Ford Thunderbird Family Sports Car From The Fifties by Jan Keteleer

The Ford Thunderbird is a great family car from the fifties. It was designed to compete in the then-burgeoning market for family vehicles in size, especially those that were in the mid-field of four-door cars. The Thunderbird was a direct competitor of the Mercury Grand Marquis and the Marauder, which were also produced by Ford. Even though it was only offered in the top trim level, the Ford Thunderbird was actually one of the more successful vehicles in its class. This is due primarily to the fact that the Thunderbird was built on the Ford Motor Company's Delta brand, which itself was one of the company's premier vehicles.

In essence, the Ford Thunderbird meant to be a scaled down version of the Mercury Grand Marquis, offering great performance at a moderately-expensive price. Ford did this by making the Thunderbird two-door coupe with a mid-engine design. Despite its compact body, the Ford Thunderbird managed to offer up a lot of passenger room and storage space, even though it was smaller than its Mercury counterpart. While it is true that the Thunderbird was not nearly as successful as the other vehicles mentioned here, it was one of Ford's most popular models, and it remains fondly remembered by many Ford loyalists. For that reason, the Thunderbird is still on the Ford production floor.

One of the most interesting things about the Ford Thunderbird is that, much like so many other models of the Ford Thunderbird, it was actually built using parts from a variety of di