It enjoyed a production run of only three years with just over 68,000 built. It turned out to be, as they say in Texas, all hat, and no cattle. The 3.9-liter V8 only made 252 horsepower (later bumped to 280). The results, despite the somewhat alluring retro styling, was nothing short of a disaster. It was an open car with a removable hardtop sporting a porthole. It was based on a European-developed DEW98 rear-drive chassis developed for the Jaguar S-Type and Lincoln LS. On paper, the 2002 Ford Thunderbird had a lot to offer. Building a car using an existing platform without a clear definition of if it’s a pure performance play after Corvette’s audience or perhaps a new kind of Grand Tourer drips with a bad case of déjà vu. Let’s hope it’s not a rerun of the last Thunderbird. Still, having the Blue Oval offer a sports car alternative to the Corvette that’s not astronomically priced like the GT would be a welcome addition to the automotive landscape.

While the prospect of a front-engine sports car to fill the gap for diehard enthusiasts not wowed by the ‘Vette’s switch to a mid-engine layout is intriguing, the smart money is likely to be bet elsewhere.

New thunderbird ford