Fine Lines: 1961-71 Ford Thunderbird....

1961-71 Ford Thunderbirds are great drivers and good performers. While the Pontiac Gran Prix and Chevy Monte Carlo and others blossomed in the '70's, the T-Bird was the original personal luxury / performance car. 1961-63 was the "Bullet Bird"-so nicknamed because the tailfin / taillight assembly looked like-well a bullet. Even 55 years later, they are still a good looking car. And with 390 cubes under the hood, they moved pretty good too. Steven Seagal drove one in the action flick "Hard to Kill," and Paul Walker of "Fast&Furious" fame drove one in "The Skulls". 1964 brought a complete restyling and I personally think this is the least attractive of the '60's T-Birds. This the "Thelma&Louise" style-Susan Sarandon drove one in that movie. They had 390 or 428 cubes under the hood. This style ran through '66. In 1967 they were restyled again. I think the '67-69 T-Bird is one of the best-looking cars Ford ever produced. They had hidden headlights and a slick body that was remarkably devoid of chrome or doo-dads. I like the 2 dr coupes best, but they also offered a 4-door model with "Suicide doors" that has kind of a cult following. You can't go wrong either way. the 390 was standard, with the 428 optional. In 1968 the 429 was introduced. This was much more modern design that the "FE" 390 / 428s. It was also the base for Ford's Nascar efforts. 1969 was pretty much a carryover year. 1970 brought another restyling and these were great looking cars too with a swoopy, Nascar-inspired body. This was also when American car makers started to care about handling-so they had big front and rear sway bars and handled surprisingly well for a big car. And with a 375 hp 429 under the hood, they moved good too. '71 was the same escept for a few new colors. These were the last of the performance T-Birds until the Supercharged 1989 model. For some insane reason Ford restyled the T-Bird in 1972, and put it on the much heavier and uglier Lincoln MKIV platform. Even with 460 cubes under the hood-they were just too heavy to be anything other than slugs. If you want a cool, good performing vintage ride, a '61-71 T-Bird is hard to beat. Mastermind