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Ernest Breech, a Thunderbird Country Club member, who was then chairman of Ford Motor Company was supposedly deeply involved in the creation of the Thunderbird. Breech asked the Club's permission to name the new model after the Club and the club consented to the use of the name. The Ford Thunderbird began life in February in direct response to Chevrolet 's new sports car, the Corvette , which was publicly unveiled in prototype form just a month before.
It was a two-seat design available with a detachable glass-fibre hard top and a folding fabric top. Mechanically though, the Thunderbird could trace its roots to other mainstream Fords. Though inspired by, and positioned directly against, the Corvette, Ford billed the Thunderbird as a personal car , putting a greater emphasis on the car's comfort and convenience features rather than its inherent sportiness.
In fact, the Thunderbird outsold the Corvette by more than to-one for with 16, Thunderbirds sold against Corvettes.
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The most notable change was moving the spare tire to a continental-style rear bumper in order to make more storage room in the trunk and a new 12 volt electrical system. When in "Drive", it was a 2-speed automatic transmission similar to Chevrolet's Powerglide. Low gear could also be accessed with wide open throttle.
The Thunderbird was revised for with a reshaped front bumper, a larger grille and tailfins, and larger tail lamps. The instrument panel was heavily re-styled with round gauges in a single pod, and the rear of the car was lengthened, allowing the spare tire to be positioned back in the trunk. Though Ford was pleased to see sales of the Thunderbird rise to a record-breaking 21, units for , company executives felt the car could do even better, leading to a substantial redesign of the car for Although the Thunderbird was a success, Ford executives—particularly Robert McNamara — were concerned that the car's position as a two-seater limited its sales potential.
As a result, the car was redesigned as a four-seater for The new Thunderbird began a sales momentum previously unseen with the car, selling , units in three years, four times the result of the two seat model. This success spawned a new market segment , the personal luxury car. It was offered in both hardtop and convertible body styles, although the latter was not introduced until June , five months after the release of the hardtop. Along with a new, more rigid unibody construction was new styling, including quad headlights, more prominent tailfins, a bolder chrome grille, and a larger, though non-functional, hood scoop.
In the part of model year that the car was available, sales were 37, units, outselling the previous model year 16, units. For , the Thunderbird was given another new grille and other minor stylistic changes along with a newly optional manually operated sunroof for hardtop models.
Dual-unit round taillights from to were changed to triple-units after the fashion of the Chevrolet Impala. Customers continued to approve of the car as it broke sales records yet again with 92, sold for Ford went ahead with a redesign for the Thunderbird to debut in The Thunderbird was redesigned for with sleeker styling that gave the car a distinctively bullet-like appearance.
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The new Thunderbird was immediately well received with 73, sold for A vinyl-roofed Landau option with simulated S-bars was added to the Thunderbird for as was a Sports Roadster package for convertible models. The Sports Roadster included spoke Kelsey-Hayes designed wire wheels and a special fiberglass tonneau cover for the rear seats which gave the car the appearance of a two-seat roadster like the original Thunderbird.
The Sports Roadster package was slow-selling due the high price of the package and complexity of the tonneau cover, resulting in few Thunderbirds being equipped with it. M-Code V8 Thunderbirds are exceptionally rare with only being sold between and Few other changes were made to the Thunderbird for as Ford prepared to introduce a new version for A horizontal styling line was added that ran from the point where bumper and fender meet back through the door and angled down. Small diagonal chrome bars were added in this area on the door.
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Alternators rather than generators were a new feature on all Thunderbirds. For the Thunderbird was restyled in favor of a more squared-off appearance, which was mostly evident when viewing the car from the side or rear. Hinting at its roots in the previous generation Thunderbird that it evolved from, the new model retained a similar grille design with quad headlights and a As before, the new Thunderbird continued to be offered in hardtop, convertible, and Landau versions.
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It was paired with a 3-speed automatic transmission. For , sequential turn signals were added, flashing the individual segments of the broad, horizontal tail lights in sequences from inside to outside to indicate a turn. Also new for were standard front disc brakes , and doubled sided keys. Even though it was the last year of the generation, saw a stylistic revision for the Thunderbird highlighted by a new egg-crate style grille with a large Thunderbird emblem at its center and a single-blade front bumper. The rear bumper was restyled to include new full-width taillamps. Engine choices were also revised for The Thunderbird's fifth generation brought the second major change in the car's design direction since its debut in Where the Mustang had an advantage was in the point that it was substantially cheaper.
To prevent overlap between the two cars, Ford's response was to move the Thunderbird upmarket. The result, introduced for , was a larger Thunderbird with luxury appointments more in line with a Lincoln. The new Thunderbird abandoned unibody construction in favor of a body-on-frame construction with sophisticated rubber mountings between the body and frame to reduce noise and vibration.
A pair of significant departures from the previous generation Thunderbird was the elimination of a convertible model and the addition a four-door model, which used suicide doors for rear seat access. The available four-door design would remain a unique feature to this generation as it was not carried on after One of the most noticeable design elements of the fifth generation Thunderbird was the gaping, fighter jet-inspired grille opening that incorporated hidden headlights.
The Thunderbird continued with the same platform and many of the same parts and styling cues used in the to models, including the sequential turn signals incorporated into the full width taillamps in the rear of the vehicle.
