Always getting the same flavor of ice cream is boring. There are times when a vanilla cone sounds right when other times you want the biggest, gnarliest sundae available. This 1975 Ford Thunderbird was my sundae. It certainly helped sate a craving I had had for some time.
This particular Thunderbird was purchased new by the parents of a friend. By 1993, The Bird had accumulated 133,000 miles and they had a new Blazer. I was offered quite the deal on what I have since learned is the very low production Copper Luxury Group, built to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Thunderbird.
When I purchased the car for the princely sum of $600, I had driven it a handful of times previously. During periodic trips to my friend’s house during various college breaks, we would often fire up The Bird and cruise around the various local roads deep inside the Missouri Bootheel. The first time I drove it was an epiphany of sorts; while far from being a great handling car, it rode as if I were floating on air. To sweeten the experience, its 460 V8 (7.5 liters) purred like a kitten and never sounded or acted strained.
That, in a nutshell, is what hooked me in the talons of The Bird. My parents had always driver newer, smaller vehicles. While always reliable, they were always regular sedans of various varieties – typical for family vehicles. This Thunberbird was also reliable, but far from being in the sedan idiom. It also was one of the first cars I had driven that was seemingly unfazed by hills. Whereas most other cars I had driven would have a fair amount of velocity scrubbed off by climbing hills, the Thunderbird just kept chugging along. That it was a throwback to a different time also had a certain amount of appeal.
The Bird was not without its flaws. The security lock group seen in the bill of sale included a lock to the hood, so opening it from inside the cabin required the trunk key. Despite its girth, this generation of Thunderbird is only 53″ tall, so it required some squatting to enter; combine this with a seat belt buckle that was jutting out from the seat, and the car ruined three pairs of pants from hooking into a belt loop, ripping my pants open.
Its hood was so long that going over hills on city streets proved nerve-wracking. One would crest a hill and be well on the way down before ever being able to see over the front of the car; I was nervous that what various things could hide and be crushed and I would never see them. Fuel economy? 11 to 15 miles per gallon, the exact same as my father’s 1984 Ford F-150 with its 300 cubic inch straight-six.
Having a car such as this Thunderbird certainly makes one a better driver. First, it’s sink or swim with maneuvering in tight places and The Bird trained me such that I can now navigate any tight space with relative aplomb. Second, it makes you comprehend such terms as tire-scrub, understeer, and over-assisted power steering. Third, it makes you more aware of your actions as you could run over a lot of things and never feel it.
This was also a car with a multitude of positive attributes. One day while in The Bird, I was sitting at a four-way stop on Sprigg Street in scenic Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I looked into my rearview mirror to see a very frightened look on a woman who was approaching me quite rapidly. Suddenly, I felt a slight nudge and I saw her bouncing around the interior of her car. She had rear-ended me in her Dodge Dynasty, damaging her front bumper. The Bird had a mild indentation in the rubber bumper guard.
Another time, I had left my friends house for home, a distance of roughly seventy-five miles. It was December and a very nasty freezing rain began about twenty miles into my trip. I kept lumbering along, listening to the purring of the 460. Soon the wiper blades were a complete block of ice and could barely keep the windshield clean. Keeping the wipers going, I cranked the defrost up all the way. In about two minutes, the wipers had completely thawed as had the entire windshield, a feat I have thankfully never had to attempt replicating in any other vehicle. I made it home without problem and I did not meet another car for the last thirty miles of my trip.
This generation of Thunderbird was the zenith in size and engine displacement. It is also one that could easily be derided by many of the naysayers, claiming it drives like a 5,000 pound La-Z-Boy recliner and is the epitome of inefficient. While those accusations may posses some merit, it was an awesome car with a certain panache that I haven’t experienced before or since. Some may say it looks like it were marinated in 1970s kitschy, waiting for some leisure suited driver to take her away. Maybe so, but I enjoyed it.
By 1999, I had started a job, gotten married, and purchased my first house. There was no space for The Bird where I was living and it was stored thirty-five miles away in my parents pole barn – where it was parked alongside my 1963 Ford Galaxie. My father-in-law owned a 1974 Thunderbird and I had placed an ad online for its sale. When my wife and I were at their house one weekend, there was a call inquiring about purchase of his. The caller was not sounding enthusiastic about the 1974; on a whim, I told him of mine and shot him what I thought to be obscene price. He agreed to it sight-unseen and even agreed to pay me mileage to meet him 405 miles away in St. Joseph, Missouri. It seems my Bird was a near exact twin to one that had belonged to his grandfather and had been wrecked.
