Monocoque construction was new for Ford, and allowed the seats to be recessed into the floor pan, reducing overall height to an unheard-of 52.5 inches (as a comparison, the 1960 Chrysler 300F stood 55.1 inches tall). In its own way, the Square Bird was a revolutionary car. The money rolled in, with Ford’s reported profit being $1,000 per unit (about $6,000 in today’s money).
And it outsold Corvette during the three years ten to one. By the time the “Bullet Bird” replaced it in 1961, over 195,000 Square Birds had rolled out of the Lincoln plant in Wixom, Michigan-almost four times the two-seater’s total production. hired to save Ford, had invented the “personal luxury” car. McNamara, the ex-Litton whiz kid that Henry Jr. We all swore never to buy a Ford.īut in the market at large, the car was a smash hit, as 37,892 Square Birds-more than 70% of the entire three-year 53,155 production run of the “Little Bird”-were snapped up in the first year.
The suspension is much too soft for superior handling…steering is excessively slow.” Just while Chevrolet was turning the Corvette into a serious performance car, Ford had invented our father’s Olds before Oldsmobile did. One report alleged, “that while smooth and comfortable for freeway travel, it is not particularly maneuverable.
Then the first test reports came out, showing the two-ton sled to take 13.5 seconds to get to 60 miles per hour (as compared to 9.3 seconds for the ’57 T-Bird). We budding car nuts couldn’t believe that Ford had scrapped its sleek two-seater for a four-passenger barge with squared-off lines and too much chrome. I’ll never forget that night at the local drive-in, 45 years ago, when the first pictures of the’58 Thunderbird were passed around. This represents a new record price for a “Square Bird.” Vintage Thunderbird Club International (VTCI) PO Box 2250, Dearborn, MI 48123 316/794-8132ġ961-66 Olds Starfire convertible, 1960-61 Chrysler New Yorker, 1964 Chrysler 300K convertibleĪt Christie’s Rockefeller Center auction on May 18, 2002, this T-Bird brought an amazingly high $47,000, including buyer’s premium.
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