Hershey took the idea and began working on the vehicle. Walker promptly telephoned Ford's HQ in Dearborn and told designer Frank Hershey about the idea. Walking in the Grand Palais in Paris, Crusoe pointed at a sports car and asked Walker, 'Why can't we have something like that?' Crusoe and Walker met in France in October 1951. Crusoe, a retired GM executive lured out of retirement by Henry Ford II George Walker, chief stylist and a Ford vice-president and Frank Hershey, a Ford designer. Three men are generally credited with creating the original Thunderbird: Lewis D. In 2002, a revived 2-seat model was launched, was available through the end of the 2005 model year. Sales were good until the 1990s, when large 2-door coupes became unpopular production ceased after 1997. Succeeding generations became larger and more luxurious, until the line was downsized in 1977 and again in 1980. In 1958, the Thunderbird gained a second row of seats for greater practicality. Ford described it as a personal luxury car, a description which named a new market segment. It entered production for the 1955 model year as a two-seater sporty car unlike the superficially similar (and slightly earlier) Chevrolet Corvette, the Thunderbird was never sold as a full-blown sports car. Got a RealRide you'd like to see featured here?ĭrop us a line at post “RealRides of WNY” appeared first on Buffalo CarsĪ new post appears daily on, featuring old/interesting cars & trucks either seen in and around Western New York, seen by WNYers in their travels, or seen somewhere on the road by ex-WNYers.The Ford Thunderbird is a car manufactured in the United States by the Ford Motor Company. The 1960 Buyer’s Digest of New Car Facts for ’60 (really a book-like brochure all about the new Ford lineup) said the Thunderbird’s “…four-foot wide doors are the gateways to interiors so elegant and with such spaciousness for four, that they are seldom equaled in even the big, bulky cars.” This color was a T-Bird exclusive for 1960 the closest thing to it in the rest of the lineup was Yosemite Yellow (not available on the new Falcon). The 1960 Ford Thunderbird was the third and final year for this styling cycle, as the new Bullet Birds would start their three-year run for MY 1961. You don’t see many Square Birds out in the wild and few of them seem to be convertibles and almost none are ever in Moroccan Ivory like this one, seen earlier this year in Youngstown.

60 t bird