The last time I saw The Bird was at 10:30 on a cold Friday night in December, as it was leaving the Days Inn parking lot in St. Joe, headed toward its new home in Orange City, Iowa. Of all the cars I have owned, this is likely the one I miss the most.
(Note: These pictures are all liberated from various sources on the web; except for the moonroof, mine was identical to the ones shown.)
A beautiful story Jason, though I knew I would enjoy reading it before I finished the first sentence. It can’t be helped: Every T-Bird has a colorful tale to reveal.
Great car and a great story. Sometimes you have to follow your heart and not your head with a purchase. It seems you were rewarded with a T-Bird you enjoyed very much.
I loved the WOT intake and exhaust sounds from the 460 on these Birds and Mark IVs. As you said though the best part is that effortless power in any situation. I wasn’t expecting a love story when you guys got to the 70s models, this was a surprise!
The killjoys who designed the mid-70s emissions system on the 460 put a vacuum sensor right on the air cleaner lid, with 2 hoses connected to it, making it impossible to it flip over without disconnecting them.
I did it a couple of times on my dads 460 Elite, Canada emissions with duals and no cat, the sound was glorious.
Every Ford V-8 I ever had got the same treatment. Flip over the lid and enjoy the intake moan. It may not have helped make more power, but it sounded better. Flip back over for the winter so it’s warm up faster.
Now that’s a car that is a car. Beautiful.
Great story Jason, what a wonderful large barge! I have to confess to occasionally looking at very large cars such as this and imagining the positive attributes of them. It is quite surprising how reasonably priced some of them are in today’s dollars with low miles and in good condition. As an extra car without huge demands put on it, it could well be an attainable guilty pleasure someday…
For the most part, large cars have been like other men’s wifes – look, but don’t partake. That said, I do like this generation of Thunderbird but I will also highly qualify that statement by stating some of them were painted and decorated in a highly grotesque manner; the Lincoln version less so. At this point the only way I would drink from the big car well again (gasoline usage not a factor) is finding one identical to this one.
Never have I driven anything that would cover miles as comfortably as this Thunderbird.
the photos of the car, obviously are from That Hartford Guy on flickr.
The exterior shots are of at least two different cars as one has a moonroof and one does not. The interior is likely a third car. These pictures are from a variety of sites (lots of repetition) but none were obtained directly from flickr. My inability to access the pictures of the one I owned was annoying.
check out this.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/14986287011
but as i know, he is quite famous for grabbing pictures online from various sources and usually only the copy he makes eventually stays after the original post expired. I used google image search to find the original pictures most likely appeared as sale ad on hemmings http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/ford/thunderbird/1674509.html
Though I think they are originally from ebay, there is someone in Lakeland FL that sells old cars that uses that neighborhood in all their car shots.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/14986287011
as i know, he is quite famous for grabbing pictures online from various sources and usually only the copy he makes eventually stays after the original post expired. I used google image search to find the original pictures most likely appeared as sale ad on hemmings http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/ford/thunderbird/1674509.html
and it may appear on ebay previously but the ad expired regularly and as a result the search points to that flickr account eventually when the original post no longer exists. i think it happens pretty often.
“When in doubt, blow it out!” I once heard this quote many years ago on a Thunderbird documentary video. It might be attributed to Lee Iacocca, as he pondered what to do with the ’72 Bird.
It really was just a cut-rate Mark IV, but I believe it sold fairly well through ’74 or so. Then for the ’77 model year, Ford did the downsizing dance and sold even more of them as basket-handled-roof re-bodied Torinos to finally compete directly with the Collanade brigade from GM. Who of course radically downsized all their baroque barges for ’78.
The old ‘throw-out-an-obscene-price-and-hook-the-interested-party’ trick always comes back to bite you when some time later you still wish you had the car. CC is educating me on the differences between this and the MkIV; not fully up to speed yet (except for hidden headlights) but it looks like a very nice car for a Lincoln ‘stripper’.
It was a wonderful car. Yes, I do still wish I had it, although the garage in my first house would not have been able to cage The Bird. Ah, but the glorious wonder of the windows in the house vibrating from that buttery 460 idling upon start up was a thing of beauty and harmony.
Excuse me, I need a drink.
I like it. Sounds like a great car to own and drive. Great story!
