You drive through tiny, forgotten towns and big cities, and you meet people in both places who wish you well. ‘Let me know when you do.’ It was experiences like that that captured the spirit of the trip. ‘I just want to see you guys make it,’ he said. The owner spent most of his day working on our ’Bird, and not only did he fix it, he refused to charge us. We managed to crawl our way to a garage, one that specialized in classic British sports cars. With an old car you can’t expect everything to be the way it should be it has a personality that you have to deal with. An excellent original black plate California car which is mechanically sound. It also includes the jack and spare tire. It comes equipped with an automatic transmission with a V8 engine, power steering, power windows and solid wheels with white wall tires. As we were entering Nashville, the car seized up. The 1959 Ford Thunderbird is available in white with a blue interior. Instead, we headed south through Nashville and Memphis before eventually connecting with Route 66 in Texas. “We chose not to take Route 66 from Chicago. And because the car is 17 feet long, you don’t so much steer it as shepherd it between lanes. When you’re driving on the freeway in a ’59 Thunderbird-your foot firmly planted on the pedal inscribed with the word power-you feel like Charles Lindbergh flying across the Atlantic. For 1959 the factory produced 9,093 convertibles with 352 motors and 1,168 convertible Thunderbirds with the larger 430cu in engine.“The road trip is a very romantic ideal, and in a 1959 Ford Thunderbird the effect is even greater. The ’1958- ’1960 Thunderbirds were built at the Wixom Assembly Plant in Wixom, Michigan. This particular car seems to have spent many years in California as it still retains a period Squarebird Society sticker and proudly displays membership of the San Diego Chapter of the Vintage Thunderbird Club. 1959 saw the availability of a bigger, more powerful optional engine, the 430cu in (7.0-litre) V8, which cranked out 350bhp.ĭual exhausts were standard on all models, although the way to determine the different engines is straightforward: the 352 has the FORD script on the valve covers, while the 430 is plain, as this was a Lincoln motor. ![]() The standard engine in these was a 352cu in V8 and four-barrel carburettor which is rated at 300bhp and was hooked up to Ford’s Cruise- O-Matic automatic transmission. For a 61-year-old survivor the car is in remarkable condition, very stock appearing apart from a set of chrome five-spoke wheels. The ’1959 Thunderbird you see here is an unmolested convertible, painted Raven Black with a tan and white interior. ![]() 1960 achieved a whopping sales increase to 92,843. The car was a huge hit with American buyers with 37,892 sold and 1959 saw production leap to 67,456. The 1958 Thunderbird used rear coil springs which created wheel hop, for ’1959 and ’1960 the system was re-engineered with parallel leaf springs. Furthermore, the carpet kick plates are inscribed with the Thunderbird logo and the chunky decorative glove box contributes further to the car’s plush interior. The dashboard, driver’s gauges, steering wheel and shifter along with the console are a work of art evoking a real luxury feel. The car boasted an industry first with bucket seats and a full-length console as standard. This version became known as the ‘square bird’ owing to its boxy styling. By 1958 the second-generation T-bird was totally re-designed and grew bigger all round, by adding an extra row of seats so it could accommodate four people. The ’1955 -’1957 T-Birds were known as ‘little birds’ being two-seater models only, and as such they were also labelled as ‘personal luxury cars’. (7,050 cc) MEL-series engine found in full-size Lincolns, with 375 gross horsepower (280 kW), but most T-Birds had the FE-series 352 (5,766 cc) V8 with 300 gross horsepower (224 kW). The first time I ever saw a 1956 Thunderbird was in that film a white car driven by the ‘mystery girl’ Suzanne Summers. The 1959 Ford Thunderbird could be ordered with the massive 430 cu. Some say the cars were the real stars of the movie, yet it is also the music that evokes that early Sixties era, combined with a great screenplay. I too in 1973 was a teenager and this movie opened up my world to American cars, lifestyle, rock ’n’ roll and good times. It featured a host of up-and-coming young actors, many of whom would go on to have successful careers. Filmed mostly in Petaluma, north of San Francisco in California, it was set in 1962 and documented early Sixties small-town teen life. The film dealt with the last day of summer vacation before a group of teenage friends matured into adult life and went their separate ways. Turning the clock back to 1973, I, like many thousands, flocked to the cinema to experience the feature film American Graffiti, produced by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by the legendary George Lucas.
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