Big 'Bird - 1973 Ford Thunderbird

By the time the sixth-generation Thunderbird debuted for the 1972 model year, any traces of the original sporty two-seater from 1955 were long gone, the model having bulked up on a steady diet of steroids. Weighing as much as two-and-a-half tons, Thunderbird went big for 1972.

That move paid off big-time for Ford, too, with sales increasing from 36,055 to 57,814. The Thunderbird grew again for 1973, with a heavily revised front end, once again resulting in higher sales. At 87,269 cars sold, the 1973 model year was Ford's hottest yet for its "personal luxury coupe," as the industry had dubbed it.

Ford was clearly doing something right. While the decade came in with big power in the form of Boss Mustangs and Cobra Jet engines for seemingly every model, the muscle-car market was running on fumes by 1973. Sure, you can blame the insurance companies and the government regulators, but buyers' tastes were already shifting.

Available only as a two-door hardtop, the 1973 Thunderbird was hardly the only such personal luxury coupe on the market. Ford had competition from the likes of Oldsmobile's Toronado, Buick's Riviera, the Cadillac Eldorado, and even the Lincoln Mark IV, with which the Thunderbird shared much, including its assembly line. In an era when size mattered, luxury, too, came in oversized portions. The Thunderbird featured a wide variety of optional exterior and interior finishes, including a finely textured vinyl top and opera windows, the latter of which debuted in the 1973 model year with a Thunderbird emblem sandwiched between the layers of glass.

Ford's ad agency promised an interior that was "Opulent. Spacious. Supremely Comfortable. With bright ornamentation and Woodtone touches. And room for six. Only Thunderbird does it so precisely, so thoroughly luxurious as this." With a split bench incorporating fold-down center armrests, and options for leather seating surfaces and a reclining passenger seat, the Thunderbird interior exuded as much style and luxury as the distinctive exterior. High-quality vinyl, available in additional colors, represented another interior option, and thick, cut-pile carpet covered not just the floors, but also the seat backs and lower door panels.

Under the hood, Ford included the 385-series 429-cu.in. V-8 as standard. With a four-barrel carburetor and 8.5 compression, the engine produced a respectable 211 hp and 327 lb-ft of torque. Ford also offered the same 460-cu. in. V-8 found in the Lincoln Continental Mark IV; it, too, came from the long-lived 385-series engine family. In the Thunderbird, with 8.0 compression and a four-barrel carb, Ford rated the 460 at 219 hp and 338 lb-ft of torque. With just over 5,000 pounds to haul around, the 460-powered Thunderbird was no drag-strip demon. Still, Motor Trend coaxed a 9-second sprint to 60 mph from a 1973 Thunderbird 460.

Every Thunderbird in 1973 came equipped with Ford's C6 three-speed automatic transmission. Ford built this heavy-duty transmission to handle the big torque from its big-block V-8s. In an era of shrinking horsepower, Ford's drivetrain combination proved potent enough. Per Motor Trend: "Thunderbird's 460 engine puts all of the muscle down at the low rpm range. We actually had to walk the 'Bird out of the hole at the Orange County drag strip to keep from spinning the rear wheels. Concentration of all that torque at the low end overcomes the ravages of smog equipment to give firm response with plenty left to run all the power goodies."

And, indeed, there were plenty of "goodies" available in Thunderbird. Standard fare included power steering and brakes; white sidewall radial tires; a spring-loaded hood ornament; a lighted, fully lined trunk; and more. Since most Thunderbird buyers piled on the options, Ford added the vinyl roof, opera windows, power side windows, air conditioning, tinted glass, and automatic seat-back release as standard equipment part way through the 1973 model year, increasing the base price from $5,577 to $6,414.

Perhaps the biggest news for Thunderbird buyers in 1973 was Ford's decision to redesign the front end of a model just a year after its introduction. With the first federal bumper standards coming into force in September of 1972, Ford took advantage of the situation as best it could and redid the Thunderbird's front end.

The 1973 model featured a new bumper, with rubber trim over the chrome and a pair of overriders, all designed to meet the new regulations that required cars to survive a 5-mph bumper bash with no damage. But Ford went way beyond a new bumper and revised the grille, opting for an egg-crate style over the previous year's horizontal bars. The headlamps were given a new look, each of the four headlamps resting in its own nacelle, instead of being paired up, as on the 1972 model. The parking and turn-signal lamps at the leading edge of each fender also got gussied up for 1973. The design changes clearly appealed to a lot of people, as enthusiastic buyers helped push Thunderbird sales to record heights.

One of those enthusiastic buyers was Jimmy DeNunzio, who was living in Queens, New York, then and driving a 1967 Oldsmobile 4-4-2. His brother Tommy told him, "It's time to get yourself a nice personal luxury car; after all, you're 24 now and need to drive around in something with class." A few years back, Jimmy wrote in Bird Talk, the newsletter of the Long Island Thunderbirds club, about how taken he was by the new model: "I fell in love immediately with the beautiful redesign of the front grille, headlamps, and bumper. A big improvement in looks over the 1972... It was awesome... Well, that was it for me. It was time to buy a Thunderbird."

Jimmy and his bother "visited just about every Ford dealer on Long Island, Queens, and Staten Island." With more than 20 paint colors and a variety of interior options, the pair wanted to see every combination in person. Ultimately, Jimmy settled on Dark Brown Metallic over Ginger vinyl interior. Why the vinyl when there were leather options? Jimmy's son Jim, the current owner of the Thunderbird, explains it best: "Ideally, he would have gotten leather, but leather did not come in that color. It was the right choice for a number of different reasons. I am sure he didn't anticipate in 1973 that he'd be owning the car 40 years later. But the condition of the vinyl now is pristine and, although some people might think it's leather, it's actually very high-quality vinyl."

Other options Jimmy ordered included the opera windows, the 460 V-8, a three-spoke steering wheel with tilt, AM/FM stereo with 8-track, air conditioning, power windows, and the Traction- Lok limited-slip differential. Ordered just before the end of November 1972, Jimmy's Thunderbird didn't arrive until mid-April of 1973, such was the demand for the car.

With a few months to bide his time, Jimmy prepared to receive his new car in style by buying some new duds for the big day. "He bought a chocolate brown suit with tan stitching to complement the Ginger interior," Jim says. "And he even bought two-tone brown-and-tan shoes to go with it as well. He was into that."

Just starting out at the New York Department of Sanitation, Jimmy took his shiny new Thunderbird to work. Once. "It was in a bad neighborhood in the city somewhere," Jim says. "The first day he took it to work, he came out at the end of the day and there were footprints on the hood of the car, even the roof. Somebody had walked on top of the car! He said that's when he decided there was no way he was going to use it as a commuter car." Fortunately for Jimmy, his parents offered him their garage in Queens to store the big car. And that's primarily where it sat for 30 years.

Jimmy's love for his Thunderbird nearly violated some other laws of love. "My mother was a nursing student when they first started dating," Jim tells us. "He had picked her up, and she was in her nursing outfit--all white with white shoes with white shoe polish and she had sat in the car and had put her feet up on the seats. And my dad had said to her, 'Can you please not put your feet up on the seats, you'll get the white shoe polish on the seats.' And they joked around about how it's a good thing my mom didn't walk out on him right there." Indeed.

Jimmy passed away in 2013, but today his son Jim, who has fond memories of the Thunderbird as a child in the Eighties and a teenager in the Nineties, finds himself the caretaker of his father's treasure. With the help of his uncle Tommy and friends in the Long Island Thunderbirds, they keep the highly original, very low-mileage car in great shape. In describing the big 'Bird's driving characteristics, Jim keeps repeating one word: smooth.

"Although I have gotten used to it," Jim says. "I'm super careful when I drive it. It feels tremendous--the hood is tremendous. But it's very smooth. There is a little bit of hesitation when you accelerate, and there are some flat spots on the tires because it's not driven very often. But other than that, it's a very smooth ride.

"The steering is very smooth. The brakes are fine. But I just have to watch how wide it is. I'm not used to the width and length of the car, but I do enjoy driving it. I'm also not used to the cushy seats. Modern cars have really hard seats in comparison. When you go around turns, your whole body moves around, compared to in modern cars."

Jim has no plans to get rid of the Thunderbird, which now sits in his mother's garage on Long Island, in the house she and Jimmy shared for many years and where Jim grew up. With his own child on the way, Jim admits, "I probably wouldn't have gone out and bought a classic car, especially at this point in my life." But he also saw how special that car had been to his father, his mother, his uncle, and the rest of his family--and he plans to keep it that way.

Owner's View

I like all the detail, such as the little Thunderbird emblems all over the car, like right on the dashboard and right in front of the steering wheel. Just the luxury of it. Even the luxury in today's luxury cars is a different style, so the detail work that is in and around the car is kind of unique compared to today's cars. I've always liked that. When you sit in the car, you feel like you're wrapped in luxury. You feel enclosed in the car, but at the same time, there is good visibility when you drive it." --Jim DeNunzio

(Original owner Jimmy DeNunzio pictured here picking up the Thunderbird new in April of 1973.)

1973 FORD THUNDERBIRD

SPECIFICATIONS

PRICE

BASE PRICE $5,577

OPTIONS* (ON CAR PROFILED) 460-cu.in. V-8, $75.96; opera windows, $81.84; Cayman Grain full-vinyl roof, $137; Deluxe wheel covers, $61.82; convenience light group, $43.79; Rim-Blow three-spoke steering wheel, $37.99; tilt steering wheel, $51; AM/FM stereo with 8-track player, $311; SelectAire air conditioner, $436.52; six-way power seat, $101.34; power side windows, $129.60; Traction-Lok differential axle, $47.71

*Some optional equipment may have been excluded from this list

ENGINE

TYPE "385" OHV 90-degree V-8 with cast-iron block and cylinder heads

DISPLACEMENT 459.8 cubic inches

BORE X STROKE 4.36 x 3.85 inches

COMPRESSION RATIO 8.0:1

HORSEPOWER @ RPM 219 @ 4,400

TORQUE @ RPM 338 lb-ft @ 2,600

VALVETRAIN Hydraulic lifters

MAIN BEARINGS Five

FUEL SYSTEM Motorcraft four-barrel carburetor

LUBRICATION SYSTEM Full-pressure

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 12-volt

EXHAUST SYSTEM Single

TRANSMISSION

TYPE Ford C6 SelectShift Cruise-o-Matic three-speed automatic

RATIOS 1st 2.46:1

2nd 1.46:1

3rd 1.00:1

Reverse 2.18:1

DIFFERENTIAL

TYPE Hypoid bevel

GEAR RATIO 2.75:1

DRIVE AXLES Semi-floating

STEERING

TYPE Recirculating ball, power assisted

TURNS, LOCK TO LOCK Four

RATIO 21.7:1, overall

TURNING CIRCLE 43 feet

BRAKES

TYPE Hydraulic, power assisted

FRONT 11.72-inch diameter discs

REAR 11-inch diameter drums

CHASSIS & BODY

CONSTRUCTION Steel body on perimeter box-type frame

BODY STYLE Two-door, six-passenger hardtop coupe

LAYOUT Front engine, rear-wheel drive

SUSPENSION

FRONT Independent; unequal length A-arms, lower trailing links, coil springs, anti-roll bar, hydraulic shock absorbers

REAR Live axle; lower trailing radius arms, upper torque arms, coil springs, anti-roll bar, hydraulic shock absorbers

WHEELS & TIRES

WHEELS 15 x 6-inch stamped steel

TIRES 230R-15 radials

WEIGHTS & MEASURES

WHEELBASE 120.4 inches

OVERALL LENGTH 218.9 inches

OVERALL WIDTH 79.7 inches

OVERALL HEIGHT 53.1 inches

FRONT TRACK 63 inches

REAR TRACK 63.1 inches

CURB WEIGHT 5,010 pounds

CAPACITIES

CRANKCASE 5 quarts (6 with filter)

COOLING SYSTEM 18.8 quarts

FUEL TANK 22.5 gallons

TRANSMISSION 7 pints

CALCULATED DATA

BHP PER CU.IN. 0.48

WEIGHT PER BHP 21.65 pounds

WEIGHT PER CU.IN. 10.31 pounds

PROS & CONS

+ Massive '70s classic

+ Solid, reliable, and unstressed drivetrain

+ Every bit a Lincoln, but without the Mark price tag

- Exterior trim hard to find

- Emissions-choked drivetrain

- Thirsty, thirsty, thirsty

PRODUCTION

1971 36,055

1972 57,814

1973 87,269

1974 58,443

1975 42,685

WHAT TO PAY

LOW $3,000 - $5,000

AVERAGE $8,000 - $10,000

HIGH $14,000 - $16,000

CLUB CORNER

INTERNATIONAL THUNDERBIRD CLUB

P.O. Box 24041

Pepper Pike, Ohio, 44124

Phone: 216-375-2808

www.intl-thunderbirdclub.com

Dues: $30/year

Membership: 1,800