Back in June, Jason Shafer shared with us a CC on the 1986 Thunderbird Elan. While it elicited many positive comments, the one most repeated was that even though this version was nice, everyone would like to see a CC on the revised 1987-88 ‘Bird. Commenter Sean Cornelis made the comment that he hoped one day one of these would appear on CC. Well, Sean, your wish has been granted!
A lot of words have been written about the 1983-86 Thunderbirds, so there’s not much need to rehash them now. You CCers who just have to know can find Jason’s post on the ’86 Elan here. I’ll wait while you check it out.
All done? OK, then, back to the ’87s and ’88s. In 1986, Ford was hard at work on the MN-12 T-Bird and Cougar set to bow for 1989. Meantime, the Fox-based Bird and Cat needed updating, and in 1987 Ford saw that they got it. Although their new look was not drastically different from that of the ’83-’86 models, their wheelbase grew a fraction of an inch, to 104.2″, and overall length increased a full 4.5 inches, to 202.1. The bird had sprouted a longer beak.
The ’83-86 T-Bird was very successful for Ford, so it made sense to give it an extensive facelift, even with replacement models only two years away, to protect the franchise. There were also a number of functional improvements to accompany the revised styling. In the case of the Turbo Coupe, they included new anti-lock rear brakes and, for manual transmission-equipped cars, and a horsepower boost from 155 to 190.
Those who desired a boosted ‘Bird with an automatic had to settle for 150 hp. Ouch! But in truth, an automatic wasn’t really in keeping with the car’s performance-minded intentions. The Turbo Coupe was also the fastest-stopping ‘Bird, thanks to its model-exclusive four-wheel disc brakes and aforementioned electronic ABS.
The attractive new look, interior refinements and increased power all added up to a nice, if not all-new, T-Bird. The 1987 Thunderbird managed to capture Motor Trend‘s Car of The Year Award.
Turbo Coupe amenities also included articulated sport seats with adjustable headrests, thigh supports and power-adjustable lumbar support, as well as full instrumentation with both a tachometer and (of course) boost gauge.
For 1988, the basic Thunderbird and the LX came equipped with a 3.8-liter V6. Both offered more-traditionally T-Bird-style motivation, in the form of an optional 155-hp, 5.0-liter V8.
While we’re on the subject of the LX, let’s look inside. Yes, these were pretty plush. With their soft cloth seats, wood grain and digital dash, they were much more like a Bill Blass Lincoln Mark VII than the BMW-inspired Turbo Coupe. And with that lovely V8 burbling under the hood, you could cruise in comfort and style. Let’s face it, the 2.3 was a little thrashy.
Only the Thunderbird Sport came standard with the V8. Sports also got a special “handling” suspension that utilized the Turbo Coupe’s quadra-shock rear suspension, but lacked its automatic ride control and other refinements. Sport models also shared the turbo ‘Bird’s Traction-Lok rear axle. Undoubtedly, many would have loved to see the 225 hp HO version of the V8 available too. But Ford was pretty invested in the Turbo Coupe. Too bad.
I shot this particular car last summer, in Bay City, MI, while on the way to bring my father home from the hospital to enjoy his final weeks of life. I think that is why I never did anything with these pics until now.
This car caught my eye not only because it was painted my favorite color offered on them, but also due to its surprisingly good condition. And look, it has the stick shift, too!
It’s too bad that cars of this ilk fell out of fashion. To me, there’s nothing better than a nice, mid-sized personal/grand touring coupe with a nice combination of luxury and sporting pretensions to make things interesting.
Maybe one of these days….(hey, it doesn’t hurt to dream!)
Editor’s Note: All 1988 Thunderbird brochure photos are from lov2xlr8.no. The entire brochure contents can be found on their web site here.
Great find and perfect color.
I worked with a gentleman who bought one of these new. His was white. He told me he was 27 and had money in his pocket. Plus, it was a female magnet. He concluded by saying it worked too well as he traded it off for a minivan.
This car is what inspired me to order a new Thunderbird in ’96. Boy, I miss that car…
I know exactly where you took these. Bay City is my hometown!
That’s too funny! I live up in Tawas, and try to get down there as often as I can. Great town!
“To me, there’s nothing better than a nice, mid-sized personal/grand touring coupe with a nice combination of luxury and sporting pretensions…”
Agreed, fully. I remember when these were new — I was in college. I hoped for the day I could afford something like this. Then marriage and kids came, and finally today I could own and drive something like this, but the genre ran its course 20 years ago.
