OLD CARS: The 1983 Thunderbird was a huge influence

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Ford hit a brick wall with its Thunderbird in the early 1980s. Sales tumbled and the nameplate’s reputation suffered.

The 1980 Thunderbird should have been a hit. It was smaller than its predecessor, yet care had been made to ensure its overall style underscored its heritage. As well, the new Thunderbird was more fuel efficient, an important selling point during an era when fuel consumption was top of mind for many buyers.

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And yet the 1980 Thunderbird was a dud. It was very much squared-off in appearance, as was the fashion for that era. But its particular style, or lack of it, didn’t resonate with buyers.

Ford had always enjoyed relatively strong and profitable sales with Thunderbird. The previous generation (1977-1979) had sold very well.

But the eighth generation of Thunderbird (1980-1982) was a failure. Ford sold 156,803 for 1980, but just 86,693 for 1981. And for 1982, Thunderbird sales were terrible, at 45,142.

The numbers for 1982 were the worst sales numbers for Thunderbird since 1975, when 42,685 cars were sold. Yet in 1975, Thunderbird was built alongside the Lincoln Mark IV at Ford’s Wixom plant in Michigan. And it shared a great many components with Lincoln’s personal luxury car. Indeed, Thunderbird was a full luxury car and the most expensive automobile to be sold under the Ford brand in 1975.

But in an effort to sell more cars, Ford had downsized Thunderbird for 1977, had lowered the price point, and had enjoyed a sales bonanza in leveraging the iconic Thunderbird name. While the previous car had shared the same platform with Lincoln Mark IV, the 1977 Thunderbird shared the same platform with the more plebeian Torino, renamed LTD II.

And Thunderbird for 1980 was even smaller. It shared the Fox platform, used by the very mundane Ford Fairmont.

And so Ford’s game – of trading on Thunderbird’s reputation – ended. Thunderbird for 1980 bore no resemblance to its 1975 model.

To be somewhat charitable, the early Eighties weren’t the best in which to sell a new car. North America was gripped in a massive recession that featured high unemployment, high inflation and crippling interest rates. It was an economic nightmare for all of the auto companies, all of which were struggling to find a way through the crisis.

Still, the new 1980 Thunderbird was hardly the car for that time. It wasn’t out for too long before Ford’s vice-president of design, Jack Telnack, was approached by a member of Ford’s brass and asked if he would like such a car in his driveway.

“No,” said Telnack.

The negative response was enough for management to immediately decree that a new Thunderbird be designed. It wouldn’t be ready until the 1983 model year.

And the 1983 Thunderbird was unlike anything then being built by the Detroit automakers. To begin with, it was round and there wasn’t a straight edge to be found on its lovely body.

The trend to build cars with straight edges had started in 1975 with GM stylist Bill Mitchell’s Cadillac Seville. That template was carried further with the full-size cars that GM launched for 1977. Over the next several years, all of the automakers adopted the same approach. Straight edges worked for some cars, but not for all.

The 1983 Thunderbird was a big departure from what Detroit had become accustomed to for almost a decade. Telnack and his designers borrowed heavily from Ford of Europe, where streamlining designs were becoming popular.

The new Thunderbird didn’t have a straight line anywhere. The body flowed over rounded edges and curved metal. Even the doors were different. Ford used “airplane-style” doors with edges that curved into the roofline. The dripline was concealed and made for a more attractive design.

So smooth, so streamlined was the new Thunderbird’s sheetmetal that its drag coefficient had been reduced from 0.50 to 0.35.

The new Thunderbird signalled a sea change in the appearance of Detroit-built cars. Within a few years, Ford would introduce its aerodynamic Ford Tempo (Mercury Topaz) and its Ford Taurus (Mercury Sable) and would enjoy spectacular sales. Following the same path was the all-new Ford Aerostar minivan, Lincoln Continental and Lincoln Mark VII.

The new Thunderbird came with a 104-inch wheelbase, a length of 197.6 inches, and a height of 53.2 inches. Thunderbird weighed just over 3,076 pounds. It was not a heavy car by conventional standards.

There were three models: the standard Thunderbird, the Heritage Thunderbird and the TurboCoupe. The base engine for the standard and Heritage model was Ford’s Essex 3.8-litre V6, although the company’s 5.0-litre Windsor V8 was an option. For the TurboCoupe, Ford used an overhead cam 2.3-litre turbo-charged four-cylinder Lima engine with electronic fuel injection and five-speed manual overdrive transmission.

All Thunderbirds for 1983 were equipped with modified MacPherson front suspension and gas-filled shocks and struts, and came with variable rack and pinion steering.

They also came with a front console on the transmission tunnel, but only the TurboCoupe was equipped with a floor-mounted shifter.

Ford hoped to sell a lot of its Heritage models, the most expensive Thunderbird for 1983. It featured a galaxy of electronic gadgets.

Ford’s 3.8-litre V6 was said to deliver “impressive fuel efficiency by virtue of its advanced combustion chamber design and value porting.”

And the car’s SelectShift transmission incorporated a locking torque converter to provide a near-mechanical linkup between engine and transmission in all three forward gears.

An automatic overdrive was optional. It had been introduced with the 1980 Thunderbird to boost fuel efficiency. It allowed the car to shift into the fourth overdrive gear at roughly 40 miles per hour, allowing the engine to turn one-third more slowly and to improve highway fuel economy. The SelectShift was available in the 3.8-litre or optional 5.0 V8 engine.

Ford boasted that the new technology allowed Thunderbird to achieve a fuel economy of 29 miles to the gallon on the highway.

Thunderbird’s new TurboCoupe attracted a lot of attention. It featured the first-ever four-cylinder engine for Thunderbird.

As already described, it was a 2.3-litre overhead cam engine that was turbo-charged. It came with electronic fuel injection and a five-speed manual overdrive transmission. The TurbeCoupe came with its own rear suspension, using something Ford called Quadra-Shock, and was equipped with its own aluminum wheels outfitted with Goodyear Eagle HR Performance tires.

The TurboCoupe was arguably the most attractive of Thunderbird’s three editions. Its exterior featured charcoal and black accent treatments, a unique fascia with integral air dam and Marchal fog lamps. Electric remote control mirrors were available for both sides of the car.

Overall, the new Thunderbird for 1983 was judged to be a hit, or at least a car of influence. Ford sold only 121,999 models for the first year. Not a big number, but almost three times as many cars as for 1982. The 1984 model year of Thunderbird would be its best for that generation, with 170,551 units sold.

Sales for the following years were as follows: 151,852 (1985), 165,965 (1986), 128,135 (1987) and 147,243 (1988).

Ford sold a total of 885,745 Thunderbirds over those years, but the influence the sleek new car had over the company and Detroit auto industry was much greater.