1957 Ford Thunderbird F-Series Factory Supercharged Convertible

When the Ford Thunderbird arrived in 1955, it literally blew past the Corvette in both sales and popularity, giving General Motors pause to reconsider the Corvette’s future. It was the beginning of the short-lived but exciting sports car wars which revved up in 1955 and ended abruptly in 1957, when Ford Motor Company ceased production of the two-passenger Thunderbird. Although its fate had been sealed, the Thunderbird went out with a bang in ’57, building 194 supercharged “F” models equipped with McCulloch centrifugal superchargers, which gave the cars a whipping 300 hp. The T-Bird had already established itself as a more practical sports car than its bow-tie wearing competitor, with power windows, a choice of automatic or manual transmission, and a removable hardtop, all features Chevrolet quickly adopted for the Corvette. However, the Thunderbird had them first.

The Thunderbird was an unequalled success beginning with its introduction in 1955, and by...