Mere weeks before we entered 2025, I was blessed with a visit from my college-aged niece and her best friend, with their friendship going back to young childhood. It had been literally five years since my niece and I had seen each other in person. When they exited their car that arrived from the airport in the port cochere in front of my building, my eyes bugged out of their sockets. It’s like I blinked and she had gone from being an adorable adolescent to having blossomed into a beautiful, young adult with intelligence, grace, and also a strong gift for fashion and writing (she writes regularly for a campus paper, and I couldn’t be more proud).
Family-of-origin stuff can be complicated, but without even having the need to go into any of that, she and I decided that this time together afforded us the opportunity to basically start from scratch and get to know and see each other where we are right now. Her BFF was the perfect friend and person to complete our little trio, and now I also feel like her uncle, as well.
Nothing puts one’s age into perspective quite like being around teenagers and young adults that you remember from when they were infants or toddlers. Being a nonparent, I was never a direct witness to the day-to-day, month-to-month, year-to-year changes witnessed by those who are parents. I have joked with many in my middle-aged cohort how being this age is not at all like how our parents and other adults seemed to us when we were youths. To think of now being the age my mother was when I was my niece’s current age put so much into perspective… with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. In my mind, I’m still only maybe ten years or so older than I was when I had moved to Chicago in my late 20s. I eat well, stay in good physical shape, care about what I wear, and still take a few calculated risks in terms of my attire.
However, during the week of this Chicago visit from my niece and her friend, to whom I will now refer as Jane and Camille, respectively, something unexpected happened as we were all getting ready to leave for our daily adventures. When looking through my bedroom closet for something to wear, my instinct to try to pull out something “cool” got smacked hard on the hand by some invisible force inside my mind. It’s one thing for me to go out by myself with my camera or meet up with friends while incorporating sartorial elements out of the ordinary into my overall presentation, as I’ll mix in items that are vintage, youthful, or colorful with other more “normal” pieces. I stand by my personal style and the way I express myself, but for whatever reason that week, I decided on outfits that made me look decidedly like the mature, grown, responsible adult. Uncle Joe had decided to let Jane and Camille corner the market that week, so to speak, on freedom of expression through clothing.
One thing my parents had never put me through was the embarrassment of trying to dress more youthfully than they were (this would have been a tough sell for my dad, who was forty-five and change when I was born), but I have seen enough cultural references to this phenomenon that I can almost empathize with those who had grown up with “cool” moms or dads. Isn’t there some happy medium between trying to dress youthfully and looking like a physics professor? Anyway, all of this is to say that I am growing to happily accept that there comes a time, and the clock creeps forward deceptively quickly and imperceptibly, where an adult may consider relinquishing overt expressions of coolness.
What helps me make peace with this is my belief that giving up on trying to look cool does not at all mean giving up style or class, which may then become the emphasis along with comfort. One glance at most of what’s hanging in my closet is evidence that while I will probably always hold onto my share of items that I’d assume most of my peers wouldn’t wear like I continue to, many of my everyday clothes now reflect a maturity that echoes much of the work I’ve done on myself, especially since the turn of this decade.
The redesigned 1967 Thunderbird has been the topic of a couple of my essay contributions over the past ten years, and judging from comments accompanying those essays, it seems to be a very polarizing car. I’ll restate that I like it, and not even in a root-for-the-underdog kind of way. I think it’s a genuinely attractive car. The large “mouth” grille with hidden headlamps has always looked exotic to me. What was it about furniture from around that time, where big-ticket items like console televisions and stereo systems were designed to have solid, fold-away panels that concealed the electronics behind? I feel like that was what was happening with the front of the ’67 T-Bird. I’m also a sucker for even the appearance of full-width taillamps, and cars like this Thunderbird and the also-redesigned ’67 Plymouth Barracuda wore this look very handsomely. This isn’t my absolute favorite generation of Thunderbird, but since when is that the main criteria by which we decide what we like? I just like it, and that’s enough.