The Dodge Challenger is the keeper of the flame for this type of car. Its retro styling gets it lumped in with the sportier Mustang and Camaro, but it’s really more of a Chrysler 300 coupe. I have one, and there is no better car, IMO, to cover 1,000 miles in a day.
Such cars still exist. I recently read that Honda sells one in four Accords as a coupe, which is very much, in my opinion, in the Thunderbird vein. It is not as gargantuan as the Camaro and Charger and is in fact closer in size the the Thunderbird featured.
Nissan also has the Altima and the G Coupes, both of which make excellent used buys.
If you don’t mind the lack of rear seat room, the current Mustang also isn’t far from this T-bird. It even has strut front suspension and coil sprung live rear axle, just like this ‘Bird.
“It’s too bad that cars of this ilk fell out of fashion. To me, there’s nothing better than a nice, mid-sized personal/grand touring coupe with a nice combination of luxury and sporting pretensions to make things interesting.”
I’d like to point out the currently available Ford Mustang….
True, but I guess I forgot to add one more thing to that “perfect car wishlist”…a good helping of practicality. I need a good size trunk and plenty of stretch out room for me and some friends. If you only knew what all I hauled around in my old Cutlass Supreme, and that car never missed a beat-and looked good while doing it!
While the Mustang satisfies the basic rwd V8 coupe, it lacks the usability of the T-Bird. While the T-Bird had a reasonably sized three across rear bench, the Mustang only has two uninhabitable seat shaped things behind the adult sized front seats. The head room and leg room make the rear unusable to anyone over the age of ten. Trunk space is also missing from the modern Mustang. Then, the front seats are too low to the ground. The suspension is not so comfortably sprung for a cross country trip. I could go on, but a stretched Mustang with an actual rear seat and weekend sized trunk is what’s missing today. I could go for the velour seats, digital dash and column shifter of that blue LX interior too!
Mustang isn’t a personal luxury coupe, the T-Bird is…
BIG difference.
Kinda like saying, “I yearn for a luxurious Toyota Cressida, but I guess I can get that in a new Corolla.”
I’m driving Subarus these days, and probably have a few more of those in my future, but when I was in elementary school, this was the first car I ever truly loved. I had Matchbox cars to stand in for the real thing, and over the years I had forgotten it ever existed. Thank god for Curbside Classics for reviving these old memories! If I ever end up back Stateside, this is on the very short list of cars I will be looking to buy. I can’t say what it is for sure that these cars say to me, but they say it loudly.
The 1983 T-Bird should have been Car of the Year instead of that crappy Alliance. What a joke.
Also, for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on, the 1983-86 body style appeals more to me than this.
I liked the ’83 T-bird and detested this one. Part of it was what I learned about Ford cars during the years in between, but most of it was the awful styling revisions. What sort of designer thinks a car needs more front overhang? This was when Ford showed that things would not keep getting better as they seemed to have been with the introduction of the Fox Mustang replacing the Mustang II, the ’83 T-bird replacing the Fairmont-bird, the MKVIII LSC replacing the pimpmobile, and the Taurus replacing the LTD. They fell like Icarus, and this car was the harbinger.
“What sort of designer thinks a car needs more front overhang”
The type of designer who thinks the wheels shouldn’t be part of the crumple zones? That the hood should be longer than the windsheild? I dunno. I certainly won’t criticize the overhangs just because the current trend today is to pull the wheels out to the headlights.
Given Ford only produced this update for 2 model years to ease the transition to the all new MN12 (which was a from scratch platform, unlike the still fairmont based 83-87s), I’d hardly call this car the harbinger. What happened over the course of the 90s is another story and Ford was a another company by then.
There’s only a 4.5 inch difference between the 87 and 86 Birds.
I guess it’s a matter of taste. I’d take any TC but my preference is the 87-88.
“What happened over the course of the 90s is another story and Ford was a another company by then.”
I whole heartedly agree. I would consider the MN12 a “harbinger”.
Definitely. The beancounters took over by the MN12 and they became decontented on an almost yearly basis through their run, biannual exterior styling updates were down to bumper covers and the taped on side mouldings. In contrast the 87 (save for the hood, roof and windsheild) had completely different exterior sheetmetal and glass from the previous years.
The IRS, Super Coupe and (briefly) the Super Cougar were the MN12s saving grace.
