The 1961 model year saw the debut of the third generation of Ford's Thunderbird coupe. The baroque rolling Wurlitzer look of the second generation cars was replaced with a sleek new shape styled by original Thunderbird design honcho, Bill Boyer.
With the second generation T-Birds having abandoned any tenuous sports car pretensions held by the original 2-seater cars by adding rear seats and a hardtop model, the third generation cars continued to carve out the "personal luxury coupe" niche that the Thunderbird had basically invented.
Just about the ritziest offering you could find in a Ford showroom and boasting a price tag in the neighborhood of four grand (over $40k in today's coin) before any options, the T-Bird came with standard features that were pricey extras on lesser models. All Thunderbirds had power steering, power brakes, automatic transmissions, and a neat new steering wheel that could be slid out of the way when the column-mounted shifter was in "Park" allowing the driver to enter and exit with grace and ease.
The only motor was available for '61, a four-barrel version of Ford's 390 cubic inch FE big block V-8, rated at 300 SAE gross horsepower. Car Life tested a ragtop and recorded a zero-to-sixty time of 9.7 seconds and a 17.6 second quarter mile at 78mph. The Honey Beige hardtop in the photos would likely have been somewhat quicker.
This one was photographed in March of 2021 using a Fujifilm X-T2 and an XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R OIS zoom lens.
I was embiggenating the pictures and saw the "For Sale" sign in the rear window. Gonna pick it up?
ReplyDeleteI also see from the Indiana plate in the rear that it's a (at least relatively) local vehicle. In the kind of condition the body looks like I'd have to guess it's never been driven in the winter. They do use road salt in your area if I recall correctly. Even though early 60's sheet metal was massively thick compared to today's it had basically zero corrosion resistance, so unless this has had an enormous amount of body work it was probably somebody's summer toy. Amazing for a 63-year-old car.
Blackwing1
This one was photographed in March of 2021, so it's long sold.
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