Up to a certain point after its introduction for 1955, the Thunderbird had been something of a sporty car. Even when equipped with fender skirts and vinyl roofs, all Thunderbirds had at least a hint of sport, and in some cases (especially with the first three years of two-seater) were overtly hip and youthful. By the time of the fifth-generation’s debut for ’67, there were other Fords that were more suited to scratch the sporty-car itch. The Thunderbird had been in the Ford family for twelve years by ’67, by which time there were also the Mustang and Mercury’s Cougar among other products to carry the style-banner, much like beautiful Jane’s arrival into the extended Dennis family in the mid-Aughts. Uncle Thunderbird no longer had to look cool within the Ford stable, so what did he do? He went all-in on maturity and luxuriousness, so much so that even a new four-door version was available, and as an upmarket Landau, no less.
Looking at the Thunderbird’s sales numbers from the mid-’60s leaves me with the feeling that I’m forgetting some part of the equation (which is entirely possible). From the advent of the 1958 “Squarebird”, the basic hardtop coupe had been the clear sales leader. This was the case all the way through ’65, but then a funny thing happened. The ’66 Landau hardtop coupe became the most popular of the four Thunderbirds offered that year, accounting for almost half of 69,200 sales at 35,100 units, and the base hardtop, at 13,400 units (~19%), was outsold that year by everything but the convertible. Once the soft-top disappeared with the 1967 redesign, the base coupe then became the least popular, selling only 15,600 copies. The newly-introduced Landau sedan seemed like one of Ford’s better ideas (as was that great advertising slogan), with almost 25,000 buyers. The Landau hardtop coupe was the sales winner, with 37,400 out of almost 78,000 total Thunderbirds chosen that year.
Things started out promisingly enough for the four-door Thunderbird, but by final-year 1971, it was the least popular configuration, with just under 6,600 sold. With everything trending toward luxury and sheer bigness with the advent of the 1970s, it seems to me that a four-door Thunderbird, even one built toward the end of a design cycle, should have continued to find a much broader audience before bowing out. People wanted coupes, I guess. Actually, I don’t guess. I know. So maybe, much like I am to Jane, the four-door Thunderbird was like the “old, queer uncle” of personal luxury cars – so different than what many were used to, including its novel, rear-hinged rear doors. It had grown from a hip, semi-sporty persona when it was younger into a car that had ceded its youthfulness to the next generation of new Ford products in order to present itself as an offering with a more mature sense of style. It was no longer cool, but it didn’t need to be. It needed only presence.
Downtown, The Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Monday, February 26, 2024.
Brochure pages were sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
My other takes on the 1967 Ford Thunderbird may be found here and here.
Joseph: My everyday sartorial outfits lean toward the “outlier” army-navy, goodwill thrift store type. I only marginally tried to be hip or stylish when I “wore a younger man’s clothes!” Now, it’s more sensible, timeless, rather than trendy. I was totally in love with the “Flairbirds” of ’64-’66, with the ’66 being my all time favorite. The ’67 was a big letdown for me, although in later years I came to grudgingly appreciate the coupe, the four door remained an abomination. But as Sly stated, “different strokes for different folks”, and nowadays I can appreciate ANY survivor. The T-bird captured by your photo looks to be in fine shape!! 🙂
I could understand the oerspective of one enamored with the Flairbird (full-width taillamps for ’66) not grooving on the ’67 redesign, much like I wasn’t crazy about the first refresh of the ’05-era of Mustang. Like you said, though, time allowed me to appreciate things about that car.
I love this generation of the T-Bird, it has plenty of personality and style.
I agree with you. There’s lots to like about this generation, on its own merits.
The ’67 four door Landau is one of my all-time favorite 1960’s car designs. When ‘new car weekend’ came in October, 1966, I cut out all the 1967 car ads in the daily newspaper and took them to ‘show & tell’ to school on Monday morning. First car ad I showed to the class was the new 1967 four door Thunderbird.
I turned 16, early 1967, and at the time we were a two T-Bird family (1963 & 1966). I had an older cousin about 22 years old. He came to see my Dad and show him his new 1967 T-Bird Landau, four door. I thought such an odd choice for a young single man. At least his was red with black top & interior. I liked the four door configuration but it just wasn’t a T-Bird to me.
