1955-57 Ford Thunderbird |
| Affordable Classics |
| Written by SCM Staff |
The T-Bird's 1954 introduction was fortuitous. The Korean War was over, the economy was in good shape, and Chevrolet's Corvette was a fiberglass flop  The immediate post-war era saw sports cars enter the American consciousness for the first time since the days of the Mercer Raceabout and the Stutz Bearcat. By the early 1950s-in addition to foreigners like MG, Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Ferrari-Ford had to stomach American independents and upstarts dabbling in sports cars, most notably tiny manufacturers like Kaiser, Hudson, Nash, Crosley, Kurtis, and Muntz. The final straw came when arch rival Chevrolet introduced the Corvette in June of 1953, though really, the Thunderbird story started a few years before that with a subordinate's fib to his boss. It all started in Paris |