A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

[snowbird]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

That is just what I pulled off the internet it said it was a Fox platform and we all know that the internet is never wrong.....(much).

Gotta find my Thunderbird books!

Gord

A couple of good reference books for this type of information are "T-Bird , 40 years of Thunderbird" and "T-Bird , 45 Years of Thunder " , Edited by John Gunnell . You may remember his name for many years at "Old Autos Weekly".
The Second Edition (45 years) ends with the addition/introduction of the "Retro Birds" .
MartinB.

[MATBird]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

The Fox chassis, a midsize unit-body platform was introduced in 1978 and used in 1980 Thunderbirds. According to the book; Soaring Spirit, thirty five years of Ford Thunderbird, page 44. Just for ref.

[tbird6t4]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

The Fox chassis, a midsize unit-body platform was introduced in 1978 and used in 1980 Thunderbirds. According to the book; Soaring Spirit, thirty five years of Ford Thunderbird, page 44. Just for ref.

Thanks George!

U da man!

My faith in the all seeing and all knowing Internet has been fully restored!

Gord

[00mustng]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

....Well John, you are not alone....I have an '81 Heritage I found 7 years ago...with 176 miles on it....I'm the 3rd owner, but the first driver....This is the car that started my Thunderbird journey...It is as it was when it left the factory...aside from tires and a recommissioning....still have the Firestone 721 spare never used....It now has 40,000miles...It is unique by virtue of it's condition....and through it my hobby has developed...It has facilitated many a wonderful adventure that has involved meeting many like minded enthusiasts. Always the only one at show time...Now the class has changed to 1980 thru 1996...and the NewBirds are separate...It is a constant contender....Would love to read about your '80, John...we owners are few and far between...maybe you could P.M. me? Cheers! Martin.

[dbsupercrew]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

The silver 1996 bird I had was one the best vehicles I have ever owned. Took me many miles and never failed me.

[Lindy]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

Thanks to all, for their interesting input. Since designs nowadays, are a team effort, it is likely that Mr. Behmer was on a design team. Also, I have some doubts that maybe it was a Fairmont? But at the time I was certain it was a T-Bird. Weren't the classic two seaters on a Fairmont platform, or something like that?

You know, a person becomes so aware of certain things once you buy a car. While I had seen the Motor Trend magazine laying on a co-worker's desk, open to the page of the article which featured an inspiration yellow (portotype?),
http://www.motortrend.com/auto_news/...ird/index.html yet I did not read the article, but remember thinking, "that's the way to design a car...way to go Ford!." But it wasn't till I bought my 2002 T-Bird just over a year ago that I found out, that they are already extinct. Of course, I was so impressed, that I had to get me an 05 too--the last year--the 50th anniversary edition!

My first memories of the Thunderbird as youth, were: the white\white circa 1963 "bullet bird" with black landeau top, as I think I can remember it. (it looked something like this one: http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/phot...ird_photo.aspx. The car was owned by my second cousin who drove it up from Chicago each year. My other memory of T-Birds was my cousins who drove a navy colored 4-door "glamour bird" with a white interior and telescoping steering wheel.

As noted, all of the T-Birds, do add to the saga of the rebirth of the new two seater. It seems that Ford needed to put the Thunderbird to death after 1997, so that the designers could emerge from their think tank with something altogether special. Which they sure did! An interesting saga indeed.

--Lindy

[5bird7]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

Thanks Dot:

I stand corrected. I didn't even know the RetroBird existed until I saw the first ones in Battle Creek Michigan in August 2002 as I joined a group of Thunderbirds with my 64 Thunderbird heading to Chicago to commence a trip down Route 66 to L.A.

There were several NM on that trip along with Yellow Wing and Tweatie of this group. And a good time was had by all.

Gord

So, you were on part of that Route 66 trip. Sally Wisdom, George & I took up with it thru Oklahoma and Texas. YellowWing (her old handle) and Tweatie are still around here but under different handles now - Joybird and 03 007.

I do have a timeline of Thunderbird milesstones for the retro on my website:
http://www.portholeauthority.com/the...ts/trivia.html

[snowbird]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

Lindy : Is there a chance that Raymond had an offspring by the name of Darrel Behmer. (like father , like son) . There is a Darrel Behmer who works as a designer at present for the Ford Motor Company, Lincoln devision. Best known for his work on the Lincoln MKX .
MartinB.

[Lindy]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

Lindy : Is there a chance that Raymond had an offspring by the name of Darrel Behmer. (like father , like son) . There is a Darrel Behmer who works as a designer at present for the Ford Motor Company, Lincoln devision. Best known for his work on the Loncoln MKX .
MartinB.

Yes, Snowbird, he did have a son Darrell, this was confrimed with a newspaper article that also revealed that Mr. Behmer graduated from a Wisconsin High School in 1954, then attended The Art Center College of Design in California. In about 1958 he got a job at FoMoCo in Dearborn Heights, Michigan; Where he was an automotive designer for 31 years, retiring in 1989. He was chief designer for Ford of Australia from 1985 to 1988. So the time frame fits, that he may have been involved with the so called "8th generation" T-Bird design.

--Lindy

[00mustng]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

....interesting info. Lindy!

[tbird6t4]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

We did have one 8th generation show up to the Southern Ontario Tunderbird Club event in Bayfield, Ontario in July 2009. It is so rare to see one I just had to take a picture.

Gord

[00mustng]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

....pretty cool! ...I own one of those....and parked side by side they would be looking pretty tidy!....that would be fun!....

[Lindy]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

Just talking to my wife last night. And she would have sworn that she was told that he did design the Thunderbird that they had at that time. Just can't quite recall what it looked like, but am pretty sure it was the 1980-82 design (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Th...281980-1982.29). And to think...a Thunderbird designer lived right next door. He would have had many interesting stories to tell, to be sure, since he worked for the company since the days of the "square birds". Oh, and I was able to find his son's name via a search engine, mentioned in many many articles, for instance:

http://www.mustangworld.com/ourpics/...obraR/body.htm

http://www.automedia.com/2004_Mercur...ts20040101mm/1

--Lindy

[bwlewis]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

Gord, I owned one just like the photo. "Town Landau..Medium French Vanilla w/white padded vinyl top" Drove it until the kids grew to big to get in the back seat without folding their legs in three or four places.

[Lindy]

Re: A Bit of 8th Generation T-Bird Lore

We did have one 8th generation show up to the Southern Ontario Tunderbird Club event in Bayfield, Ontario in July 2009. It is so rare to see one I just had to take a picture.
Gord

Excellent photo! Yep, Gord, that's the model-type that I was referring to. The one thing that I think I can remember about the 1980-82 generation of the Thunderbird, was that famous Thunderbird logo that appeared in the tail lights (maybe when they lit up?); well, anyway the cars did carry that same TB logo which was handed all the way down and emblazens the reborn two seaters that we all enjoy so much. At any rate, your photo triggered my memory, and I went through my family photo albums last night and found a photo from May 1996 with that late-great designer's (and neighbor's) T-Bird in the background, the photo here has been cropped. But is the very Thunderbird which was owned by it's legendary designer! As it turns out, we really did have a bit of Thunderbird legend for a neighbor.

--Lindy