Pics of 1969 thunderbird9/8/2023 The car needs to be UK registered and it’s unclear if it’s a runner or not but if the mileage is to be believed then there’s a lot of potential here and it’s difficult not to be drawn in by that motor and the car’s cool ’60s aesthetic. Sadly the vinyl is long gone but the roof itself looks solid, as does the rest of the car with the current owner confirming that the only areas of concern are the rear quarters panels but thankfully replacements are included in the sale as is a new roof covering. It’s a two-door, hard top ‘Landau’ version which refers to the vinyl roof that the car would have come with from the factory. All of this power is smoothly directed to the rear wheels via a 3-speed, Cruise-o-Matic auto gearbox. A performance version of the Ford big block 385 series engine the Thunder Jet was rated at 360bhp with 480lb-ft of torque but real-world figures were arguably a lot higher. This particular 1969 Ford Thunderbird Landau is a fifth-generation vehicle that was produced from 1967 to 1971 and features the aforementioned Thunder Jet 429 cubic inch, 7.0-litre V8 engine under the bonnet. Over the course of its 50 year production run the Ford Thunderbird went through 11 generations with the styling of the car varying greatly between each one. This was a trend that would continue with ever-increasing sizes and power outputs during the car’s lifespan, culminating in a 7.5-litre V8 in the early ’70s. With that said, however, 1956 saw the introduction of a larger, 5.1-litre V8 with capacity increasing to 5.8-litres for the second generation of Thunderbird two years later. It was refined, stylish and had more than enough power from its 4.8-litre V8 engine for most. Available only as a convertible with an optional, removable hard top the car was an instant success and sales were strong, easily out-selling the rival Chevy. See what we mean?ĭebuting way back in 1954 at the Detroit Motor Show the Ford Thunderbird was built to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette but was marketed as a personal luxury car, emphasizing comfort and features over outright performance. Bingo! A little more thought went into no doubt, something involving focus groups and flip charts probably, but either way Thunder Jet is a bloody great name for an engine and that’s exactly what is fitted to this 1969 Ford Thunderbird – another fantastic name. We’d like to think that they simply wrote down a bunch of cool words, dropped them into a hat and then picked out two at random. We can imagine it now – the marketing gurus at Ford sitting around the boardroom table at head office brainstorming names for the company’s new 429 cubic inch powerplant. They love it, and so do we, which is why we love this car and its ‘Thunder Jet’ V8. No, what we are referring to is the naming conventions they choose to utilise.įirebird, Demon, Charger, Barracuda, Hellcat – all great sounding names the Americans have given to various hunks of metal over the years. And we’re not talking about exhaust notes here, that’s an article in itself. Not only do those crazy cats across the pond like a big, eight-cylinder engine but they also have a penchant for making them sound awesome. One such behemoth was the 7.0-litre big-block that Ford offered in their fifth-generation Thunderbird in 1969. V8 engines come in myriad sizes from the wee 2.0-litre found in the Ferrari 208 GT4 to the monster lumps the big American auto-makers were churning out at the height of the muscle car wars of the sixties.
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