The most noticeable change was in the front fascia where there was now a large prominent projection resembling a bird or eagle's beak that was in line with long angular lines in the hood. The T-bird was offered in coupe or sports-back models for these two years, the latter being a further distinction from the '67 to '69 models. In , Neiman Marcus offered "his and hers" Thunderbirds in its catalog, with telephones, tape recorders and other niceties. The Thunderbird was mostly a carry-over from the model as Ford prepared to release a new, larger Thunderbird for It was also the last year to offer a four-door.
The sixth generation Thunderbird debuted in the fall of as a model. Though offering two of the largest displacement V8 engines ever installed in a production vehicle by Ford, the car's considerable weight combined with low horsepower output caused by restrictive emissions technology resulted in modest performance. As might also be expected from installing a large displacement V8 in a heavy car, fuel efficiency was poor.
The big Thunderbirds were popular with sales peaking at over 87, units in in spite of the oil crisis , but sales had slumped to less than 43, by Finishing off the generation, sales saw an uptick to almost 53, units for Acknowledging increasing fuel prices and more stringent federal emissions standards, a new, down-sized Thunderbird would appear for Even with the nearly 8 inches in length from the Thunderbird only 1. It was not till the next generation model that it had a dramatic downsize of In essence, this generation was a continuation of the —76 Ford Elite , Ford's first attempt at competing in the market created by the Pontiac Grand Prix and Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Compared to the previous generation Thunderbird, the new car lost nearly 8 inches of overall length at In California, the was required, and the optionally available. For the first time, a wide fixed "B" pillar was used, reflecting Detroit's abandonment of pillarless hardtops in the mid- and lates. However, the door window glass remained frameless. In , Ford offered the "Diamond Jubilee Edition" Thunderbird to commemorate the company's 75th year as an auto manufacturer.
Naturally, it included every option available except for a moonroof and an engine block heater. A similar option package, called "Heritage", was available for Though this generation was the most successful in sales with over , examples produced in its three-year run, [1] Ford sought to downsize the Thunderbird further out of fuel efficiency and emissions concerns, leading to a redesign for Reflecting a further industry-wide adoption of smaller vehicle designs in the interest of improved fuel efficiency and emissions compliance, the Thunderbird was redesigned for on the compact Ford Fox platform , which first appeared only two years prior as the basis for the Ford Fairmont.
The squarish styling seen in the previous generation Thunderbird was favored for the new model, but the small car platform resulted in a poor translation with a distinctly upright appearance. Frameless door glass was no longer used; a chrome metal frame was used, making this car more like a two-door sedan. Combined with the poor performing 4. For this was followed up with the replacement of the straight-six with a more modern V6, the 3. It came equipped with a Motorcraft 2V carburator. Hurting the Thunderbird's sales performance further, the V8 did not return for , leaving the Cubic inch V8 as the only alternative engine.
At , examples produced between and , the eighth generation Thunderbird was barely more successful than the final model year of the previous Thunderbird generation. In response to the lackluster reception of the eighth-generation — Thunderbird, Ford executed a significant redesign for Though based on the Fox body like the previous Thunderbird, the new Thunderbird featured a radically sleeker, more aerodynamic body and a slightly shorter wheelbase of To power the new Thunderbird, the 3. All-new, and a Thunderbird first, was a turbocharged 2.
Another first was the availability of a 5-speed manual transmission with the turbocharged four. In , the higher trim model was the Heritage; this was renamed the Elan in There was also a Fila-branded model. In , a special 30th Anniversary edition was available, with special Medium Regatta Blue Metallic paint, special graphics, and trim. Even though Ford was already at work on the next Thunderbird generation by , the company sought to continue to cash in on the existing generation's success.
As such, for the Thunderbird received a significant refresh complete with new sheetmetal and a revised front fascia with aerodynamic composite headlamps. Mechanically the car was mostly unchanged. Alpha Preview releases of Thunderbird 3 were codenamed "Shredder". The memo was slated for release on July 9, A subsequent article by the Executive Chair of Mozilla, Mitchell Baker , stated Mozilla's decision to make a transition of Thunderbird to a new release and governance model.
On November 25, , Kent James of the volunteer-led Thunderbird Council announced on the Thunderbird blog that active contributors to Thunderbird gathered at the Mozilla office in Toronto and discussed the future of the application. They have decided that more staff are required working full-time on Thunderbird so that the Thunderbird Team can release a stable and reliable product and make progress on features that have been frequently requested by the community.
On December 1, , Mitchell Baker suggested in a company-wide memo that Thunderbird should be uncoupled from Firefox's infrastructure.
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On May 9, , Philipp Kewisch announced that the Mozilla Foundation will continue to serve as the legal and fiscal home for the Thunderbird project, but that Thunderbird will migrate off Mozilla Corporation infrastructure, separating the operational aspects of the project. Thunderbird development releases occur in three stages, called Beta, Earlybird, and Daily, which correspond to Firefox's Beta, Aurora, and Nightly stages. The release dates and Gecko versions are exactly the same as Firefox; for example, Firefox 7 and Thunderbird 7 were both released on September 27, , and were both based on Gecko 7.
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Though inspired by, and positioned directly against, the Corvette, Ford billed the Thunderbird as a personal car , putting a greater emphasis on the car's comfort and convenience features rather than its inherent sportiness. Ford Designer William P. As might also be expected from installing a large displacement V8 in a heavy car, fuel efficiency was poor. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Hurting the Thunderbird's sales performance further, the V8 did not return for , leaving the Cubic inch V8 as the only alternative engine. Since version 38, Thunderbird has integrated support for automatic linking of large files instead of attaching them directly to the mail message.
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