I don't mean to sound too much like PacerX here, but Mustang Cobra is no competitor to Corvette...never has been, never will be. I don't care if Cobra nips the base Corvette in acceleration, they just are not the same car in the same market, and prestige/intangibles will always be on Corvette's side.

 

LOL, np. BTW, the Cobra does more than nip the base Vette. It eats it However, I'd like to see how the base C6 fares against the 04 Cobra.

 

Ford answered the Corvette in February 1954 (with production starting that September) with the Thunderbird. Unlike the Corvette, it was made of metal, had rollup windows, V8s (including a supercharged version) and the Thunderbird was mopping the floor with the Corvette in performance, comfort, and sales right up till Ford turned the Bird into a 4 passenger car in '58 in Ford's successful search of more sales.

Corvette played catch-up to Ford till Ford moved on to create the "Personal Luxury" niche in 1959.

Of late, Ford's been showing & running supercharged performance versions of the new 2 passenger T-bird for the past few years, but for some odd reason won't bring them to production.

The 1st round, Ford anniliated the Corvette to the point GM was set to pull the plug on the Corvette (Zora Arkus-Duntov and the fact Ford was moving out of the 2 door sports car market convinced GM to keep the Corvette).

This current round goes undoubtedly to the Corvette.

There was also the Ford the Ford GT-40 that was avalible to the public, but like the current version, was an exotic.

Finally, from 1971 to 1975, Ford had the Pantera (http://www.panteraclub.com/pantera.htm). A mid-engine, 351ci, 2 passenger performance car assembled in Italy and sold here (much like the GTO). It was very quick and handled very well for it's day.

So it can be said that Ford had no competitor to the Corvette for only 30 or so of the Corvette's life.

Corvette has longevity, and is extaordinary sucessful in a market that is extremely difficult (same can be said about Ford's Mustang). It hasn't always been the quickest, fastest, or cheapest, but has been good enough to outlive it's competitors & become part of American Automotive history (again, like Ford's Mustang).

(re-edited)

 

Yup, I know the history of the T-bird. I shoulda said "40+ years."

Isn't it amazing how one relatively insignificant decision at the time, to continue Corvette production, can result in such an ongoing legend?

 

It was only the supercharged 1957 T-birds that posed a real "performance" threat to the Corvette. The original two seater Thunderbirds were always soft boulevardiers, anyway...

In any event, the 1958-1960 "Square-Birds" were hugely successful cars. They sold in big numbers for big prices - something that really served to raise the image of Ford in the early '60s. The '59 Thunderbird also ushered in the era of "Big Block" performance. If only the 430 FE motor had been available with some decently low gearing and a manual OD transmission...

...perhaps 1959 would have been remembered as the start of the musclecar era.

 

that may be but it had the lights from a '60s era Fiat. :P didn't Lambo also sell one of these?

 

It was Robert W. McNamara, future Sec. of Defense under LBJ, who made the decision to add a back seat to the T-bird and thereby ruining the car IMO. Same way he failed miserably in managing the Vietnam war. Poor decision making....

 

I am truely impressed with you guys' knowledge!

And Trivial Persuit question for this hour is...
back in 1959 and 1960, Bob McNamara was also one of the most stauch supporters of killing what ground-breaking new car proposal with revolutionary styling that was to be based off of an "appliance-grade" Ford Falcon for 1963?

Yup, he was against the Mustang. Iacocca "felt him out" in general conversations, and knew he was opposed to the idea. He didn't think "kids" would shell out the $2400 for a new car, so why design a car for kids?
Lee also felt that Henry Ford II and McNamara were "buds", so if Bob got hold of Ford II first, the Mustang would never come to be. Hence, the secretive "Fairlane Committee", meetings in a restaurant, and work behind the scenes and in the dark until Mustang was viable. Once they reached a point where it had to become official and get funded, Lee arranged for a special showing, and to his releif, the boss was receptive to the concept. Iacocca had to add 1" more rear leg room to appease Ford II, and he was told his **** was on the line if it didn't sell.

Bob McNamara ALSO served under Kennedy. He was the first non-Ford family member to be appointed President of FMC. He was appointed 9Nov60, replacing Henry Ford II. 5 weeks after McNamara's appointment, the newly-elected Kennedy offered him the position of Secretary of Defense - he accepted. Also on 9Nov60, Henry Ford II was elected Chief Executive Officer, where he remained until 1Oct79.

You guys know, I find it really fascinating how many big players move around in the big 2.5 automakers - even today. Iacocca, Lutz, Shinoda, Knudsen... and oodles of others - they have all been around. Is it any wonder that the big 2.5 should have "commonalities" between their products?

 

Yep, McNamara was Kennedy's Defense Secretary. However gotta disagree with a couple of assesments of him.

First: He didn't "Ruin" Thunderbird. Ford had just taken a very very serious hit over the Edsel (Which was a new DIVISION, not just a new single model as is popularly believed). Thunderbird could have evolved into a high performance sports car like the Corvette did, but Ford went where the money was & created a whole new class of car in the process.

Ford needed to have a hit, and make up a substantial amount of money. McNamara came up with the "Bigger" Bird, which was a huge success for Ford. He also presided over the start of Ford's new unibody construction development for both the post '60 Thunderbird & the new '63 Lincoln Contental (yep, that big boat was a unibody).

He did shoot down an early "Mustang-like" proposal, but that propasal was simply a sporty V8 Falcon, which did not have a unique body. Falcon remained an economic 6. If Henry Ford III wasn't pestered to death by Iaaccoa and company (who also fudged and actually falsefied studies to cut time) it still wouldn't have been made.

As for McNamara's stint at Defense, Kennedy (and McNamara) didn't trust generals after the Bay of Pigs, and often went around them for info on what was actually going on (if it was up to them, we would have gone nuclear on the Soviet Union from the start. Johnson, on the other hand, was more receptive to listening to generals who wanted more troops. His screw up was he was afraid of antagonizing China & the USSR.

Johnson was a chronic micromanager, so anything that happened after 1963 regarding Defense was more Lyndon Johnson than Robert McNamara.

Outside of Vietnam, LBJ was actually a pretty good (and most certainly entertaing) President.

 

"Ford's likely GT replacement to be shown August 12."

oh no! where is it?? I marked this day on my calendar....

 

*sniff sniff* Man, it stinks in here...

waiting for this mega-super-duper car.

 

While the title of this thread says the 12th, the text of it says 15th...just keep waiting.

 

Good grief. It's not even noon over here yet!

If anything happens today, it won't be till later this afternoon. Relax.

 

I'd love to wait around and see this GT replacement but I gotta run. I see a hurricane coming in the distance!

Later!

 

be safe man, luckily we just kinda caught a glancing blow.... more to come though