I don’t know what is that car’s biggest crime. The giant chrome barrier masquerading as a rear bumper, or the fact that those taillights didn’t include sequential turn signals?
Wonderful article, Jason. Your description of this car reminds me of my Dad’s 1978 Mark V Cartier (FoMoCo certainly produced a lot of special and designer options/editions in the 70’s, going back to my Maverick LDO!). When he drove it out here from the midwest I would end up being the designated urban driver during the visit. You brought back memories of driving it in the hills around Hollywood and experiencing that loss of vision due to the long hood. Also, the 460 was buttery smooth. And when he offered it to me as a gift in 1981, I would have had to move to find a place big enough to park it. I’m sure the T-Bird also suffered from the long, heavy door syndrome, again not good in the hills when trying to get into and out of the car. Love that copper color.
Ford loved long hood, short deck and in this body (and the concurrent Lincoln Marks) it was at it’s zenith.
Looking again at the ad showing the side-view that Jason embedded in this article actually highlights how Ford got this car’s proportions right. To make the point I offer the picture of the concurrent Ford Elite, below:
-the T-Bird’s overhangs weren’t excessive for the time, nor unbalanced, but looking at the Elite, you can see that the T-Bird needed the extra length in the trunk to over come the Elite’s blunt rear end look;
-the shape of the T-Bird’s greenhouse (side view) is the same shape as the Elite’s, but again, the extra length on the T-Bird makes it a better-executed shape;
-the T-Bird’s C-pillar opera window (with embedded T-Bird emblem) is also improvement over the Elite’s.
But having said all that, no matter what your budget, Ford had a long hood and a short deck offering for you -from Maverick to Mustang to Elite to T-Bird. And in 1975, the T-Bird was justified in sitting at the top of Ford’s Food Chain. Great Tribute
[BTW, I have a lot of respect for the Elite’s design (-see CC Jul 20, 2014) although many of the responses to that post maligned the car’s handling/roadability. Having had a ’79 Mark V, I know this shared body with the ’75/’76 T-Birds had the roadability -the only niggle: the back end would hop which just shouldn’t happen in a Lux-0-Barge.]
The handling of my parents 76 460 Elite was horrendous. The dumbbell dealer who ordered it didn’t get the handling package with the rear sway bar. I’m sure this would have helped at least a little, especially with the weight of the big Lima up front, much heavier than either the W or M series engines. The car was oddly optioned, according to build sheet it was assembled very early in the year, and was delivered 8 months later. I suspect it sat because of the odd equipment. Tilt, cruise, the luxury split seat cloth interior with full gauges, and Auto-temp AC but no power equipment or rear defrost (in Canada), AM only radio, and the lack of a light package, which meant not even glove box or ashtray light.
My 16 year old self was so miffed by that omission that I went out and junkyard sourced every item included in the package, and installed them myself, including the dual spot map light .
That sounds a lot like my maternal grandparents’ 78 T-Bird. Tilt wheel but no cruise, power locks and trunk release, but crank windows, AM radio, split vinyl roof, “sport” mirrors and pinstripes, but base model hubcaps, rear defogger, and the Interior Decor package.
Oh yeah, it did have the light package with the dual spot dome light!
So how did driving it compare against the 1963 Galaxie ride wise?
Terrific question and you have me thinking quite early today!
The steering on the Bird was of the novocaine variety whereas the Galaxie has Armstrong steering. Visibility is vastly better in the Galaxie and the Thunderbird is as quiet as a tomb when going down the road. Throttle response is about the same on both, however once the T-Bird shifted into third gear at about 26 mph, it never downshifted except if coming to a complete stop. Cornering ability isn’t stellar on either one, but the larger tires on the Bird nudged it out in handling. With braking, the Bird would win handily. Fuel mileage is slightly better for the Galaxie. Overall ride is hard to quantify as the Bird does have the wallowy feel of that vintage Ford whereas the Galaxie rides quite well, but you can still feel irregularities in a muted form. I would give the Bird the nudge for a better freeway ride with the Galaxie getting credit for a better ride in low speed, around town settings due to being able to decipher what you are driving on.
Memories – Had one, purchased new in early 1975. The original motor lasted 36 miles it went south on the first trip on a state highway in east Texas. The second engine lasted to just a bit over 12,000 miles and expired just after the warranty. The dealer did replace the short block as good will. In the interim 26 Firestone tires had to be replaced due to sidewall failures. It was a beautiful car I thought but it just could not be kept on the road.
