The recent Maple City Cruise Night in Monmouth, IL, included a number of great cars–among them, a pristine mauve ’75 Coupe de Ville with white leather (yowza!) and a Kaiser Dragon two-door sedan (The CC Effect in action…). But these two ’70s Fords were so perfectly paired I had to get a picture, despite already having shot a “Basket Handle” ‘Bird for a future CC (for two, in fact).
The 1977-79 T-Bird usually gets panned, but I will always love them because both my Grandma Ruby and Aunt Candy owned primo examples when I was a kid.
My grandfather had one of these T-Birds when I was a kid. When he passed away in ’92 it had only 63,000 miles. I was offered the choice of the T-Bird or my Cordoba. I took the Cordoba. Looking back on it, I kind of think the T-Bird is a lot better looking, but the lure of Corinthian Leather took me in. I often wondered why Ford didn’t introduce the Futura in 1980 as a downsized T-bird. It’s a heck of a lot better looking than the Fox Bird that came out and it would have continued the T-bird basket handle tradition.
I saw an article in some magazine, likely Collectible Automobile, that had a pic of clay model of exactly that. A Futura look-alike badged as a T-Bird, so they did consider it.
Outstanding find. I’m trying to work up a post on juxtapositions of that sort, but don’t quite have enough content yet.
Mmmmmmmm, a Fox by one of my favorite Birds. Me likey.
A fox and a bird…..
These T-birds are panned, but boy did they sell a crapload of them!
All this beauty needs are the faux luggage straps on the trunk.
The Fox and the Hound? 🙂
They sold a bunch of the 77-79 Thunderbirds. The Fox T-Birds I kinda liked but there were so few of those around. A local bank here repoed one in the mid-eighties that was bright red. I think that was the last time I seen one because they sold it to some guy just down the street and he never really used it because he died a few weeks after. It just sat in the driveway for around ten years til the family got rid of it.
Nice shot. If you had gotten this building in the background you’d have hit the trifecta.
Fascinating design – where is it?
Longaberger Basket Company headquarters, Newark, Ohio. NBBJ Architects, I think.
I’ll always be a fan of the ’77-’79 Thunderbirds. What a great shot of this complimentary pair of Fords! The colors even go together.
What a great shot! Made even better by the fact that both cars have that period correct “earth tone” color scheme.
Old & new Ford mid-sized platforms.
I recall the Futura was cramped in back compared to the 2-door sedan, which I thought was better-looking anyway. But evidently my parents didn’t agree. It also had very cheap trim, inside & out; the vinyl roof wasn’t even padded. Just the same, it was fun to drive, so if Ford kept it cheap to save weight, it was worth it.
Mom’s also had those nice aluminum wheels, which seemed prodigal on their part.
Technically Ford considered the Fairmont a compact when it was introduced.
Yep, the Fairmont was pitched as a Maverick replacement.
I know it started that way, but it wound up in the midsize role.
Funny to think the “downsized” Bird wss longer than a Panther TownCar.
The Panther Lincolns were still bigger, but they were not far apart (and the T-bird has a shorter wheelbase 114″ vs 117.3″)
1977 T-Bird – 215.5″
1980 Lincoln Continental – 219.2″
1985 Town Car – 219.0 “
Minty (and minty!) T-Birds of this era were found aplenty at the car events that I went to last weekend. Fairmonts and Zephyrs less so but there was one that was very nice and very for sale.
Interior
Very nice, especially being a 4-speed car with the super-cool sport steering wheel. Is that dash actually uncracked? Wow. More of these type cars should be in shows.
Rear
Upon retirement my dad bought a white 1978 with the reddish maroon interior and partial vinyl top (not unlike the illustration. It seemed like it was about a block long and really did not appear all that sporty (had an automatic with a column shift) but he was so proud to own a Thunderbird and loved that car so much I guess I had to as well. He cut quite a figure on the streets of our suburban town, and him driving it with a smile on his face is one of my best memories of him.
Either coincidentally or subconsciously, last year I purchased a yellow 2002 Thunderbird and it was not until after the search and buy that I realized it was at the same age he had bought his.
I think the ’77 T-Bird is the Broughamiest car of all time.
Peak Brougham, I guess?
Make mine the large thanks Tom. Hold the fries.
I liked them when they came out, but was miffed that the 460 was dropped from the mid-size line for ’77. My dad had leased a ’76 Elite equipped with same that could roast the tires at will. He ran it into a pole and it was a borderline total. I was entertaining the prospect of him driving one of these home, but the Ford dealer body shop “repaired” the Elite. It was such a slap happy job that the wheelbase was different on both sides.
My aunt had a 1977 T-Bird, dove grey with grey top and burgundy vinyl interior. Hers was loaded – it even had the nice aluminum road wheels. I always thought the back seat was kinda small even if I was a kid. But that car was cool! I thought the “lighted door locks” – illuminated entry system – was the coolest thing ever! Then in high school a friend’s mom had a green ’77 with a white vinyl top and white interior. It wasn’t loaded like my aunts but it had the factory wire wheels like the featured car – and they would get stolen regularly. Finally his mom got sick of replacing them and she ended up replacing them with the base hubcaps. I always thought it looked stripped with them compared to the wire wheels!