Photo: v8_or_die/instagram
With skateboard-style electric-vehicle platforms being the new standard of the automotive industry, it's only a matter of time until automotive producers or third-party developers bring a new age of coachbuilding upon us. All sorts of bodies and interiors can land on the said modular architectures, and one of the nameplates that may just be revived by its maker is the Ford Thunderbird.
In January this year, Ford applied for a trademark on the iconic Thunderbird name, and the independent rendering we have here builds on the hopes that were born from the said move.
The Thunderbird badge has been confined to the history books since the summer of 2005, so it might be easy to forget that we're talking about a model with a tremendous history.
Introduced as a Corvette competitor in the mid 1950s, the model evolved into a four-seater for its second generation. And it stayed that way until 2002 when the eleventh generation brought back the original two-seater formula, albeit with limited success. The said iteration landed after a five-year hiatus, the only absence in the five-decade history of the model.
Returning to this pixel portrait, the exercise brings back the seventh-generation model built between 1977 and 1979. By the time that generation was introduced, the Thunderbird had grown into a personal luxury car. Still, the newcomer went from a full-size offering to a large intermediate one, which, among others, resulted in a pricing drop. And with the squarer styling proving to be a hit, the Mk VII marked an all-time sales record.
Brandon, the enthusiast behind this work, who describes himself as a friendly neighborhood Malaise era vehicle historian and designer on Instagram, used to own such a T-Bird. He came up with a pixel exercise that envisions a revival using the platform of the Mustang Mach-E.
"The base shape was inspired by the modern Challenger, and then was further stretched to fit the proportions of the Mustang Mach E wheelbase," the gearhead, who shows little love for the electric crossover and for high-riders in general, explains.
The list of nostalgic styling cues present on the machine includes the opera windows, the side-to-side rear lights, and the pointed market lights up front, with LED obviously being the name of the game. A set of BBS wire wheels completes the setup, with these wrapped in performance rubber.
As more and more gearheads are prepared to accept the return of retro badges in battery-electric form, we might see such a revival. Here's hoping it comes in a classic coupe form.
The Thunderbird badge has been confined to the history books since the summer of 2005, so it might be easy to forget that we're talking about a model with a tremendous history.
Introduced as a Corvette competitor in the mid 1950s, the model evolved into a four-seater for its second generation. And it stayed that way until 2002 when the eleventh generation brought back the original two-seater formula, albeit with limited success. The said iteration landed after a five-year hiatus, the only absence in the five-decade history of the model.
Returning to this pixel portrait, the exercise brings back the seventh-generation model built between 1977 and 1979. By the time that generation was introduced, the Thunderbird had grown into a personal luxury car. Still, the newcomer went from a full-size offering to a large intermediate one, which, among others, resulted in a pricing drop. And with the squarer styling proving to be a hit, the Mk VII marked an all-time sales record.
Brandon, the enthusiast behind this work, who describes himself as a friendly neighborhood Malaise era vehicle historian and designer on Instagram, used to own such a T-Bird. He came up with a pixel exercise that envisions a revival using the platform of the Mustang Mach-E.
"The base shape was inspired by the modern Challenger, and then was further stretched to fit the proportions of the Mustang Mach E wheelbase," the gearhead, who shows little love for the electric crossover and for high-riders in general, explains.
The list of nostalgic styling cues present on the machine includes the opera windows, the side-to-side rear lights, and the pointed market lights up front, with LED obviously being the name of the game. A set of BBS wire wheels completes the setup, with these wrapped in performance rubber.
As more and more gearheads are prepared to accept the return of retro badges in battery-electric form, we might see such a revival. Here's hoping it comes in a classic coupe form.
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