The interior was a letdown in the MN12 until 94 though. Like a flashback to the 86 Taurus.
A lot of the changes in the design for this generation was supposedly done due to wind tunnel testing to put the T-Bird back on top in NASCAR.
The 1983 Thunderbird is still one of my favourite cars. On the odd chance I see one, I get the same feeling I had when I first saw it at the dealer. This was clearly a head turner when it came on the market and IIRC it caught GM off guard. Ford suddenly started to lead the industry in design after the very square Fairmont/Granada/LTD years.
I remember seeing a spy photo of the ’83 Cougar and thinking it was a complete disaster until I saw one on the road. It was also incredible to look at.
As with some others, the redesign for ’87 left me feeling flat. All the bold points on the ’83 design became muted. The ’87 Cougar came out much worse than the Thunderbird did.
Yes, that 87 Cougar roofline was just strange.
I frequently see a clean ’85 or ’86 Cougar parked at a golf course early in the morning, when I’m on my way to work. One of these days I need to stop and get some photos for a CC.
It was, but I grew to like it, and would gladly take one today if it was given to me 🙂
In fact, in 1993 I tried like everything to get my dad to let me buy a 1988 Cougar XR7 that was sitting down at our friendly Ford dealer. Oh, I wanted that car!!! But Noooo!!! I got a stripper Corolla instead….
I’ll give you an 87′ Turbocoupe with a 5 speed, is as reliable as ever, I’d spent a pretty penny getting the ‘Lima’ I-4 motor vibration. out, and rebuilt the entire drivetrain 14,800 Mi. back. It earned it, clock at 119K. Spruced up a bit with a Turbonetics Turbo, top end. FoMoCo. A-237 Cam and kit gives it a nice idle “Lope”, without sacrificing low end Torque. Loaded with Forged Internals, parts by Mfg’s with “Bragging rights” of ‘Proven’ resilience. Orig. Owner wisely wasted no time in having the Car professionally & “Correctly”undercoated ( holes punched in the enclosed areas, sprayed, plugged, doors, Inner Quarters sprayed, etc….). Car really held up well, Frame included, over the New England years. Still cracks 30mpg driving reasonably, motor’s good for 30Lbs of boost without spitting out it’s head gasket. Mint, unrestored interior, blue velour. Suspension is a bit upgraded with ‘Hotchkis’, ‘SLP’, Adj. ‘Koni’ upgrades, Polyurethane bushings. Still rides like a Caddy if you choose, ‘on rails’ if option 2 selection is necessitated. ‘Richmond’ Gears, now 3.73:1.
Before this car, I’d never considered much anything less that a V-8 with a 4, 5, 6 speed. But the balance of that Turbocoupe, it’s really on the money. Speaking of “Money”, Rich. I’ll sell it for 3,500$ Firm. My garage has a 1970 LS6 Chevelle, and I do not have the room to store both. Winter approaches. To a buyer that will care for it, I’ll sell it for that price. Never sell it to a Car dealer. 1-1 sale only. Email me if interested. Thanks! J
It occurs to me that the modern-day sporting/luxury coupe space is occupied mostly by BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. The A5 in particular could be seen as a latter-day T-Bird – sporty but not exactly a road warrier.
Perhaps a more recent parallel across the pond to the success of the personal car in the US during the 1970s/early 80s is that the BMW 3-Series is always amongst the UK’s top 10 best-selling cars – buyers being willing to trade space and comfort for style and performance.
After reading the previous post that showed the interiors of the 1985 BMW 3-series and Chrysler New Yorker side-by-side, it’s impressive how Ford designers were able to make one car’s interior work in both a Teutonic-inspired version and a Brougham-inspired one.
If I’m not mistaken, the interior of the ’87 redesign may have benefitted from the influence of Trevor Creed, who left shortly after the designs were locked in place to join Chrysler, where he led design of interiors until his retirement in 2008. In my opinion, his work always struck a good balance of being both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
I was in kindergarten in 1988 and even as a child, I found these cars to be somewhat bloated and tacky, even if hadn’t yet used those terms. It’s hard to really know what to make of this car, or the following model. On one hand, the Fox platform was good enough to be built a good 17 years after this car’s debut and was fully up to date for the times, its successor even more so, but the car’s overall concept seemed out of date. The short wheelbase and narrow width were conceived in an era of high fuel prices and seem incongruent with the length and overall plushness of the car. Looking at those long overhangs and that dashboard, it all seems sort of crude for the late ’80s and in that regard, the ’89-’97 models didn’t seem different.