Wow. The engine in mine had been replaced at about 90,000 miles as it threw a rod after an overheating episode. While I don’t remember details, it had been started and left to idle for a few minutes in the garage. When she came back out, there was all sorts of noise with oil on the floor. Oddly, the 460 in my father-in-law’s ’74 Thunderbird overheated at about 88,000 miles and was subsequently parked due to its smoking like a refinery.
Neither had any tire issues thankfully.
Very nice writeup that helps me with this car. To me, this was a Mark IV Lite which was purchased only by folks who wanted a Lincoln but could not afford one. Maybe the fact that my father had a Mark IV from 72-76 ruined these for me.
You have helped me see that these were nice cars on their own merits, in a Barge a Lounger kind of way. The one in the photos may be the prettiest of these I have ever seen.
Now I kind of want one.
It’s nice to know that you were happy w/your ’75, Jason. As i said before, my father’s 2nd & last car he owned was a ’73, which only had 24,000 miles on it when we finally sold it. You were spot on about the large hood being a bit of a bother, as it was for me the 1st and only time that I ever drove it. My father loved his car & claimed that it rode like an airplane on the highway. He was aware that the Mark IV was very much like it, but he didn’t care & he didn’t want a Cadillac. The person who bought the car said that he bought it because it looked just like the car his grandfather had.
The context where we are introduced to a car can have a lot of impact on impressions.
My dad bought a ’76 Ford LTD in base form with few options. It was comfortable, but had little pizazz. On dealer visits, I’d see this gen T-Bird, and it was hard not to think it was quite a car. As ’70s land yachts go, it is a clean look and not excessively gaudy.
I didn’t hang around at Lincoln dealers, so the fact that this was Lincoln light, and quite lazy on Ford’s part, didn’t bother me. What is amazing is that a Ford version of the Mark IV didn’t have a negative impact on the Lincoln, which was selling like gangbusters at the time. I guess the Lincoln Mark franchise had enough going for that Mark buyers simply ignored the Ford hiding around the corner.
The thing that helped too was that the Thunderbird still had a high end reputation too, in the minds of many people Thunderbird was still mentioned in the same rare air as Riviera and Toronado, which still had lots of cache back in the 70’s.
I’ve always considered the ’76 the last “real” T-Bird, ie, built in Wixom with Lincolns (to a much higher quality standard than other Fords) and marketed toward higher income buyers.
The ’77 T(orino)-Bird was heavily de-contented, but certainly benefited from the aura of the Thunderbird name.
$9,720 on the window sticker equals and eye-popping $46,930.25 in today’s dollars. That seems completely insane, you can buy an awfully nice car for $47K today.
Actually the Bird in the first and fourth pics is owned by me. It is the one with full vinyl roof and moonroof. All original, with just 23K miles and one owner from Texas. I purchased from a broker in Lakeland, FL and returned it to Texas late 2014.
I had to come back to this one in the context of your COAL series. I remember reading this the first time, and your car and description of it was the key to my revised opinion on these. I would never have considered one for a second a long time ago, but would jump at one now, especially equipped the way yours was.
I can now see that this is a perfect antidote to the 4 cylinder/automatic Mustang – one car to rely on, the other to luxuriate in. It is terrible to have to choose when thinning a fleet.
To J.P. Cavanaugh – Saw your post on the 75 T-Bird. I still own the car in first and fourth pics that has full vinyl roof and moonroof and is all original. Leather seats, about 25K miles and perfect condition. 20th Anniversary Edition and purchased from original TX owner through a broker. I’ve been thinning out my collection and car is available for sale. It’s garaged in League City – Galveston County TX and truly a spectacular automobile. If you are interested, reply back and we can talk.
Hello Douglas.
Just going through the various posts attached to the CurbsideClassics ad for the 75 Copper T-Bird.
I am a 73 year old retired Master Corporal from Canada. I owned a 74 back in the day and after that a 76. I have been looking for a 75 Copper, (my dream car) for the past 3 years and so am wondering if you still have yours and what the price may be for it today. Not that I could afford it, especially with the current exchange rate but would like to know if it may be within reach. Thank you
Alex Kilpatrick, Saint John, NB 506-755-0399
I have my original 460 engine and trans from my 75 thunderbird in my 73F 100 p/I and just getting ready to freshen up with edelbrock kit head’s fuel injector tune header’s plus whatever else we find out we need wish me luck