’56 T-Bird

Classic-Car’s unrestored original 1956 Thunderbird. (Photo by Mark J. McCourt.)

As is common to Hemmings Classic Car magazine, my April 2013 issue celebrates the wondrous joys of original unrestored classic cars still in use.
Featured are a 1948 Dodge sedan, a 1954 Packard, and a 1956 Thunderbird, among others.
Most notable to me is the ’56 T-Bird.
It’s not factory-stock, but almost.
The car was purchased with automatic-transmission, which came with a higher output, larger displacement version of Ford’s Y8 — “Y” because the cylinder-block, shaped like a “Y,” went down around the crankshaft bearings. It was a V8, of course.
But the car’s original owner was dissatisfied with the poor fuel-economy of the auto-tranny higher-output engine-package, so had the car converted to standard-shift; a floor-shift.
Yet the car continued its higher-output auto-tranny engine.
The higher output wasn’t much; only 10 extra horses (225 horsepower) and seven extra foot-pounds of torque (324 foot-pounds). —It had a higher compression-ratio of 9-to-1, as opposed to only 8.4 of the standard-tranny V8.
It also was 312 cubic-inches instead of 292.
The original owner also installed aftermarket engine-gauges in a hand-built console; oil-temperature, oil-pressure, etc.
So the car is not factory, but close.
Remarkable is the car is not restored. In fact, there is a tear in the driver-seat upholstery.
I always liked the ’56 T-Bird.
I drew up a radical customization of a ’56 T-Bird when I was in college.
My car had a 440 cubic-inch Chrysler “Wedge” engine matched to a four-speed floor-shift.
It was the styling. I was never attracted to the early Corvettes. Yet the two-seater T-Birds were stunning, what Corvettes should have been.
Of course, the T-Bird was a stone compared to a ‘Vette. The Corvette had that fabulous SmallBlock V8, a high-revving engine almost European in character.
Ford’s Y-block V8 was a boat-anchor by comparison.
I remember a ’55 Ford being drag-raced at Cecil County Drag-O-Way in the middle ‘60s. It was always getting trounced by Chevys.
So out with the Y-block, and put in a 440 cubic-inch Chrysler Wedge. (Easier said than done.)
Compared to what’s available today, such a car would be frightening. Way too much power in an antique car.
My brother’s 454 SS Chevelle, which I drove once, was like that.
The suspension of a ’56 T-Bird is antediluvian, no match for a high-output V8.
Better would be a modern Mustang. Its suspension is matched to its high-output V8.

A retro-Bird.

In fact, as far as I know, the retro-Bird, pictured at left, had recent Mustang underpinnings.
And my custom looked a lot like the retro-Bird.
I had tossed the ’56 Ford taillights in favor of more rounded fenders. —Tossing those taillights is a mistake. They make the car.
I also tossed that rear continental-kit. It was specific to the ’56 Thunderbird, but the car doesn’t need it, and looks silly with it.
That porthole window in the hardtop is also specific to the ’56 Bird.
My side-elevation of this custom is long-gone.
And of course the two-seater T-Bird was not for long. Thunderbird went to four seats in 1958.
The 1958 T-Bird looked pretty good, but it was no longer a Corvette competitor.

A ’57 T-Bird.

And the best-looking two-seater is 1957. A guy at my high-school had one. It was dashing and great-looking. Perfect for drive-ins, or top-down cruising with your honey.
But the ’57 T-Bird’s fins atop its rear-fenders were canted, and also somewhat extreme.
It didn’t fit my concept.

Photo by BobbaLew.

427 ’55 T-Bird.

I’ll add a picture of a T-Bird drag-raced at Cecil County Drag-O-Way. It had a much bigger and more powerful engine, a 427 cubic-inch Ford.
Putting that heavy 427 in there makes as much sense as a 440 Wedge, although it was probably fairly easy. —A 440 Chrysler would had been a handful to install.
That T-Bird was a poor competitor. It wouldn’t hook up its drive-tires. Starts would go up in tire-smoke.
The car is a ’55; no porthole window, and no continental-kit.

• RE: Chrysler “Wedge......” —It was called that because of its wedge-shaped combustion-chambers, as opposed to Chrysler’s “hemi” (“hem-eee;” not “he-mee”). A wedge had all its valves in a row parallel to the crankshaft. A Hemi has hemispherical combustion-chambers, its valving 90 degrees to the crankshaft.
• The Chevrolet “SmallBlock” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first to 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches, and was unrelated to the SmallBlock. It was made in various larger displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. The “Big-Block” could be immensely powerful, and the “SmallBlock” was revolutionary in its time.
• “Drag-racing” is standing-start to as fast as possible over a flat quarter-mile. Whoever beats their opponent wins.