If I wanted something very American, I think a GM G-body coupe would’ve been the way to go; there’s something more honest about its presentation, even if it was less ambitious. If I were a Ford devotee, a Mustang or XR4ti would’ve been better options (though in the case of the latter, no one wants to own a turkey). And if I wanted to go Japanese, would a base model Legend coupe, 300ZX or Supra cost me any more?
The 2.3T may have been a “bit thrashy” but you wouldn’t have known it in 87/88 as much as previous years. Ford went to Liquid filled motor mounts and better insulation under the hood to quiet things down a bit. The loudest item under the hood was the little IHI turbo (tiny really, an attempt to reduce lag) spooling up on acceleration and then the turbo surging on decel. I’m still not sure why Ford didn’t go with a Speed Density or Mass Air system over the VAM setup on these.
A Ford Greatest Hit for sure.
Yeah, whatever harshness is native to that Pinto motor can hardly be detected on the late-era TurboCoupes. At full throttle and high RPMs you can hear it clanking a little bit, but you mostly just hear the whooosh of the turbo spooling – both in and outside of the car. The earlier ones did have some noticeable vibrations, but these were silky smooth. From inside the cabin they feel exactly like a Mark VII with a slightly stiffer ride.
Personally, I didn’t like the turbo in 88. I was shopping, first for a 63 split window Vette for $25K, that just needed a little (read $10K) work.
Then I came to my senses. This was to be my midlife crisis, post-divorce, back to grad school cruiser. The salesman touted the TC. Had the better mileage, the SC got the CAFE hit. So the T/C got a supposedly higher hp 6cyl engine.
But the way the Sportcoupe drove, I suspect the hp rating of the 302 V8 was understated. And when I did the research and saw the power curve, and factored in the effect of turbo lag on acceleration, I knew the SportCoupe was the way to go.
It was titanium silver metallic, got the dealer to put the billet style wheels (with the holes) instead of the wirespoke ones, had a sunroof, midnight blue leather interior, was able to calibrate the speedo and run the beast for over four hours near top speed (to beat a fogstorm; cops were letting the dogs run, as long as we weren’t reckless. In fact broadcast that we should go as fast as our cars safely could.)
Mine could hit over 140mph, though the tires were only rated to 138. The AOD console shift A/T was tight. Only two drawbacks were no way to lock it in first, and it had drum brakes on the rear. Could have converted Mustang disc brakes to the rear, but would have set me back a bit. Other priorities.
Got close to 300k miles on that car, with no major repairs. Wrecked three times, none my fault, though in two cases drivers cut me off or rammed me, trying to intimidate me into yielding, and I was all about going where I could when I could back then. Still looked great after the body shops did their thing.
The car was a streamlined tank.
And yes, it was faster on the road than the T/C…never saw one at a light, and then in front of my hood. It was always light, then rearview mirror.
Plenty fast even with the supposedly underpowered V8.
Met my wife of now a quarter of a century shortly after I got it. She said she would have wanted to date me even if I was driving a sh*tbox car, but she did want to drive it every chance she got, including when I was on the road on business. The fact that I let her, as much as I loved that car, and after having had another car get totalled by a false friend who borrowed it shop for groceries, and went joyriding from Richmond VA to Williamsburg, I still let her drive it.
My mechanic was the only other person who got to drive it. But I loved that car, and knew I was hooked first when I met her, and secondly when I let her drive the car.
Wish I had one exactly the same and a lowmiler in mint condition.
But I am making do with some Panther love…a 97 Grand Marquis. It too is a great car, but I will always love that SportCoupe too.
You can keep the T/C as far as I’m concerned…a failed attempt to steer people into a CAFE efficient car.
I had seriously considered an 85 version, but did not go back and check them out again after the 87 re-do. In the 85, I could not live with that miserably rough 2.3 to get the stick. If Ford had offered the Mustang GT’s 5.0 with a 5 speed, I would have owned one of these cars.
Looks-wise, I never liked these as well as the 83-86 cars, but looking at them now, I like it better than I did then.
Testing to see if commenting magically started working from my cell phone…
…and it does! New version of Opera did the trick.
I’ll be back to post here at lunchtime, need to get some work done before I check into permanent daydream mode for the day!!
