Distracted driving's granddaddy: the 1967 Ford Thunderbird Apollo

Photos by the author.

Long before Ford partnered with Eddie Bauer to sell upscale Explorers, and before Abercrombie & Fitch became the official clothing store of prep schools and frat houses across the country, the two companies got together to produce and market one of the most gadget-laden Thunderbirds ever conceived.

"I enjoy it, even though I'm a Chevy guy," said Gene Martini of Denver, Pennsylvania, who brought his unrestored 74,000-mile one-of-five 1967 Ford Thunderbird Apollo to the Saturday car show at this year's AACA meet at Hershey. "It's unique."

The Thunderbird Apollo's story, some claim, started in 1966, when Chrysler displayed at that year's New York Auto Show the Imperial Mobile Executive show car, an Imperial Crown Coupe two-door hardtop fitted with leather upholstery, walnut wood trim, a front passenger bucket seat that swiveled 180 degrees, a small desktop that flipped up, a typewriter, a couple of telephones, a dictating machine, reading lamps and even a television. A year later, the Mobile Executive would become a $600 Imperial option, one that included the swiveling front seat, flip-up table, and reading lamp, but not the phones, typewriter, or television.

Gene believes the idea for a Thunderbird version of the Mobile Executive came from officials at Abercrombie & Fitch, at the time a sporting goods outfitter with five flagship stores across the country—in Miami, West Palm Beach, Chicago, San Francisco and New York. Perhaps Abercrombie & Fitch, which had arranged with John Fitch to display the Fitch Phoenix at its New York store and take orders for it at other stores in 1966, had sought a substitute for the Phoenix when John Fitch canceled that project. Or perhaps officials there simply felt an uber-luxury automobile fit in with their demographics.

Whatever the case, Ford agreed and sent five Thunderbird hardtops with special blue metallic paint down the Wixom assembly line—four Q-code 428-powered cars and one Z-code 390-powered car—and loaded them with just about every available Thunderbird option. Ford then shipped all five over to Andy Hotten at Dearborn Steel Tubing—the same company responsible for the Ford Thunderbolts and many other special Ford projects—for conversion into Apollos. The process included cutting holes for electric sunroofs, transforming them into Landaus with blue vinyl roofs, and then loading them up with a whole smorgasbord of extras: blue leather upholstery, foldaway desks in the front seat backs, a footrest in the reclining (but not swiveling) front passenger seat, a Philco television set, a radio telephone that necessitated an aerial mounted to the trunk, and reading lamps.

Of the five, only four made it to their original destinations; the one slated for the San Francisco store was destroyed en route. The rest then went on display in their respective stores for the 1967 holiday shopping season and were sold off—at a cost of about $15,000—around the end of the year.

The Chicago car, the only one of the five with the 390 V-8, went to a Mr. Polsinelli. Then, in 1989, it showed up with a relatively recent repaint at the Kruse Auburn auction, where Gene's brother-in-law bought it for $5,800. He ended up parking it, and for another 10 years it sat largely unused until Gene asked about it and was told he could have it if he got it running and out of the garage it inhabited. Despite his Bowtie loyalties, he took on the challenge just because it was such an unusual car.

Nowadays, he'll point out a few flaws on the car—the special gold anodized badges and Thunderbird scripts have dulled over time, but he can't remove them without removing the special sunroof-accommodating headliner, and so he's leaving them as is for fear of making the car any worse—but notes that all of the add-ons still work, or at least they would if the television broadcasters still put out analog signals. For his first AACA show, he earned a Junior with the Thunderbird.

As for the other Apollos, Gene said that both Florida cars have been accounted for, and the New York car has reportedly surfaced, but has yet to be confirmed. That's a pretty good survival rate for a bunch of cars loaded with potentially distracting gadgets and gizmos.