This Thunderbird looks all original, a “survivor” as they say. None would have moved this big heavy car with any respectable degree of alacrity. There’s no indication of which engine this particular Thunderbird has, but it would have been a 302, 351, or 400 cubic incher, all backed by a nice mushy 3 speed automatic. Introduced in the lull between two fuel crises, it was technically downsized from the previous generation.
Though really, compared to some other cars of the era, it’s not a terrible-looking car. Which means that while Andy Gibb was busy “ Shadow Dancing” and Richard Dreyfus was sculpting mountains out of mashed potatoes, a whole lot of folks were choosing to buy this car, brand new. This baby blue number was one of more than 350,000 sold in 1978 alone. I remember them being pretty common, but that popular? I had no idea. I was surprised to discover, when I researched this car, that Ford sold nearly a million of this generation of Thunderbird between 19. 1978 Ford Thunderbird – $1,995Įngine/drivetrain: V8 of unknown displacement, 3 speed automatic, RWD One is that epitome of ’70s bloat known as the personal luxury coupe, and the other is that cool but kinda useless truck you don’t see anymore: the 2WD 2 door SUV. Anyway, moving on: Today we’re looking at a couple of substantially less fuel-efficient ways of getting around. At least there was no one behind us.Īhem. This is just a few minutes before I was showing off at a stoplight, accelerated hard, forgot I was driving the only automatic in the household, and stomped on the “clutch” (read: brake) to shift. What were we thinking? But notice the sweet General XP2000 white-letters, my dad’s tire of choice at the time. This is your humble author, in May of 1990, on the way to prom: But you chose the Audi, and as a reward, allow me to present to you a photo I came across a while back, of another red Audi, long ago. Really, it was an awesome car, just leisurely.
Poor old Dasher diesels get no love at all. But before we get to those, let’s see which piece of my childhood was more appealing to you: On today’s edition of Shitbox Showdown, it’s another Two-Door Tuesday as we consider a couple of V8 monsters from days gone by: a great big bird, and a 2WD SUV that’s neither fish nor fowl.