These looked like a larger Chrysler LeBaron coupe than the originals, but I think they look nicer than they did, mainly due to the lengthened quarter window shape.
I actually desired one of the 83-86 models for a time, but it was never to be.
They can still be found……..make your dream come true!
I really wanted one of these back in the day, but didn’t have enough money to get one. The first aero Thunderbird was a huge breath of fresh air, after the terrible years of 1979-82 for the entire industry. Of course, the 1980-82 Thunderbird was simply awful from a styling standpoint…one of the all-time stinkers of the last 35 years.
This car was a nice evolution of the 1983-86 cars. It helped that you could get either the Turbo Coupe version or the 5.0 V-8 LX version. I wouldn’t mind having either one today.
I had an ’87 with the 5.0 gun metal gray with gray interior. It was a great car and got great mileage too on the highway. As I stated yesterday I traded it for an ’84 325e BMW…Both cars were 2 of the best I owned….Now I drive a 2010 Prius! My how things change, but I love that car too…
I think the front end redesign was a logical extension of Ford’s desires to integrate the new aero composite headlights on their vehicles. Nascar high banks racing may have lent a hand, too. I always pictured the Turbo Coupe as the car any high ranking executive would have chosen; given the choice of the bi-planed Mustang SVO or the Turbo Coupe. Looking at this fine example, I think it stands up very nicely with what we have to choose from today on the showroom floors.
Having driven this year T-bird and having owned a first gen carb 2.3 Turbo, I can attest that it was like night and day. Smooth and very powerful. I always had the mind that Ford was run by good car guys in these days. They lost their way shortly thereafter with Red Poling and Jacques Nasser.
In 1987 When I was in the 5th grade this was my dream ride an 88 red T-Bird Sport. When I met my grandfather in person(after years of phone calls only) around this same time we bonded over this being his favorite new car. I impressed him by drawing a sketch of the car during my visit from memory. I knew the car pretty well, and had built the monogram model kit by this time. By the time I could drive my tastes had shifted up market to a Mark, and I ended up with a series of Town Cars, but this was the last car I just loved as a kid. I also remember a Le Baron commercial at the time, and thinking “they put hidden headlights on the T-Bird?”
I had an ’86 élan – it was a lovely car.
I rented a ton of these back in the traveling journalist days…and even did a Super Coupe once. I love these beasts…and I’d take a nice one today.
My first car was an ’86 Cougar with the 3.8 liter. Sporty enough for a teenager and big enough to sneak three friends out of the school parking lot in the trunk. Next car was a ’91 Cougar XR7 with the 5.0. I heard stories about the turbo-4, but the sound of the V8 burbling under the hood with the duel exhaust was pretty sweet. I definitely miss the sport/luxo coupes!
It’s hard to believe one of these cars lasted so well in our harsh environment we have here in Michigan. It must have been cared for very well.
I liked the 83-86 Turbo Coupes, and this was the cherry on top of the sundae! Had I not been in my V8 days at the time, I may have sprung for one of these, as I had several friends who had both this and the preceding versions of the Turbo Coupes. IIRC, these were very nice rides, with the ability to cover large amounts of territory rather rapidly.
Nice find!
I’ve owned an ’88 Thunderbird LX for ten years, since I was seventeen. It was the first car I bought so I could stop driving my hand me down ’87 Plymouth Voyager in nice weather. Being in Chicago these cars tended to not survive to 15 years very well. I fortunately was able to purchase my T-bird from my dad’s cousin who drove it up from Santa Monica for her father’s funeral. She had ordered the car new in ’88 and checked every option available except a sunroof and engine block heater. The car has a 5.0 and leather. The interior of mine looks just like the shot of the LX interior in the pictures at the top of the page. Everything on the car works as it did when it left the factory in September of ’87. I even have the factory graphic EQ wired to work with a modern head unit, which is the only modification made to the interior of the car. One the outside I’m running Turbo Coupe Snowflake wheels as I think they look much better than the factory wire wheel covers.
