1957 ThunderBird

1957 ThunderBird. (Photo by Brian Kimball.)

—Here it is readers: one of the automotive style icons Yrs Trly lusted after all through high-school and college, a 1957 ThunderBird.
My most recent issue of Classic Car magazine had one on its cover, although it’s unique in that it’s the supercharged F model.
Ford probably wanted to field a Corvette competitor, which the T-Bird was until 1958, when it went to four seats.
The ’57 T-Bird wasn’t my primary passion at that time. That would be a ’55 Chevy Two-Ten two-door hardtop with Chevrolet’s fabulous new “SmallBlock” V-8, although I wanted a more recent Corvette motor with four-on-the-floor, 1960 or so.
All through college the ’55 Chevy remained my constant desire, and SmallBlock displacement increased to 327 cubes. After college it went up to 350.
But the ’57 T-Bird remained desirable, although its layout is ancient.
The early ‘Vettes were also ancient. The joke was the ‘Vette was a ’53 Chevy with a swanky two-seater fiberglass body.
The earliest ‘Vettes weren’t even a V8. Chevy’s SmallBlock made the ‘Vette desirable, although its chassis was still antique.
The two-seater T-Birds were V8, but by then the new SmallBlock V8 became available in the ‘Vette.
Those two-seater T-Birds were steel body on frame. The ’57 Ford sedans looked awful. The 57 ‘Bird used some of the styling fillips of the sedan, but looked great anyway — even the canted tailfins.
A guy in my high-school had one; he was probably class of ’60 or ’61 — I’m ’62.
His car was probably not high-performance. But it woulda been great for kroozin’, especially top-down.
Sometime during my high-school junior year I wrote a gigantic spec-book replete with pencil side-elevations.
It was an elegantly customized two-seater T-Bird powered by a 440 Dodge B-motor with four-on-the-floor.
I remember someone drag-racing a two-seater ‘Bird — I think it was a ’55 — motivated by a souped-up 427 cubic-inch boat-anchor.
Nice idea, except all it did was light up its drag slicks. All its weight was on the front-end.
So now another classic to add to my list of desirables.
Long-ago I looked at a ’55 Belair two-door hardtop, but it was junk. It needed a total frame-off. And even after that it would still be an antique.
What I drove home, our ’89 Civic All-Wheel-Drive wagon, was much more desirable. Slow, but it didn’t assault my senses.
A few months ago a RetroBird appeared at an auto-repair in Honeoye Falls. A two-seater T-Bird, but not antique.
I almost stopped, but didn’t.
That RetroBird would just be a toy, not something in which to chase trains, or drive long distance.
It also wouldn’t be All-Wheel-Drive.
Furthermore, I have more pleasant things to enjoy— like my lady friends, who I never expected.
That ’57 T-Bird would be no match against the smiling eyes of a happy lady-friend.

“The girl in the white T-Bird.” (Suzanne Somers; “American Graffiti.”) —The ‘Bird is a ’56.

• My brother and I chase and photograph trains down near Altoona PA, where the old Pennsylvania Railroad crossed Allegheny Mountain. The railroad is now Norfolk Southern. Every year I take 13 of our 89 bazilyun photographs to assemble into a calendar — I do it with Shutterfly. I give those calendars as Christmas presents.