Speaking of fashion I more or less dressed age appropriate. I went from preppy high schooler, to hippy, to disco. Then from the late 70s to early 90s it was high fashion. When I started out as an interior designer, designing up-scale fashion stores I had to always look most current for the fashion season. Always a little edgy because I was a designer after all. So many choices when I still had the body to wear current fashion. So I got older, became a professor, left high fashion behind and just stuck with black jeans, solid color shirts, big black shoes. I was still a designer and the uniform was mostly black. Hobby was designing jewelry so some big jewelry with sparkle was typically required. Now that I am older, its loose fitting jeans, non tuck-in shirt and slip-on shoes, black or red or blue (after all, I am a retired designer). I don’t have one suite that fits and haven’t worn a tie in 25 years. I only have one cycle of fashion left, sweat pants and pajamas. Instead of driving my 1966 Bird convertible, perhaps I should be driving a more age appropriate 1967 Landau 4-door.
I like that various stages of your career path more or less made it a requirement that you had to dress in upscale attire that was tunes into your clientele. I’ve never held a position like that, though I’m sure my wallet thanks me. A four-door Thunderbird might also have struck me as an interesting choice for a younger, single person. Especially in the ’60s, I’d associate the need for four doors with an actual family.
Never having been cool I do not sweat the details on that.
Normally I am not a fan of this generation of Thunderbird, but the wheels somehow really make the overall design much more pleasing to my eye.
Well done on quickly banging off these shots!
Thanks, Doug. I do agree that the aftermarket wheels do add something to the overall excellent presentation of the car itself. I always have my camera ready… except on single-degree days like today.
Never got the hang of dressing fashionably, though I did try not very sucessfully in my twenties, so now I just stay the same, gradually getting worn round the edges.
There is nothing wrong with this. There’s a reason why almost everyone loves worn blue jeans.
Interesting take, comparing the evolution of Thunderbird styling with fashion choices as one matures….completely appropriate! It’s easy to picture a 4-door Thunderbird carrying two well-dressed couples on their way to an elegant restaurant or formal social occasion.
I, on the other hand, was never cool, and always sought to be neat, clean, and more or less in style, but certainly not avant garde. More of a 1960s Galaxie 500 (or LTD when dressed up) rather than a Thunderbird.
I’m generally not a fan of this generation of Thunderbirds, especially the 1970-71 models with their protruding “Bunkie beak”, but I like this first-year-of-the-generation example, especially in burnt orange with the white vinyl top. So much thought was given to color back then, as it was (and still is) a critical component of fashion. In contrast, now everything seems driven by some sort of algortihm optimizing resale value and minimizing the chance of lot poison, such as a green car built with a blue interior.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the Bunkie Beak as applied across so many Fords of the early ’70s. I’ve been rewatching DVDs of old “Hawaii Five-O” episodes and when a big ’71 or ’72 Ford appears, it always looks to me like it’s sucking a lemon. How didn’t this get the Edsel treatment by the buying public, when the actual Edsel did? I do agree that color palettes did seem to have a lot more range and artistry back then.
That CC Effect struck again. Just yesterday I checked out a ‘68 (I think, this style but with marker lights) TBird with a For Sale sign that I’ve seen curbside quite a few times. I’m in California but it was quite the opposite of this red and white Chicago sighting. Top-down and bottom-up rust, many spots with lots of daylight visible. And a boring tan color scheme.
Observations like yours often make me think about the trajectories of individual cars that had rolled off the assembly line at similar times. Why one car gets preserved and another one doesn’t…
“In my mind, I’m still only maybe ten years or so older than I was when I had moved to Chicago in my late 20s. ” ~ _THIS_ .
I look at these four door Thunderbird pimpmobiles and when nee I hated them and considered them old men’s cars .
I’m well past 60 Y.O. now and they no longer look horrible to me but I’d not want one for free .
To fully grasp how far from any sporting pretensions this car is, one needs to look at the rear seat, it’s like a sofa back there, no kidding .
It certainly has presence .
-Nate
I love that the rear seat looks like a banquette from a 1960s supper club. The whole thing smacks of upscale air travel and lounge culture to me.
Spring Break ’67 we drove to Colorado and while there visited Mom’s great aunt & uncle. They had a new 4 door Bird with every conceivable option, 428, center console, the 4 overhead convenience panel, tilt away steering wheel, AM/8 track, etc. I was awe struck. He took all of us kids on a test flight. He enjoyed showing us “what it could do” on the mountain roads. He had as much fun as we did. I just knew I had to have one when life afforded.
In ’73 I became the owner of a ’68 4 door. It was a stripper model but had electric windows and the 429, which was good enough for me. It was a good car for the 15 years I owned it.
How amazing that you got to realize that dream, and with that early association to go with it. Very cool, indeed.
These ‘Birds are just fine with me, but my favorite style is the base coupe, no landau bars.
The color is great! I’ll echo what Doug says above about your quick on the draw photography. I believe you used to call these pieces “In-Motion Classic”(s). I like the Curbside Musings title though now a little better as you have that ability to weave the classic car into your thoughts.
As to fashion? As a child of 1960, I stopped trying to look cool somewhere about 1997 (at 37). I still dress nice (enough), but trend setting? Yeah, that started to wind down after 1989 or so when I was 29. Fashion is just too expensive for this guy.
Choice of car however has always been about its looks though… even when I sold out like Metallica two years ago and bought a CUV (my first car titled to me with 4 doors… yikes!), at least I bought a cool looking one (IMHO)… the Mazda CX-5. But had they kept making Thunderbirds, my handle here would be T-Bird Rick, as I hung on to the bitter end… my last ‘Bird of was a ’97. The closest thing that Ford had in their stable to a PLC when I bought it was the Mustang. I never had a desire (or the money) to get a 2002-2005 RetroBird.
Looks will always matter to me, and to your point, if and when I own another vehicle and if I can help it aesthetics will definitely play into that purchase. As for my camera movements, I’ve got that motor memory down to a science with years of practice.
Great essay! Although a 4 door T-Bird was a shock back then, I can see it being a viable choice for a middle manager who wanted to up their game but didn’t want to step into Buick or Chrysler land yacht territory. Still semi-sporty with a layer of luxury but nothing your banker would drive.
Thanks, Dave! And put into the perspective of what you mentioned as what and who might be the target demographic for the four-door Thunderbird, I’d much, much rather have one of these than a Buick or Chrysler of the day, as much as I like offerings from both of those makes.
Terrific article!
For some reason I remember being shocked at the thought of becoming at uncle (I became an uncle at age 27). Uncles seemed like older men to me… and then suddenly I became one of them! In some ways it was even more of a jolt than become a father… maybe because it was ushered in by few actual changes in my daily life. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed seeing my niece grow up, though like you I’ve missed a few years at a time on occasion. But it’s always a pleasure to see her now and to think that this enjoyable young woman was once the first baby I ever held (and I was terrified at doing it).
As for the Thunderbird, I can just see an ad campaign for this car proclaiming something like “The Thunderbird is all grown up.” And now that you mention it, I can see how this car fits in with large, bulky furniture themes of its day. Those big stereo and TV consoles? Those were the very definition of adulthood to me as a kid.
Thank you so much, Eric. And I think you really liked the experience of being an uncle and how special that whole thing can be. That first time I held a baby of one of my siblings (and it wasn’t Jane), it was like this whole lightning bolt. That guy is now 22.
And your proposed tagline would have been absolutely perfect. It’s too good in fact – I wonder if it had actually been considered!
Fashion’s always been something that I’ve either been out of touch with or by pure happenstance what I always wore suddenly falls into fashion. I never really dressed youthfully when I was young nor really dress fully mature as an adult, my style has remained pretty consistent…actually I dress pretty much like this Thunderbird; mature adultish but with probably inappropriate sneakers.
To this, I say comfort and confidence go a long way. There’s something of substance about that, and I dig it.
Great commentary, and find, Joseph. Having worked as a graphic designer, I always tried to dress fashionably. Dressing tastefully, while maintaining my body. I do make a point to compliment friends and family, that dress with style, and taste.
