Photo: Classic Auto Mall
Take a good, long look at the cars Ford is making today. You’ll see incredible pieces of engineering, almost every single one of them, but sadly wrapped in bodies so dull they make your eyes hurt. But things were not always like this.
Compared to what carmakers used to roll out back in the 1950s and 1960s, today’s cars are very ugly ducklings. And you only need to look at a 1955 Ford Thunderbird like the one we have here to know immediately that is true.
1955 was the first year for the Thunderbird, a model needed in the Blue Oval’s portfolio to fill a gap in the luxury car segment. It first came into the world as a two-seat convertible, but later grew into covering other body styles as well, until it was discontinued in 1997; a revival was attempted five years after that, but it failed so miserably it’s not even worth a mention.
Being a first model year Thunderbird, the car we have here is, thus, a two-seat convertible and one that looks incredibly fine given its age and mileage – 54,000 miles (87,000 km) is what the odometer shows. Obviously taken care of, it also went through some restoration process about two decades ago, and that obviously helped things along.
The beautiful red body wraps around an equally alluring red and white interior, and all the original appointments seem to still be in place. So is the powerplant, a 292ci (4.8-liter) with a 4-barrel carburetor and linked to a 3-speed manual transmission.
As you can see in the attached gallery, this near-perfect Thunderbird is for sale. The asking price is $45,900, which is higher than some of the other T-Birds we featured this January as part of our Ford Month coverage. Then again, remember this is a first-gen, and just look at the thing…
1955 was the first year for the Thunderbird, a model needed in the Blue Oval’s portfolio to fill a gap in the luxury car segment. It first came into the world as a two-seat convertible, but later grew into covering other body styles as well, until it was discontinued in 1997; a revival was attempted five years after that, but it failed so miserably it’s not even worth a mention.
Being a first model year Thunderbird, the car we have here is, thus, a two-seat convertible and one that looks incredibly fine given its age and mileage – 54,000 miles (87,000 km) is what the odometer shows. Obviously taken care of, it also went through some restoration process about two decades ago, and that obviously helped things along.
The beautiful red body wraps around an equally alluring red and white interior, and all the original appointments seem to still be in place. So is the powerplant, a 292ci (4.8-liter) with a 4-barrel carburetor and linked to a 3-speed manual transmission.
As you can see in the attached gallery, this near-perfect Thunderbird is for sale. The asking price is $45,900, which is higher than some of the other T-Birds we featured this January as part of our Ford Month coverage. Then again, remember this is a first-gen, and just look at the thing…
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