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December 13: Last two-seat Ford Thunderbird built on this date in 1957. . .http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoram...tml#more-18333
It may not seem like that big of a deal, but in context, it was one of the biggest blunders ever.
Why?
In 1954, Corvette was on the verge of being cancelled for poor sales until GM learned that Ford was really going to build a two-seater . . . a car that had been in the works at Ford since 1951.
Then in 1957, Ford, which had been leading the NASCAR standings and outselling Chevrolet's Corvette about 4:1 got hoodwinked by its crosstown rivals into signing on to the infamous AMA racing ban . . . which supposedly banned all factory promotion of speed and racing.
In reality, several GM divisions cheated on the Ban during 1957-62 more than Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France, while Ford's idiotic slashing of performance programs is rivaled in history only by the catastrophic Iacocca racing pull-out of 1970.
Ford's green eye shade people, including Vietnam War architect Robert McNamara, didn't share prior boss Lewis D. Crusoe's enthusiasm for a two-seat sports car. Nor did they understand the effect that continuing to offer such a sporting machine would have on products and perceptions inside and out of the company.
McNamara and his non-car-guy wonks were blinded by the expectation that a heavy four-seater would sell in much higher numbers.
So instead of the logical step of building both four and two-seat specialty cars, the chumps in charge canned the two-seat Thunderbird.
This mistake ceded the entire U.S. sports car market to GM.
It allowed GM to offload development of a huge line of performance parts for the RPO V8 (which under the AMA Ban they weren't supposed to be doing), continuing down the path Zora Arkus-Duntov had devised in his legendary memorandum "Thoughts Pertaining to Youth, Hot Rodders, and Chevrolet" on December 16, 1953.
It allowed an exclusive marketing "halo" over Chevrolet's V8, as well as a catalyst for development of new features, such as fuel injection, four-speed transmissions, disc brakes and IRS, while Ford had no such development vehicle (not even the Mustang with Shelby's help, rivaled this effect).
It gave an exclusive panache on the streets of America to Chevy's smallish V8 as well, which Ford's engines would not have. Any SBC could be seemingly transformed into a Corvette engine with a few key bolt-ons . . . an attractive proposition to many youthful hot rodders who could never have afforded an entire Corvette.
Ford eventually got wise and repudiated the AMA Ban. It hired lots of professional racers. It developed a much better-selling four-seat "pony car" -- the 1964 1/2 Mustang. But Ford never again took a serious shot at building a mass-produced true sports car . . . allowing Chevrolet unopposed hegemony in this niche for more than fifty-five years.
December 13 -- a Day of INFAMY for Fordophiles everywhere.
It may not seem like that big of a deal, but in context, it was one of the biggest blunders ever.
Why?
In 1954, Corvette was on the verge of being cancelled for poor sales until GM learned that Ford was really going to build a two-seater . . . a car that had been in the works at Ford since 1951.
Then in 1957, Ford, which had been leading the NASCAR standings and outselling Chevrolet's Corvette about 4:1 got hoodwinked by its crosstown rivals into signing on to the infamous AMA racing ban . . . which supposedly banned all factory promotion of speed and racing.
In reality, several GM divisions cheated on the Ban during 1957-62 more than Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France, while Ford's idiotic slashing of performance programs is rivaled in history only by the catastrophic Iacocca racing pull-out of 1970.
Ford's green eye shade people, including Vietnam War architect Robert McNamara, didn't share prior boss Lewis D. Crusoe's enthusiasm for a two-seat sports car. Nor did they understand the effect that continuing to offer such a sporting machine would have on products and perceptions inside and out of the company.
McNamara and his non-car-guy wonks were blinded by the expectation that a heavy four-seater would sell in much higher numbers.
So instead of the logical step of building both four and two-seat specialty cars, the chumps in charge canned the two-seat Thunderbird.
This mistake ceded the entire U.S. sports car market to GM.
It allowed GM to offload development of a huge line of performance parts for the RPO V8 (which under the AMA Ban they weren't supposed to be doing), continuing down the path Zora Arkus-Duntov had devised in his legendary memorandum "Thoughts Pertaining to Youth, Hot Rodders, and Chevrolet" on December 16, 1953.
It allowed an exclusive marketing "halo" over Chevrolet's V8, as well as a catalyst for development of new features, such as fuel injection, four-speed transmissions, disc brakes and IRS, while Ford had no such development vehicle (not even the Mustang with Shelby's help, rivaled this effect).
It gave an exclusive panache on the streets of America to Chevy's smallish V8 as well, which Ford's engines would not have. Any SBC could be seemingly transformed into a Corvette engine with a few key bolt-ons . . . an attractive proposition to many youthful hot rodders who could never have afforded an entire Corvette.
Ford eventually got wise and repudiated the AMA Ban. It hired lots of professional racers. It developed a much better-selling four-seat "pony car" -- the 1964 1/2 Mustang. But Ford never again took a serious shot at building a mass-produced true sports car . . . allowing Chevrolet unopposed hegemony in this niche for more than fifty-five years.
December 13 -- a Day of INFAMY for Fordophiles everywhere.