Never really warmed to this generation of T-Bird. I’m not a fan in general, of personal luxury cars. And found the styling on these, did not age well. As I first spotted them as a kid, in the mid-1970’s. Of course, the landau bar was a significant source of polarizing views, on their design. Dated their looks considerably IMO. The styling had hints of the future, while specific elements like the coke-bottle styling and roof, anchored this design to the 1960’s. As a kid, I associated them with older middle-aged men.
You have me processing my thoughts on the landau bars, which I don’t think I had as I was putting this together. I don’t think they’re the worst look, but they will invariably and inadvertently make me think of a hearse. I’m not sure if hearses adopted landau bars as a thing of luxury, or if there some other connection, but that’s not the kind of association I would want. “The driver of this personal luxury car is so mature, age-wise, that they’re that much closer to riding in an actual hearse.” No, thanks.
So much food for thought here, even more than usual.
My dad was even older, and I was an only. I remember when I was in my teens and Dad tried ‘teen talk’. I had to break it to him that slang had changed since the Twenties. Being a teenager I wasn’t especially tactful, and he had a short fuse at the best of times, so you can imagine how that ended. Fortunately he never tried dressing young. I’m trying to imagine him in seventies psychedelic colours and flares – no. Just no!
I applaud you for stepping back from your usual style and letting the girls be the focus during their stay. And what a neat way to tie in to the Thunderbird, and why its image seemed to shift from cool and sporty to, well, almost boring. Not that I didn’t like the ’67; I remember one parked outside the flats next door, and racing downstairs to ogle it. It was still cool inside, but no longer looked so cool on the outside – like you? Deliberately dressing down, to let the others shine.
I love the colour on the ’67 you found. The rake and the wheels are an attempt to dress young that doesn’t really fit the Thunderbird’s persona – um, autona? Carona? Whatever!
Peter, thank you for this, and your insights seem to hit the bullseye, yet again. This trip was all about Jane and Camille, and I was more than happy to let them shine, each in their own individual way, and together as besties.
You also reminded me of when my parents used to try to use slang they had heard my brothers and me use. When my dad would say “cool”, it actually was, because it seemed so far removed from his character that he earned instant points. Hearing my June Cleaver-esque mother use words like, “That’s bustin’!” while affecting a fake African American accent was deeply distressing.
The wheels on this example worked fine for me, though clearly outside of a luxury persona. Beautiful scale model!
While it’s not my favorite, I always liked this style Thunderbird.
Thank you for the pics and for sharing your thoughts.
John, thanks for stopping by.
Lots to appreciate in this article, Joseph!
About the passing of time, I can relate. My wife and I are now in our 70s with 2 sons in their 40s and 2 granddaughters aged 15 and 2. Seems like not so long ago, WE were the ones in our 40s with teenage sons and our own parents in their 70s or 80s!
About the 1967 Thunderbird, I was all of 14 when it was introduced in the fall of 1966. At that age, I thought it was quite cool, even the 4-door version. And the example you caught with in its orange and white glory, with its raked stance and custom wheels, still looks appealing.
Thank you so much! I can’t remember the first time I had seen or noticed one of these four-door Thunderbirds as a kid (it had to be the early ’80s), but I remember being blown away by its beauty. And this is not a dig on the 1980 – ’82 models or the generation before it. It’s just that the ’67-era just had (still has) something unmistakable and special about it, without comparison to any other generation, IMO.
I’ve never had a strong fashion sense, other than trying to present a neat, gentlemanly appearance. You really don’t have to do much to win out in public; as I sit on a plane with fifty other people, I’m well ahead of all but a couple of them just by wearing a button-up shirt and jacket. Even in more refined circles, a man can do well by getting
a few well-fitted suits and wearing them properly. Women have more of a challenge, I suppose. That said I have no experience in circles that revolve around fashion, and I’d probably hate my life if I were compelled to compete in such. Cars, not clothes, are my fashion statement.
Anyway, to stretch a metaphor, the Thunderbird is like a just-right shirt and blazer combo that quickly expanded into a triple-breasted striped suit with lapels, and did so at a rate where a first-gen buyer might feel like he was driving the older man’s car by the mid-60s. Everybody thinks of ’67 as the watershed, but it grew most with the ’58 square bird, and continued at a heady pace with the next couple revisions. But that said, the ’66 is still fairly cool to me, while I can just never get over the idea of a four-door T-bird. The ’67 wasn’t ugly to me, but it’s little more than a styled-up LTD, and that’s the problem. It never was a true sports car, but I far prefer the mix of fashion and athleticism to the pure luxury yacht paradigm.
