Thread: 55 T-Bird-did you know??.

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I watched a TV program a couple of days ago.They said that Ford
released the 55 T-Bird to compete against the Corvette which was
the first V8 vett.Ford took a advantage of the vett's short comings.

The vett was a fiberglass body and the T-Bird was a steel body.
The 55 vett had two pins to put the windows in and the T-Bird had wine-up windows.The vett had a top that leaked badly and the T-Bird had a hard top.The Vett had a wrap around windshield that everytime you got into the car you would hit your knees badly and the T-Bird didn't have that issue.

The fact is that the 55 T-Bird almost resulted in Chevy canceling the Corvette program because the 55 T-Bird was that much a better built car.

I thought this was some interesting info.

Thanks for that Gary. I never heard it before, but it makes perfect sense.

That rivalry was intense in the mid-50's into the muscle car years, and the industrial espionage must have been active, too. Ford countered the FI unit with their Paxton blowers, and the cubic inch war through the years, bumping the engine sizes to support the growing Race Sunday, Sell Monday mentality.

I saw that special too Gary and I was amazed that I did not see that competition between the two of the cars. Sometimes the obvious hits you in the head like a brick!
Don Jr.

Gary I happened to see that article myself and didn't realize the differences, but chevy finally came around when ford decided to go with a larger verzion in 58 and chevy kept it a two seater.. I had a freind who had a 57 T-Bird and it rode pretty good and I also had rides in a 56 vette and the vette was alot more cramped for room the the T-Bird.

Originally Posted by Mr Blue

I saw that special too Gary.......Don Jr.

Originally Posted by 1gary

I watched a TV program a couple of days ago.......

Either of you remember the name of the show? Tried a "search" of the upcoming shows for a repeat, but no hits on "thunderbird", "corvette", etc.

Back then there wasn't much of a demand for 2 seater sports cars---and then Ford needed the factory capacity to build the Edsel so the 2 seater whenn buy buy(also Nascar wouldn't let them run it)

I vaguely remember a hollywood movie about the old t-bird that was the special racing car, Elvis might have starred in it, but it was so long ago I can't recall. I think they were using a T-bird with some italian modified engine.
Loved the rivelry even back then between the two. As much as I'm a Ford guy, I have to admit year for year in the 60's, it seemed Chevy had the edge on Ford when it came to steering and handling, especially between the old stangs and cameros. My old 68 Mustang would suck air and go to lifting up on the front end the minute the speedometer would creep above 70 mph.
Still I love all those old designs, from both GM and Ford, Dodge too!

was this show sponsored by Ford??

Nope.It was a classic collection show.I wish I could remember the name of it.In fact it gave a web site too which I don't remember.One part of it had a segment that had Mickey Thomson's son on it talking about his fathers cars and how inventive Mickey was.Showed the car that ran 400 MPH on the salt flats.

Darn,
I don't remember it either. I think it was on the speed channel. Let me see if I can find it. Don Jr.

Not the show I saw but here is the musclecar club website link which talks about the same thing. Still looking for the show I saw

Musclecarclub.com - Ford Thunderbird - History