2/16/2024 0 Comments Thunderbird car 1974![]() This approach was most highly developed at GM, where a car buyer could show they were moving up in the world by switching from the low-priced Chevrolet to a higher-priced Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and - at the pinnacle - Cadillac. For one thing, 1958-60 Thunderbird was the first Big Three postwar car to undercut the “hierarchy of brands” strategy that then dominated the US auto industry. The early four-seaters were remarkably subversive on a number of levels. 2 automaker could better compete against mighty General Motors if it pioneered new markets rather than trying to directly compete model for model. These are beautiful machines, but you’ll need your own gas station if you plan to drive this car a lot.The four-seater Thunderbird was a surprisingly pivotal car for the Ford Motor Company during the postwar period. So, if just one bidder comes to the table, they would be getting a bargain, relatively speaking. Hagerty thinks that $19,000 is about the top dollar for a ’72 T-Bird. People aren’t racing to pay big bucks for these large automobiles. I’d be planning to replace almost anything rubber on the car to compensate for age – and that won’t be cheap. The seller says the car is 98% original “right down to the belts”, which doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy. The brakes have been completely redone and all the original parts were saved in case the next owner collects that sort of stuff. The only transmission choice was an automatic, of course. With a compression ratio of 8.5:1, it should run on regular gasoline. It produces 212 net horsepower with a 4-barrel Motorcraft carburetor and single exhaust system (!). We’re told there’s a 429 cubic inch V-8 under the hood, the middle of three engines that you could get in the T-Bird that year. as you scroll through the photos, is it just me or does the seller have his camera lens on a funky setting? The car kind of looks like it’s in a fishbowl! Once you open the doors, you’ll enter a universe of comfort and convenience that you’d have to buy a Lincoln Mark series car to beat. If you were to rate the body and paint on a scale of 1 to 10, this looks like at least a 9.5, discounted for a couple of minor blemishes. But we are told the mileage has averaged less than 700 per year and the car was kept covered during “her” lifetime (car cover outside or a garage?) by its only previous owner. Like where has this car been all its life and who kept it in this remarkable condition? Knowing that would be a huge selling point in my book. There is little history provided on the seller’s car because they are a dealer. Cars like this were in big demand in the early 1970s and people didn’t much care about the gas mileage until the OPEC Oil Embargo of 1973, after which it was hard to sell gas hogs like the big T-Bird. At nearly 58,000 units, Thunderbird sales were up 60% over 1971. It was gussied up more than most T-Birds to signify the special occasion (the whereabouts of that car today are unknown to us). The 1972 Ford brochures said it all “more than a car…more Thunderbird than ever.” Boy, they weren’t kidding! Thunderbird #1 million was built in June 1972 at Ford’s assembly plant near Los Angeles, California. Our thanks to Elliott Espinosa for sending this tip our way! So, the car might just sell for that amount. How does one buy a car like this and drive it only 31,000 miles in 48 years? Interested parties can find this T-Bird in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and here on eBay, where the untested starting bid is $7,500 with no reserve. This 1972 Ford Thunderbird is described by the seller (a dealer) as a “time capsule”, and that description seems quite fair. But, by the early 1970s, most everything Detroit built was bigger than it used to be. Besides seating for at least twice as many people, the wheelbase was extended by 18%, the car itself was 29% longer, and it was 67% heavier. What the car had evolved to was vastly different than how it started out. It’s hard to believe that Ford built its one-millionth Thunderbird in 1972, just 17 years after all the excitement began with a 2-seater.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |