In looks, price, and positioning, the Thunderbird was an inherently desirable car, which also made it a fine showroom traffic-builder. The original design, developed by Frank Hershey and Bill Boyer, walked a finely drawn line between sportiness and class, managing to bridge the tastes of a wide spectrum of buyers of different ages, income levels, and social strata. There isn’t much doubt about why people love the original two-seat Thunderbird of 1955-1957, known to its fans as the “Little Bird”: It looked like a sports car, was far more civilized than a Corvette, and managed a fair turn of speed. Let’s take a look at the tumultuous and occasionally tacky history of the 1958-1966 Ford Thunderbird. Still, people loved them and these cars inspired a host of imitators, so they were doing something right. Particularly in their later, four-seat incarnations, Thunderbirds never had blazing performance, they’re hardly rare, and as for their styling, let us just say that they often flirted with the ragged edges of good taste. Admittedly, any model that survives for 50 years and 13 distinct generations has to have something going for it, but the T-Bird lacks many of the qualities that tend to make a car a classic.
Like its younger sibling, the Ford Mustang, the Ford Thunderbird enjoys an impressive and loyal fan base whose adulation is somewhat out of proportion to the car’s tangible virtues.
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