Meet the most successful form of the Ford Thunderbird line. Not the two-seaters that we dig. Not the radical “Bullet Birds”, or the NASCAR racers of the 1980s and 1990s. And certainly not that retro rehash that never needed to happen. No, this form, a toned-down form of the Lincoln Mark V, was the high-water mark of the Thunderbird nameplate, in all of it’s bizarrely good 1970s glory. Wait…did he actually say “1970s” and “g00d” in the same sentence? Yeah, he did.

You can be as critical of 1970s performance as you like. Nothing moved with the grunt it needed. Nothing. I don’t care if you point out a 1977 Camaro Z28, or a Mustang II Cobra. Even the Pontiac Trans Am, which did have plenty of grunt by the standards of the day, was losing the battle against beancounters, politicians, and people within Pontiac who wanted to out-do Buick for some damn reason. The Thunderbird managed to somehow be extravagant and restrained. You had the basket-handle roofline treatment, but it looked right. You had the hidden headlight/big chrome grille treatment and the pointy nose thing going, but it worked. And inside, you were not hurting in the least. Ford didn’t do a lot right in the Seventies, but you were going to be comfortable in a Thunderbird come hell or high water.

But is it worth the money for a first-time investment? Here’s some advice: not everything needs to be some rowdy, barely-contained maniac with license plates. It’s clean, it’s been kept up, and between the size, color and shape, you’ll never lose it in a parking lot. If you can handle a car this big, do so…go find that open road and just let the engine do it’s thing unhurriedly. Racing is fun, but cruising is therapeutic.

Facebook Marketplace link: 1977 Ford Thunderbird