A quick story: for Christmas one year, my brother and I got remote-controlled New Bright cars. I’m not 100% what he had…I think his was a third-gen Firebird because he missed our grandmother’s 1983 Firebird S/E…but my car was based on a 1988 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. The Aero Bird shape was present, and the miniature composite headlamps and the unique, tri-circle taillights were present and worked. In fact, if you ignored the beat-up Cobra R wheels, this particular 1988 Thunderbird looks just like my old toy did. All I knew then was that I was walking behind a Thunderbird on a leash (wired remote-controlled cars suck, by the way…) but this ride is all sorts of awesome. Why is that? Well, you could go for the big-ticket party piece, a full IRS rear subframe conversion using Terminator Mustang pieces, but that’s only one story. You could go for the 5.0 Mustang-spec engine and transmission, but that’s only another part. You could even acknowledge that this Thunderbird is pretty clean for a California car, but again…that’s only one part. No, it’s the whole story that makes it here. It’s not stupid-powerful. It’s not a show car. The dash is as roasted as you’d expect to find in a Southwest car. But it all works…everything gels together, and creates a total package of a car that you could play with, have fun with, and daily-drive with no worries whatsoever. No temperamental engine or anything like that. And you know people will come up and ask about the car. When was the last time you saw an Aero Bird on the streets that wasn’t ragged out and ready for death?
That is my type of build, the KISS method. Though he put in an IRS suspension, using mostly factory parts and some fabrication, didn’t break the bank. Also like this style T-bird, especially the turbo coupes.
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