And the Corvette’s chassis was set up to be a bit firmer, although in its initial incarnation it was hardly typical of the classic European sports cars of the times, and was praised for its relatively comfortable ride.
MINTERS THUNDERBIRDS 55 57 MANUAL
Obviously the Corvette’s fiberglass body made for a somewhat lighter car, which along with its lighter engine and manual transmission accounted for a 270 lb advantage. Well, the Corvette did too, and with an older chassis at that, with king pins and all, whereas the T-Bird at least had Ford’s new 1952 ball-joint suspension to work with. SCI started off making it clear that the Thunderbird has started life with a shortened Ford sedan chassis. SCI tested two more typically-equipped T-Birds: with the 245 hp four barrel 312 and the Fordomatic one an early factory pre-production car and a later production car. Ford didn’t want to totally forgo the sports car image either, hedging their bets. And Ford even went racing with it, having some specially built to go up against the Corvette and other sports-racing cars. The ’57 redesign of the T-Bird improved its handling by ditching the continental spare and it also sported some new significantly hotter engine options, all the way to a 300 hp supercharged version of its 312 cubic inch V8. But that’s not to say Ford was resting on its laurels they could see that the ‘Vette was gaining, at least in terms of image thanks to its hot new V8 engine and success on the tracks.
Both had a good ride and neither of them had particularly great handling, although the Corvette’s was somewhat better.īut Ford’s positioning and its standard V8 and presumably its styling made the Thunderbird a minor hit, at least compared to the Corvette. The Corvette’s fiberglass body gave it a bit of a weight advantage, although the T-Bird’s heavier Y Block V8 was at least responsible for some of the disadvantage. They both had a 102″ wheelbase and a sporty, low slung two-seater body. Although one could argue that’s really what the early Corvette was too, with its six cylinder engine and Powerglide the two were a lot more similar than not: both sat on a shortened sedan chassis, although the Thunderbird’s was more modern. Given the Corvette’s miserable sales in its first few years, it was a very good move on Ford’s part to reposition their sports car project Thunderbird as a “personal car”.
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