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21/10/2023 1:32 pm
@david-green, thanks. I had too narrow a vision of what to compare the T-Bird to. You're correct; those European makes would drive rings around a T-Bird. They are the reason I gravitated toward foreign cars while all my buddies were buying big block American iron. I wanted the thrill of taking a corner with some finesse rather than moving quickly in a straight line.
John Kuvakas
Warrenton, VA
David Green reacted
Topic starter
22/10/2023 12:48 pm
Gents, I'm not sure of the source of your info, but FOMOCO never intended or classified the GEN I t-bird to be a sports car or a sports sedan. It was a personal luxury car.
"Dubbed a "a personal car of distinction" by Ford,[6][7][8] this appellation was also used by the motoring press at the time.[9] The car built upon the heritage of the bespoke roadsters of the 1930s, yet was constructed largely of existing components, marking the first step toward the evolution of the personal luxury car as a mass market segment in the United States.[10][7] While light weight for its era and fitted with a standard V8 engine, the Thunderbird focused more on driver comfort than speed, and was not a direct rival to either the Corvette or European sports cars[".
John Bono
North Jersey
22/10/2023 1:18 pm
@sizedoesmatter, well said. I needed to be reminded of the T-Bird's mission. It was never intended to be a sports car, more of a boulevard cruiser.
John Kuvakas
Warrenton, VA
David Green and John Bono reacted
22/10/2023 7:11 pm
The 1956 Golden Hawk didn't handle well at all because of the weight of the Packard engine under the hood. In 1957 The Golden Hawk received the Studebaker engine which was approximately 300 pounds lighter with the same horsepower and helped its handling quite a bit. Both of these cars were aimed at personal luxury, not as sports cars. I owned two 1956 Austin Healeys and I can assure you these were in a completely different class.
22/10/2023 10:55 pm
My experience with a '57 T-Bird with automatic trans was that it performed great and was quite fast in a straight line, but cornering, forget about it!
David Green reacted
22/10/2023 11:13 pm
Love them both with or without external rear spare. I have diecasts in 1/43, 1.24 and 1/18 and all are favorites.
Topic starter
23/10/2023 11:25 am
I voted for the t-bird as shown.
John Bono
North Jersey
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