These cars are very nice to drive. The hold the road nicely and are very quiet grand touring cars. The interior is plush and the LX and Turbo Coupe cars got fully upholstered door panels replacing the plasticy ones on the base cars. The one area I improved was power. These cars are fairly light weight when the have little options (usually around 3300 lbs). My car being an LX with leather, dual power seats, premium sound, and electronic climate control tips the scale at 3600 lbs. While the factory 5.0 made 155 hp and 270 ft/lbs of torque that helped move the car ok it really wasn’t enough. To that end I removed the engine and rebuilt it and, well modified it. It now has Edelbrock Performer heads with 1.90”I/1.60”E valves, a .533 lift Comp roller cam, GT40 intake, 65mm TB, 1&5/8” headers, 2.5” dual exhaust, 2800 stall converter in the AOD along with heavy duty internals and a shift kit, and a 3.73 Traction- Lok in the rear. Lets just say that it has improved the performance to the point where the big T-bird will run with many Camaros and Mustangs. It’s kind of a sleeper and I like it like that. No gaudy wheels, wings, or stripes. It looks just like it did when it left the factory except for the TC wheels. That’s what I hate about most modified cars. People ruin them by adding “stuff” to the outside. The designers always get it right. Gaudy wheels and other “modifications” ruin an otherwise good looking car.
As to the new Mustang being the next Thunderbird I have one problem with that. Being the owner of a 2012 Mustang V6 in grabber blue I can say that it is lacking in one area compared to the T-bird: back seat space. In the T-bird you can actually fit an adult in the back seat when an adult is sitting in the front seat. The Mustang not so much. It’s a bit sad when the Mustang is almost as big and heavy as the T-bird and you can’t get two other adults in the back seat comfortably if the front seats are all the way back. It’s a good thing I’m only 5’9” and my girlfriend is only 5’5” otherwise the back seats would be useless in the Mustang.
how did you wire the eq to work with the aftermarket cd player
Clarification: instead of “rear anti-lock brakes” I think you mean “rear disc brakes and an antilock braking system.” Ford had a Kelsey-Hayes rear-only ABS back in the early 70s (used mainly on the Continental Mark III and Mark IV, and I think maybe optional on the T-Bird), but by this time I think all their passenger-car systems were four-wheel, and the ’87-’88 Turbo Coupes did have four-wheel disc brakes.
I first discovered the 1983-89 T-Bird existed in early 1987. Such a pretty, pretty car, especially the grille-less Turbo in the gorgeous red of the feature car. We didn’t get T-Birds new here in New Zealand (but we got the Ford Sierra Cosworth, so let’s call it a draw).
My first sighting of a T-Bird was in the February 1987 issue of Australia’s Wheels magazine. Over late 1986-early 1987, Wheels shipped a VL Holden Calais Director to Europe and then on to America to compare it with the best the two continents could throw at it. The Calais was (and still is) the top-spec luxury version of the Commodore (the latest version was aka Pontiac G8), and the example that Wheels had was modified by the late Peter “Perfect” Brock’s HDT company.
In America, the Calais was tested against the Buick Grand National, Chev Monte Carlo SS Aero, Mustang GT and T-Bird Turbo (identical colour and everything to the feature car above). Given that these were my first serious sightings of any of these cars (except the Calais, of which my Uncle had one), I was intigued. The GM cars left me unimpressed by their old-fashioned exteriors and the worst looking interiors I’d seen in 1987-new cars – the Buick even had a horizontal strip-speedo…in a 1987 performance car!! The Mustang I knew of, but I hadn’t seen the 1987 interior, and was surprised by how decent and European it looked. The T-Bird’s red interior looked awesomely modern and handsome. Wheels rated the Calais first, followed by the Mustang, T-Bird, Buick and Chev. Of the T-Bird, Wheels’ Peter Robinson said “The Thunderbird with the Mustang V8 would almost certainly have come home second, and might possibly have rivalled the Holden, but this beautifully styled Ford is limited by that nasty turbo engine which just doesn’t sit well with the rest of the car.” In the eternal Ford vs Holden battle that characterises New Zealand and Australia, I was firmly in the Ford camp, so 13 year old me took issue with Wheels saying the Holden was better than the T-Bird or the Mustang! As I’d never driven a car then, I based my car ratings almost entirely on how they looked, as well as whether they were makes I liked or not. I was 110% sure I knew everything far better than the adults, and the T-Bird was the best car!
25 years later, Wheels is still a good read (I have every issue since its 1953 launch), and Peter Robinson is still my favourite motoring journo. Having had 3 Pinto-engined Fords, I also now understand that the V8 would have better suited the T-Bird. I now understand so much more about cars, but interior and exterior design and looks are still high on my list of likes, and I think the 1987 Thunderbird Turbo coupe is still one of the prettiest cars ever built. In February 1987 it featured on my top 10 dream cars list; 25 years later it’s still there! 🙂
For reference sake, I have 1985 tbird that is a factory 302 5spd car,so they really did exist,rare mind you but but out there!
