a 2 seat sports car his selection came down to a Karmann Ghia or a 190SL; he chose the Mercedes. I remember my disappointment that I could not convince him the Bird was the best choice. That would have been in 1957.
Next I remember the Beach Boys song indicating that “she had have fun, fun, fun ’til daddy took the T-Bird away”. Was her musical Bird one of the two seaters? I’d guess so but the song dates to the bullet Bird era. I think she was a rich kid high school girl and a buying her a used two seat T-Bird from six or eight years prior would have made sense. Which T-Bird was in Brian Wilson’s mind?
These early cars, with that dogleg, are not easy for an adult male to get in and out of – but certainly better than the Sprite/Midget cars from a posting here a day or two ago. I almost bought a rusty black & white ’56 in ’73; thankfully someone’s better judgment prevailed.
T-Bird love continues. Bullet Birds are still admired and an ’04 PCR is my summer driver.
The song was released in 1964. The T-Bird was her father’s car, so I doubt that any particular Thunderbird was in mind.
Always have had a soft spot for 55-57 T-Birds. When the 2002’s came out, I really liked them (especially in black) and thought they would be a hit. Turns out they did not sell well. When I used to visit my parents at the assisted living center, I could never just walk by the red 56 T-Bird displayed by the main entrance, I always had to admire it for a minute or two, and being unlocked couldn’t pass up the chance to sit behind the wheel. Nice article, never knew about the XT 62 prototype, nice looker. Like the steel body, was never a Corvette fan because of the fiberglass body. Fun read.
I love the Tremulis Thunderbird Mexico, and any day you see that Bob Gregorie special for Edsel can’t be a bad day. Thank you for so much thought and information.
I’m sorry for the apostasy, but I’ve always felt that the little Bird looked better in drawings than in real life; I could never quite get behind the fin-and-door-handle ridge. But when I don’t see it in 3 dimensions, all I see is a clean, slightly aggressive (shark-like?) shape, as long as continental spares and stretched trunks aren’t involved.
An early draft of this story included a more critical assessment of the design, but I decided to shy away from that. I’ve never liked the rear end on this model, regardless of year. If they had done something to the end like the 56 Conty II, maybe it would have been nicer.
Great review of the Thunderbird’s genesis. I just saw a ’55 at a car show a couple weeks ago and I always forget how small they were up close. That’s probably one of the key reasons the T-Bird was so convincing in its mission during these years; obviously not a “sports car”, but its (relatively) small stature, low height and powerful V8 gave it a much more sporting feel than even the hottest factory sedans coming out of Detroit. That was gone by the next generation, but of course by that time America was somewhat less interested in European roadsters and had gotten over fiberglass customs.
I can never really make up my mind as to which T-Bird generation is my favorite. I’m particular to ’61-’63, ’64-’66 and the ’80s Aerobird… but I don’t know that any of them ever really surpassed the original – surely none of them are as iconic. It never would have survived as a 2-seater and Ford would’ve been nuts to try, but for this moment in time it was perfect.
You mention the Ford Vega disappearing. Collectible Automobile had a 4 page photo spread on this car in their April 2000 issue. Fran Roxas restored it in the late ’90s after it was sitting in bits for years.
They also ran a full feature on the Budd XR-400 in June ’93.
Yep, I should have qualified that statement. The pic of that and the XT-Bird are newish, with both cars relatively recently having been ‘rediscovered’.
In all these Corvette and Thunderbird discussions there is never any mention of the Nash-Healey which is the first car of this genre. Although not a completely American made automobile( Healey built body and frame & Nash drivetrain) it was sold by Nash and came out in 1951. It fits the definition of what kind of car the Corvette and Thunderbird were.
I was nine years old in 1956, when I saw a ’56 Thunderbird that was being given away by a local grocery chain. I had never seen such a beautiful car, and at that moment, I vowed that I would someday own a ’56 Thunderbird. I had to delay my dream for 56 years, but finally in 2012, I found a 1956 Thunderbird on the internet. The last four years have seen a professional ground-up restoration and a national first prize win, but my real passion is driving my dream car and sharing it with my wife.
I’m surprised that no one has noticed the car in the first picture, next to the 55 Ford wagons. The Lincoln Futura achieved immortal fame as the Batmobile.
This Thunderbird should have always been a Lincoln. Instead of a Fancy Ford, it would have merely been a Lincoln. It sold like a Lincoln. It appealed to the same market as a Lincoln. It was a prestigious little bobble car. Throughout its run, Thunderbird was marketed as the epitome of auto modernity and luxuriousness. As a Ford?
Like the other luxury brands, Lincoln needed the Thunderbird. Ford didn’t.
Even today, there is no reason for a Thunderbird. Sure, we could create one out of an SUV – but wouldn’t it better fit Lincoln?
The Budd X-TBird could have pioneered the ponycar craze. Perhaps Ford (Iacocca) was already thinking about the Mustang, so turned it down. But if AMC had latched onto the Budd XR-400, they could have beaten the Mustang to the market.
The XR-400 still exists in running condition at the Henry Ford Museum.
That aqua ’55 in the horsey ad is gorgeous! It’s no wonder that these cars are such icons. They have always been popular, I grew up in the Sixties and they were coveted then. I’ve had two seat cars, still got one actually, and anything with even a small rear seat is always more practical. From a business sense the Squarebird and the next couple of models were the right choice. As I’v said before this car was reborn as the Mercedes SL