Ford sold a lot of them, though - more than 4.4 million from 1955 to the end of Thunderbird’s production in 2005. I think the ones in between were just fancy Ford sedans using the Thunderbird name. In my opinion, though, there have really just been two, the first and the 11th generations. Henry Ford II approved the design in 1953, and there have been 11 generations of Thunderbirds since then. Strangely, credit for the Thunderbird development is generally given to a retired GM executive, Lewis Crusoe, whom Ford lured out of retirement. The Thunderbird wasn’t marketed as a sports car but rather as a personal luxury car, a completely new category. Ford was already two years behind, but Ford worked quickly and made the first production Thunderbird for the 1955 model year. I imagine there were some long and stressful meetings because Ford couldn’t let Chevrolet have a whole market segment to themselves. Apparently across town in Detroit, the Corvette stirred up some excitement at Ford Motor Co. It created a lot of excitement because it looked great, but initially it wasn’t a very good car. In January 1953, Chevrolet showed a concept sports car called the Corvette. Right after World War II, the car business was pretty good for everyone, and the industry was mostly building cars styled before the war. Both brands had fierce loyalty among their owners, being the best-selling car was the goal of each, and each tried to learn the secret plans of their competitor. While there were other manufacturers building cars, the main rivalry was Ford versus Chevrolet. The Chevrolet was a more advanced car, but the price was $2,150, compared to the Model T for $850. The first Ford Model T was built in 1908 and the first Chevrolet in 1911. In the competitive automotive world, Ford and Chevrolet have been adversaries for 110 years.

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