Tag Archives: Thunderbird

Rolls Royce Grill On A Thunderbird – Lincoln Continental Mark III

After coming a cropper and loosing US$1000 on each of the 3000 odd ultra luxurious ’56 and ’57 Continental Mark II’s the Continental name reverted to model name under the Lincoln brand and it was not until 1969 that the Lincoln Continental Mark III would see the light of day, although there had been a 1959 Continental III that retrospectively became known as the Lincoln Continental Mark III just to confuse the issue.

Lincoln Continental Mark III

When the 1967 fifth generation Ford Thunderbird started under performing in the market place Ford President Lee Iacocca decided the best way to recoup the companies investment was to use to use the 4 door Thunderbird’s floor plan for the new Lincoln Mark III. Allegedly Iacocca instructed Ford Design Vice President Gene Bordinat to ‘put a Rolls Royce grill on a Thunderbird’ in September 1965.

Lincoln Continental Mark III

The Continental Mark III’s 2 door body worked out 300 lbs / 140 kg heavier than the 4 door Thunderbird but it was powered by a larger more powerful 365 hp 7.5 litre / 460 cui V8 motor than the 345 hp available to Thunderbird owners.

Lincoln Continental Mark III

Interior trim included leather and real wood on the dash which kept the cars press rating above the nearest nylon cloth trimmed Cadillac Eldorado competitor as late as the Mark IIIs final year 1971, with a Cartier branded clock becoming standard soon after the cars launch in 1968.

Lincoln Continental Mark III

Sales of the Mark III never bettered the lesser trimmed Eldordo but were over 20,000 a year for 1969/70 they rose to a high of 27,091 in 1971 which coincidentally marked Lincoln’s Golden Jubilee Year.

Lincoln Continental Mark III

Today’s featured 1971 model belonged to my facebook acquaintance Lori Munro in the 1980’s when the photo’s were taken. Lori, who co founded Race Talk Radio, says that her Mark III “was great …. when fuel was just US$0.60 a gallon”, but decided to sell it after it had been in storage for a couple of years.

My thanks to Lori Munro for sharing her photographs and story, please drop by Race Talk Radio’s facebook page and “Like” to show your appreciation.

Thanks for joining me on this “Rolls Royce Grill On A Thunderbird” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

E Day – Ford Edsel

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With a surplus cash from the success of the Ford Thunderbird Ford executives decided to create a new intermediate line of vehicles to compete with Oldsmobile which included a network of over 1,000 dealers through which the new brand was to be distributed. Fifty five years ago today amidst much fan fare Ford launched it’s new baby to an unsuspecting American public with much fan fare which included labeling September 4th 1957 “E Day”.

Fifty years after the event Time said of the Edsel “Ford’s marketing mavens had led the public to expect some plutonium-powered, pancake-making wondercar; what they got was a Mercury.” More unkindly some described the Edsel as looking like an Olds sucking a lemon.

To get sales of the vehicle “unlike any other car you have ever seen” underway Ford on October 13th organised a television special live from Television City in Hollywood “The Edsel Show” which combined the talents of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Rosemary Clooney to “pump” it’s target market. Highlights included Frank Sinatra smoking a cigarette standing next to Louis Armstrong while performing a “number”.

For 1958 model year the Edsel was available in four flavours Citation and Corsair based on a Mercury platform, with the smaller Pacer and Ranger based on a Ford 118 inch platform. Today’s featured base model Ranger is powered by a 5.9 litre / 361 cui 303hp FE V8 which could be ordered with Teletouch automatic transmission operated by button’s on the hub of the steering wheel.

Ford needed to sell 200,000 Edsels to break even on it’s $400,000,000 dollar investment in the new range, despite the second largest brand launch, exceeded only by Plymouth in 1928, to date with over 60,000 sales in the 1958 model year it quickly became apparent that the Edsel concept was struggling to fly.

In November 1959 with just over 120,000 models built Ford pulled the plug on the Edsel. Among the many reasons for it’s failure was a pricing policy that did not clearly fill a gap between the Ford, Mercury and Lincoln Brands, in particular the most expensive Fords being too closely priced to the cheapest Edsels. It is estimated Ford lost of the order of $350,000,000 dollars on the project.

Thanks for joining me on this “E Day” edition of Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, Tuesdays regular MG blog will appear on Thursday, I hope you will join me again for a continental curiosity tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Personal Luxury – Ford Thunderbird Continental

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Following the announcement of the Chevrolet Corvette sports car in 1953, Ford responded by developing the Ford Thunderbird which was differentiated from the Corvette by it’s emphasis on luxury and comfort over performance.

Former GM Executive Lewis D. Crusoe and Ford Stylist George Walker found inspiration for the Thunderbird design from a sports car they saw in Paris. They worked with Ford Designer Frank Hershey on the two seater.

Ford Stylist Alden Gibberson was given a Saks suit complete with 2nd pair of trousers as his reward for coming up with the Thunderbird name which was first seen in public at the Detroit Motor Show in early 1954 and went in to production for the 1955 model year.

Despite many competition features like the stone guard grill over covering the front head lights the original Thunderbird was not intended for competition use.

The intake on the bonnet / hood is just for show, as was the 150 mph speedometer fitted to the first series Thunderbirds which had a top speed of around 100mph.

The distinctive Thunderbird rocker covers belie the fact that the 190 hp 4.8 litre / 292 cui Y block V8 was sourced from Fords Mercury division.

The detailing is typical of 1950’s dream cars note the V8 badge incorporates the Y which denotes the engine type.

As I understand it the removable glass fiber hard top was part of the Continental option package …

as was the bumper mounted spare wheel.

The first series Thunderbird out sold it’s Corvette competitor 20 fold with over 16,000 unit’s produced in the first year of production.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Personal Luxury’ Edition of Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Project Sunbird – Ford Consul Capri (335)

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To my mind the Ford Consul Capri has always epitomized the best of 1950’s era design from Ford of Britain, which is a shame because the world had already moved on from those opulent 50’s features when the car was launched in 1961.

The pillar less Capri coupé, like the Consul Classic with which it shares it’s running gear and chassis pan, was designed by Charles Thompson with scaled down influences from Fords Thunderbird and Galaxie Sunliner models.

With a 3 bearing 1340 cc 81.7 cui Ford 109E engine that, when sleeved down to 1092 cc / 66.6 cui was popular in Formula Junior cars at the time, the Capri was considered under powered, and in 1962 Consul Capri’s, like the 1962 model seen here at Goodwood Revival, were fitted with the 1498 cc / 91.4 cui 116 E engine which boosted the top speed to 79 mph with a 0 to 60 mph time of 22.6 seconds.

Body assembly was out sourced to Pressed Steel Fisher who sent the completed bodies to Ford’s Dagenham plant for final assembly. This method of production proved very expensive especially compared to the contemporary Ford Cortina.

Sales of just 19,421 Capri 335’s sold in two and a half years, make this one of the rarest vehicles Ford of Britain ever produced.

The Capri name disappeared from the Ford model palette from 1964 to 1969 when Ford came back with the ‘Car you have always dreamed of’ the more successful Ford Capri Mk 1′ which I’ll be looking at in the New Year.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Sunbird’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

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December 26th – January 2nd

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Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Thunderbird

Rolls Royce Grill On A Thunderbird – Lincoln Continental Mark III

E Day – Ford Edsel

Personal Luxury – Ford Thunderbird Continental

Project Sunbird – Ford Consul Capri (335)