I highly doubt that it’s factory, are you the first owner?
Only the Turbo Coupe and XR7 4 cyls of 1983-88 came with a manual, no V8s.
Can’t be a factory made car.
I own a 1987 Thunderbird, it’s my first car, totally not my first choice, but the car has grown on me. I picked it up from my parent friends relative who had wrecked it in ’89, it had been sitting in a garage since then, being started up every once in a while. It’s not much and it’s different, you just don’t see many of these things around, The interior makes you sink in and want to take a long drive unlike today’s cars that seem to have plywood wrapped in leather as seats. Also did I say it has 28,000 miles on the clock. I wish Ford brought these cars back,(just not like the 11th gen t-birds) I know it couldn’t be marketed along the Mustangs but Ford is missing something to compete with the Corvette and Viper… just ideas though.
no but the #’s check out
Thought I’d post a picture of one of my three ’88 turbocoupes. This particular one has 1254 original miles on it. Completely original except for fluids and battery….. Also have another that has same options and color as this one but with 54k on it. The third one is blue and I am in the process of building the 2.3 from a TC that I had but was totaled in an accident for it. Needless to say which design i liked the best….
I LOVED the 87-88 T-Bird as a kid, those round tail lights were sweet.
i have an 88 ford t bird and it is the 5.0 it was the first car i worked on with my parents and now i just go out and sit in it and just imagine what the outcome of a complete restoration project would be but not having the money has made me push the project back
Hi. I now own a 1988 black turbo coupe. It has a red interior , leather and as loaded as can be…including a working sunroof…. when I was in my early 20’s, my father brought home a new 87 silver turbo coupe. (It was 1988 and was the owner of the dealerships demo or…free rider for the year) it was a 5 speed and a great car. I had it for a few months before it was sold……I was never a big fan of the 87-88 style. For some reason, while on line a few months back….I spotted this gem I now have……I bought it on a whim…..maybe because it brings back father memories or it was so inexpensive……..as I approach 50, I find there are fewer and fewer new cads I would like to own…as I drive a 79 black free wheeling bronco….living in California… we get to still enjoy our older vehicles!!!
I have a 1988 Thunderbird T/C. 34000 mile one owner.Never been snow our salt,garage kept. Would like to sell, mint cond. Silver,blue int. Contact at [email protected]. $8,000 Firm.
I owned an 88 Thunderbird hot off the showroom floor. It was a beauty and had a digital dash which was pretty modern in those days. It felt tight and areodynamic and boy it could fly! I got many speeding tickets in this car. The interior always felt like entering the cockpit of a plane to me and when you closed the door your ears popped a bit. I had it for 18 years and then sadly let it go. Those were the days!
I own a 86 Thunderbird. I love this car with the 5.0 liter engine. I wish I could find parts for it though. If anyone knows or has one for parts please email me with the contact information. Thanks Bob Connin Salem Oregon.
If anyone is interested, the very well preserved ’88 T-Bird Sport that I have owned since new is for sale along with many extra parts to build it into a hotrod. Inquiries to , photos on request.
WHY, oh WHY?
Would Ford mess with the winning formula of the 1983-86 Aero TBird and Cougar?
The car was selling so well, a big difference from the dismal, crappy 1980-82 “Fairmont Thunderbirds”…They had no reason to restyle it.
They made a handsome car and made it uglier, with the Bizarro Superman 1987-88 models.
The Cougar’s slantback(way back) C pillar looked like a bad receding hairline, and those “desperate to change design from last year” reverse lights looked totally stupid.
Putting them in the very ends of the taillights to meet in the middle, made them look cross-eyed. What the heck?
The T-Bird looked goofier with that aardvark proboscis monkey nose. Can you say, LONG overhang.
Now, I know why I always hated those years of Fox Cougar/TBirds. Eww.
I am restoring my 83 or old Mothers 88 THird 3.8 6cyl base model as its only got 40k Huntington Beach, Ca or in owner miles added at factory ate the keylit key holes, anti theft ignitions fob under the dash & spiked hubcaps with key in glove box even cruise control on the 3.8 6 cyl automatic on the wheel…so I disagree that it’s an eyesore.