Thursday 13th February 1958

The first four-seater Ford Thunderbird was introduced. The four-passenger “square bird” converted the top-of-the-line Ford from a sports car to a luxury car. The new four-seater packed a 5.7 litre 300 hp V8. Thirty-eight thousand cars were initially sold, making the T-Bird one of only two American cars to increase sales between 1957 and 1958. The T-Bird has become a symbol of 1950s American culture, immortalised in movies like Grease and pop songs like the Beach Boys’ “I Get Around.”