The T-bird didn’t have time to cement its identity, and I don’t think Ford had the patience in the long run to stick with a well-defined halo car that wouldn’t be profitable in a strict sense (but would be a net benefit by bringing people into the brand). Instead, it followed the “Bigger! Flashier!” trend of the late 50s, it was a natural choice of the personal luxury yacht trend of the 70s, and inevitably fell victim to a wave of cost cutting and chassis consolidation. It’s unfortunate because it’s every bit as iconic as the Mustang or Corvette, but because its identity was allowed to twist in the wind, it ended up too vague a product to generate the kind of outcry needed to save itself when it got the ax – unlike the Mustang. Maybe there’s only room for one such enduring product per brand, but I think the Thunderbird as originally conceived is more compelling, if anything.
I’m just glad that work attire standards have relaxed to where I no longer have to spend money on clothes I wear to the office. And I’ll agree that the Thunderbird’s identity did shift frequently through its (briefly interrupted) run.
I’ve not any direct experience with these (though I likely saw them in the showroom when my Dad bought our ’69 Country Squire). Like most cars I experience them vicariously or in rough approximation…for instance 10 years later I worked as a transporter for Hertz and drove ’77 and ’78 Thunderbirds, which had undoubtedly changed significantly, but then I didn’t want to own one, guess more of a car “tourist” to just try one out (not having to pay rental fees, especially as an undergraduate, helped a lot even though I was probably making less than minimum wage (depending on how fast I drove, we got paid by the trip rather than an hourly amount).
These cars are getting up in age and most are hardly simple so things are likely to need attention. A long time ago I found a site of a guy on degenerate press that had bought one of these….though he also included tiki style interior upgrades as part of his work, a lot of it just involved fixing all the items that went wrong or kept going wrong, which was sizeable. It was clear that he loved the car, but it seemed like the amount and frequency of keeping up with upkeep wasn’t trivial. At the time I was more interested in another car he also briefly owned that was on the same website, but he had way more to say about the Thunderbird than that car.
In my old age I’m not so much into style, but I now seem to “get” the popularity of roomy cars that you could get into and out of with creaking bones, and ate up highway miles (as long as you provided the fuel and maintenance). If I have to work under the dash, I want a bench seat with no console I have to remove to get in the way. An Impala, Galaxy, or Fury is more my speed if I’m buying something about this age…and my friends and family would probably appreciate a regular sized rear seat as they’re also around my age (mostly…the younger ones probably don’t care much and already have their own vehicles if they do).
These were more about style, which to me seems to mostly get in the way of practicality, if I once might have been inside the target audience for one of these I’ve clearly exited that place, though I do appreciate cars from this time especially since you can no longer buy them as new, but I would look for a more mainstream model, and not so much a luxury car but one with options like A/C that I’ve come to expect in any car power steering, brakes and automatic. I’ll suffer any increase in fuel price beyond what I pay now in exchange for a comfortable accommodation.
Funny how that works…60 years ago I’d ignore cars that had these attributes partly because they were so common whereas “specialty” cars like the Thunderbird were not, whereas the situation has changed with age such that I appreciate the “once common” cars a lot more (because they’ve since become scarce I guess) whereas I’m indifferent to the same vintage “specialty” cars. Shows how much your perspective can change with time.
Don’t know why it didn’t occur to me, but my own sister has kind of like a Japanese version of the Thunderbird, a ’97 Nissan 240SX that she bought new.
But, she parked it in her driveway rather than her garage, and vandals broke 2 side windows on driver’s side and a chunk of the rear window. I couldn’t see any body damage but it might also be affected. I’m wondering if she can get replacement glass to fix the damage. These cars were never very popular when new but they’ve developed a following, I guess because they are RWD and what used to be a conventional layout, but hers might not be able to be repaired due to lack of parts (glass and maybe window regulator parts).
