What does Frank Sinatra, Marylin Monroe and NASCAR have in common?

This podcast is about nostalgia. Automotive nostalgia. You know, reliving the events, sights, smells, and emotions of special memories connected to our first rides.

Said another way…it’s about allowing our memories to travel back in time and experience our special car moments all over again.

So, let’s talk about what Frank Sinatra, Marylin Monroe and NASCAR have in common?

The Ford Thunderbird

The mid 1950’s brought about several changes and advancement in society, politics and technologically. The TV set was starting to show up in homes across the country. The polio vaccine was introduced. The first transistor computer was built in 1953. The transistor radio was introduced in 1954.

Society and innovations were moving at a rapid pace and the public wanted more. The time was ripe for new styles in the automotive industry, which opened the doors for the Ford Thunderbird to be revealed to a car hungry public.

The Ford Thunderbird was a personal luxury car produced by Ford from 1955 until 1997 and again from 2002 until 2005 across 11 distinct generations. Introduced as a two-seat convertible, the Thunderbird was produced in a variety of body configurations. These included a two seat coupe, four-seat hardtop coupe, four-seat convertible, five-seat convertible and hardtop, four-door pillared hardtop sedan, six-passenger hardtop coupe, and five-passenger pillared coupe, with the final generation designed again as a two-seat convertible.

With sales dropping off significantly after its 2002 model year, Ford ended Thunderbird production with the 2005 model year. The last Thunderbird was manufactured on July 1, 2005. RIP, Ford Thunderbird.

The celebrity life.

The T-Bird was part of the celebrity lifestyle because of its cool factor. Frank Sinatra was said to have owned a 1955 Thunderbird. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn reportedly owned a 1961 T-Bird. Rumor has it that even JFK owned one. Yes, it was cool to own a Thunderbird.

Marilyn Monroe owned a 1956 T-Bird for more than six years. With a raven black paint job, powered by a 312 cubic-inch V8 engine, delivering 225 horsepower, it had a top speed of 113 mph. Not long after buying her T-Bird, she married Arthur Miller, the famous playwright.

Later, when her car was taken to auction, it went under the hammer, fetching a cool $250,000.

Reportedly, some have detected the aroma of Chanel 5, her signature perfume, wafting from the glove compartment. Marilyn’s Thunderbird is “not only part of automotive history but comes with an aura of glamour, romance, and tragedy of a true Hollywood legend,” said Darren Julien, the president of Julien’s Auctions, that sold the car.

In early 1960’s the Thunderbird was even an Indianapolis 500 pace car. Plus, it was featured prominently in US President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural parade. It also benefitted from product placement, notably on the popular private detective drama television series 77 Sunset Strip.

Trying to capture their feeling of the T-Bird in their song ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’, The Beach Boys sang “And she’ll have fun fun fun, til her daddy takes the T-bird away,”. Could it be this song related to a real event? Rumor has it Salt Lake resident Shirley England, whose father was a local radio station owner, borrowed her father’s ’63 T-Bird. Is it a stretch to assume she ran the T-Bird on the Bonneville Salt Flats?  It certainly had the power to go fast because it was powered by a standard 390 V-8 engine, delivering 300 horsepower.

The Racing Thunderbird

Thunderbirds first showed up to race in the 1959 NASCAR season. The combination of the second-generation body style and the newly available 430 CID V8 took drivers Curtis Turner, Johnny Beauchamp (which raced a Thunderbird built by Holman-Moody team in the first Daytona 500), “Tiger” Tom Pistone, and Cotton Owens to victory lane. Thunderbirds that were entered in 1959, won six races in the top division.

In the 1960 season, most teams returned to using the conventional full-sized Ford body style, and the T-Bird made only sporadic appearances through the rest of the 1960s, with no additional wins.

Beginning in 1977, Thunderbird-bodied racecars replaced the Torino as Ford’s primary body style in NASCAR, starting a trend of luxury coupe type body styles (eventually the 1981 Imperial would also be seen racing) being used as a sheet-metal source on the racetrack. Bobby Allison won 13 races with this car driving for owner Bud Moore in the 1977 through 1980 seasons, even though the cars looked boxy and not very aerodynamic. During 1981–1997, the downsized and aerodynamically clean Thunderbirds were successful in NASCAR stock car racing before they were replaced by Taurus-based bodies in 1998. The 1983 through 1988-bodied, driven by Bobby Allison exceeded 200 mph and in one case during a qualifying session set the record of the fastest lap in stock car history with an average speed of 212.809 mph at Talladega Superspeedway. As far as I know, this is a record that still stands. Bill Elliott and Davey Allison, in particular, were successful with the cars, with Elliott winning the 1988 championship. Alan Kulwicki also won the championship in 1992 in a car nicknamed “Underbird”, for his underdog status as a driver.

So, now you know a little of the Ford Thunderbird exiting history. I was surprised to learn there was a time when it had four doors and that it had a prominent place in NASCAR history.

Hopefully you enjoyed this episode and learned some new information along the way.

My thanks to Joshua Irvine and his article on hotcars.com (https://www.hotcars.com/ford-thunderbird-facts/ ) and Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Thunderbird )  for the great information on the Ford Thunderbird.

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One final thought….

You may not have your first ride, but you still have the memories. It’s time to share them.

Contact me if you have questions regarding today’s podcast or would like to be a guest on My First Ride Podcast. Send an email to myfirstridepodcast@gmail.com.

I’m Gary Neidert and you’ve just experienced My First Ride Podcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching.