Sales flopped to fewer than 50, but one of those was delivered to the father of Jane Durgom-Powers, who still has the factory invoice to prove it. After just 455 sales in '63, Ford ditched the Sports Roadster as a distinct model, but offered a re-styled tonneau cover as a $269 option for all '64 soft-tops. Incidentally, Ford didn't offer a sunroof Thunderbird again until 1969.Įven less popular (at the time) was the Sports Roadster of 1962-63, an ersatz two-seat convertible created by concealing the rear bench with a removable fiberglass tonneau cover. Since then he's repainted it and replaced its leather interior, but mechanically it remains original it scored a second in the Senior class at Princeton. Paul Wilson purchased his '60 sunroof hardtop in 1981. Ford built just 2,536 units – less than 3 percent of 1960's total T-Bird production – with this $212 option. Better appreciated in Princeton, Big Bird earned a second place in the Touring class.Īnother somewhat rara avis is a 1960 hardtop with a sliding steel sunroof. She appeared briefly in the 2007 film American Gangster, "but if you blinked, you missed her," said Weiner.
Originally delivered to San Diego, Big Bird now nests on Long Island. Special-edition cream-and-gold paintwork is complemented by matching two-tone leather, and gold highlights dazzle inside and out.
Elliott and Frani Weiner's all-original '76, affectionately nicknamed "Big Bird," boasts nearly every conceivable option, including an 8-track tape player and Quadrophonic sound (hey, it was the '70s). These biggest 'Birds ever span a 120-inch wheelbase, share a body shell with the Continental Mark IV, and weigh close to 5,000 pounds. And we do mean behemoths: One rarely encounters any member of the 1972-76 generation at any Thunderbird meet, and yet here were three of them, looming long and large among their sportier ancestors and more fuel-efficient descendants.
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Perhaps even more remarkably, those 14 cars nearly spanned the full 51 years of Thunderbird history, from Baby Birds to behemoths and back again. Nearly half had traveled impressive distances: While eight cars hailed from the relatively close cluster of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, one came from Texas, two from Minnesota and two more from Canada.
That's a small turnout for this 50-year-old organization, which boasts some 1,100 members.īut of those 14 Thunderbirds, several were rare, or at least unusual. – What were the odds? A total 14 automobiles were presented for judging at the 2019 convention of the Vintage Thunderbird Club International (VCTI), in Princeton, New Jersey this past summer.
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