Maybe the Thunderbird of this era was a bit more common, but it also is 30 years older, so some parts are probably getting hard to get, though it helps that some of them were common to other Fords that were very popular, unique parts like glass and interior trim are probably hard to get. I guess that goes with the territory though, if you buy something this age hopefully it was popular and parts are still mostly available for it. Even for a 30 year younger car that was maybe less popular it can be an issue if you can’t locate a needed part (guess that’s the argument for buying newer and more popular models).
The considerations of practicality that you mention make sense to me. I can see your point of luxury cars like this one with many gadgets that can break – especially at 50+ years after leaving the assembly line – being one deterrent to ownership. The gents in this one seemed younger to where they might not have minded doing the repairs in various places on the car where they were needed. It didn’t look like a daily driver, though – there would be fewer concerns, I think, with such a car that’s driven only occasionally.
I am late to this party, but cannot claim to be fashionably late. I was never much into fashion or style, except for a brief period in the early 1980s when I adopted the conservative, prep-ish style that was “in” at the time. That has been my basic style ever since. Give me a pair of khaki pants and a button-down oxford shirt and I am set for almost any occasion. What is funny is that in my current post-law driving job, my daily work uniform is a pair of khaki pants and a black long-sleeve dress-style shirt. I joke that if I were to add buttons to the collar and remove the two cargo pockets from the pants, I am dressed just like I did for the last 25 years going to a law office.
The Thunderbird? I am still not much of a fan. BUT – I will concede that the 4 door would be my pick of the batch, and it would have to be a 67 model, which still brought its A-game to the interior. And I love that you caught it out on the street.
You can’t go wrong with tan trousers and a nice shirt. Formal long sleeve and optional v neck for winter, short sleeve for summer. Hawiian shirt for fun. I’ve been wearing this for the last thirty years, my youngest daughter calls it dad core.
There is just this awful landeau bar that I would tear off as quickly as possible , as fast as I would rip the giant rear wing off a Civic SI .
Here, even the wheels make you forget the vinyl roof.
Like many of the commentors here, I did not care for these when they were introduced. I was 13 years old at the time, a serious car nut, and these just didn’t impress like the current Riviera and El Dorados. Those feelings lasted until I reached the threshold of “serious” adulthood, my Forties. Now I began to “get it.” That was when I got my Cadillac Seville and began to appreciate a car with a nice interior. I remembered my experiences driving my Dad’s ’63 Lincoln, which was the progenitor of this “coupe/sedan” concept of the close coupled luxury personal sedan. This concept is now being played out by many current high end marques such as Mercedes and Porsche.
These Thunderbirds remind me of the era when adults still set the standards of cool, most notably the Rat Pack. I recall watching the Dean Martin show on TV, and thought that Dino, in his tux drinking a highball and joking and singing was the epitome of cool. Man. I wanted to be like him when I grew up. It sure looked like he was on top of the World! This was the time when the youngest members of the Greatest Generation were still in charge.
I love the interior of that T Bird, all futuristic aero cool, overlayed with the musky cologne fragrance of lounge culture. The perfect machine for a couple of Rat Pack wannabes to light up their Pall Mall cigarettes, head out with their dressed up Dolls, for a steak dinner and a night at the club for a few laughs, dancing and drinking.
Most T Bird owners probably didn’t live a life exactly like that, but that’s what many aspired to.
I came of age with the Disco era, and say what you will about it, it got young people to abandon their blue jeans and wrap themselves up in splendor of polyester fashion. Then we made the change to the Designer period and we started wearing some very nice outfits, think YSL, Ralph Lauren, and Pierre Cardin.
Now that I’ve crossed the threshold of old age, I just try to look clean, presentable, and well groomed, along with a clean and presentable set of wheels. The Glory days are just a distant memory. Maybe I need a T Bird!
Jose, there’s so much I appreciate in this. The Rat Pack imagery is spot-on, and your assessment of the youngest members of the Greatest Generation still setting some standards when these cars were new rings true to someone who has only read about it. There is something into aging into things that are comfortable, and I think this generation of Thunderbird encapsulates this ethos.
Ford always devalue the name of their cars. Its the same with Mustang now.