![]() Inside, Ford offered the Thunderbird as a personal luxury coupe fitted with leather seats, automatic climate control, a mini AM-FM stereo (options), sunroof, and 6-way power front seats. A red strip spread across the entire rear board in the rear, but only the outer sides were lit. Its overall length was so big that it should require its own zip-code. From its sides, the car looked like a faux-cabriolet since it didn't feature a B-pillar between the doors and the quarter panel. The long hood, suitable to cover one of the biggest V8 engines ever installed in a Ford, featured a profiled surface with a raised center part. Its double rounded headlights at the front and the pinned-out grille in the middle made the Thunderbird like a battleship on wheels. Despite the higher torque, it was slower to the 60 mph mark (92 kph) than the British XJ limo. A 4.2-liter Jaguar engine provided 240 hp while the 7-liter T-Bird offered a mere 212 hp. But the carmakers were ready for that and fitted their cars with big engines tuned for shallow power for their engine's displacements. The only thing that stood between the big blocks and the customers was the emissions control regulations. In 1972 the Muscle-Car era was coming to an end, but nobody knew it. But the 1973 oil crisis deeply cut into its sales. Mark IV buyers enjoyed the prestige of a classic standup grille and a spare tire bump, and Thunderbird buyers got the deal of the century.The seventh and largest Ford Thunderbird shook the American car industry in 1972 with its huge size and massive engines. We could conclude that Mark IV and T-Bird owners each got what they wanted. Both were strong sellers, with the Thunderbird moving its customary 50,000-60,000 units per year and the Mark IV essentially carrying the Lincoln division at the time with annual volume in the 50,000-70,000 range. When 5-mph DOT bumpers became mandatory in 1974, the resemblance only grew.Ī bit surprisingly, perhaps, the remarkable similitude of the Big ‘Bird and the Mark IV didn’t seem to hurt the popularity of either one. In many ways, especially in their mechanical underpinnings and general appearance, the Thunderbird and Mark IV were pretty much the same car. One more minor difference, initially at least: The T-Bird’s base engine was the 429 CID V8 while the Mark got the maximum-strength 460 CID V8, but in 1974 the 460 became standard Thunderbird equipment. In features and price, the Mark IV was still the Ford Motor Company’s king of personal-luxury cars. True, the Thunderbird’s cabin appointments were not quite as lavish as the Mark IV’s, while the list of standard luxury equipment was not nearly as long. Thunderbird fans, who like to give each generation of T-Birds a nickname, have dubbed these models the Big ‘Birds. The sixth-generation ’72-’76 production cycle was the largest and most luxurious Thunderbird produced by Ford to date, with any previous sporty flavoring fallen away. Naturally, the more value-minded buyers of the luxury-car crowd were quick to take notice. Yet when the ’72 T-Bird launched on September 4, 1971, it listed at $5,293, nearly $3,400 less than the $8,640 Lincoln. Indeed, from middle distance it can be a little difficult to tell them apart, especially in profile. They shared the same 120.4-inch wheelbase chassis, structural black metal, cowl, and greenhouse-and a remarkable similarity in exterior styling. But in most other ways the T-Bird (red coupe above) and the Mark IV (silver) are surprisingly similar cars.īoth were assembled at Ford’s Wixom, Michigan plant in the northwest suburbs of Detroit both were available only as two-door coupes, the classic personal-luxury body style. The 1972-76 Ford Thunderbird doesn’t have a Rolls-Royce-style grille or a faux spare tire bump on the deck lid like its close corporate cousin, the ’72-’76 Lincoln Continental Mark IV. ![]() For luxury car buyers, it was the deal of the century. The 1972-76 Thunderbird was a virtual clone of the regal Continental Mark IV, but it was priced at thousands less.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |