In my opinion, there’s no better example of the American sports car than the Corvette.
It’s a instantly recognizable classic with performance that backs up it’s looks.
Everyone knows what a Corvette is, even my Grandma, sometimes she thinks I’m my dead
uncle.
I’ve been fan of these cars for as long as I can remember, but lately something’s
been bugging me, not with the Corvette, but with Ford.
I was eating lunch one day when some coworkers walked by “Aww yeah, the Corvette, great
car, Too bad Ford doesn’t make something to compete with it, it’d probably be rad.”
I was rattled.
Bart was right.
Why doesn’t Ford make their own Corvette?
The Corvette debuted in 1953.
It’s designers wanted the Vette to be like the european sports cars of the time: powerful,
sporty and gorgeous.They wanted the Vette to push the boundaries of what a sports car
could be.
It was the first production car with a fiberglass body and each one was built by hand.
A lot of passion went in to building each Corvette, and Chevy wanted the clientele
to reflect that
They sold the first 50 cars to movie stars, athletes and powerful titans of industry.
But the marketing stunt didn’t work, in the Corvette’s first year of production,
They only sold 315 of them.
I thought that was kinda weird considering how ubiquitous the Corvette is today,
but it turns out, The first Corvette kinda sucked.
It wasn’t that fast, and the build quality was sub par.
There were a lot of complaints about water leaking through the roof.
It also lacked basic creature comforts, the only options were a radio and heater.
Not great for a car whose base price was around $32,000 in today's money.
It was a poor excuse for a European inspired sports car.
Ford saw Chevy struggling to sell the 'Vette and said “Dude, We can do better, for a lot less”.
They got to work designing a sporty two seater of their own.
Ford’s car would have power brakes, power windows, and power seats,
And of course the heater and radio.
Ford understood that Americans did want a sporty car, just not too sporty.
It still had to be comfortable, but look like a sports car.
All it needed was a name.The story goes that Ford held a naming contest
within the company. And it was won
By an engineer who took inspiration
from a coffee mug
He got from New Mexico.
The Ford Thunderbird had arrived.
Unlike the Corvette, Ford had no problem selling the Thunderbird.
While Chevy marketed their Corvette as a Europe-inspired hot rod
Ford marketed their car towards a more
‘Dignified’ customer.The Thunderbird The Thunderbird’s actual slogan was “The Personal
Car of Distinction”.
Ford didn’t even advertise the fact that it was a better performer than the Corvette.
The Thunderbird had a V8 as opposed to the corvette’s inline six, and it was much faster.
The T-Bird was an immediate sales success, Ford only planned to build 10,000 of them
in it’s first year, but ended up selling over 16 thousand.
By comparison, Chevy only built 4000 Corvettes... in it's first three years.
But to my surprise, Ford was not satisfied with the Thunderbird’s success
They wanted more.
So how do sell more two seaters?
You make them four seaters.
So three years after the Thunderbird’s debut as THE luxury two seat sports car, Ford Execs
decided it needed some rear seating.
The engineers were a little skeptical
So, the new car would be longer, heavier and more flamboyant looking
Would buyers really want a less sporty sports car?
Turns out, the answer is yes.
Thunderbird sales doubled in the four-seater’s first year, and after three years, Ford had sold
over 200,000 Thunderbirds.
The gamble had paid off, more seats meant more sales
While Ford was busy perfecting the luxury car,
1963 saw the introduction of the Stingray, which is my pick for the all time greatest
American sports car
The Stingray had hide away headlights, independent rear suspension, and in 1967, was capable
of nearly 500 horsepower.
That's a lot for the sixties, it's a lot for today!
It took a while, but the Corvette was finally the defining sports car it was meant
to be.
Even if it didn’t have a Blue Oval rival to play with.
Ford kept marketing the Thunderbird as their upmarket luxury car,
While the “sporty”title went to their newest model;
the Mustang.
So Ford had a luxury halo, and a sports halo.
And Chevy didn't respond to the Mustang with the Corvette, but a pony car of their own;
The Camaro.
The Corvette was free to do it's own thing and focus on itself.
Like a Divoree...
With no kids.
The Thunderbird stayed around for nearly fifty years, over 10 different generations,
each time becoming less and less focused on it’s sportscar roots.
The Thunderbird disappeared between 1997 and 2002, when it came back for one last ride.
The new Bird was was rumored to be a two seater, which got people wondering, maybe it’ll
be like the first Thunderbird, a luxurious sportscar, perhaps faster than the current
corvette?
But it wasn’t.
Yeah, it had two seats, but it was more focused on ‘personal luxury’ instead of speed.
Around 68,000 new thunderbirds were sold in 4 years which wasn’t terrible, but Ford
killed off the T-Bird in 2005, and I haven’t heard about it coming back any time soon.
As far as the Corvette is concerned, it’s still kicking and giving european competitors
a run for their money, without having any competition back home.
The Viper is dead, and Ford’s sports lineup consists of hatchbacks, The Mustang and the
GT; which costs like half a million dollars, putting it into a totally different
market than the Corvette.
So why doesn’t Ford have their ‘own’ Corvette?
Well, they did have one, but it slowly evolved into a luxury car; because that’s what sold.
Ford still has a Corvette-shaped hole in their line up, but with about a million different
Mustang variants to choose from, odds are you can find one to fill it.
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WheelHouse is every Monday
Tuesdays, that Matt Field's Corvette Build
It's insane.
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Thursday, get yelled at by James Pumphrey.
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