![]() Below is my 1966 Town Hardtop, a car that I dreamed of owning when I was in High School.įirst, I love this example, it is gorgeous, and the owner can be proud. I much prefer the top to be metal vs the Landau’s vinyl and Landau bar. I also missed the interior changes that did away with the bright garnish molding trim and very cool looking aluminum trim on the door panels – both eliminated in the 1966 Town Hardtop. ![]() I did however, miss the chrome treatment of the rear interior air exhaust vents under the rear window (although chrome would have clashed with the Town Hardtop’s roof lines). The top of the roof was also very slightly bubbled on the Town Hardtop, which somehow contrasted and looked nice with the linear body lines. The horizontal Tbird emblem and the long lower chrome strip on the C pillar matched the horizontal body side sculpting lines – especially when the fender skirts were installed. The large C pillar gives the rear seat area a sort of limousine look, but still sporty. ![]() While I really liked the hardtop of 1964, 1965, and 1966, I really liked the Town Hardtop of 1966 and still do. Poor thing it wouldn’t recover until 1983. The effect is to make it look much less exclusive.īrougham Fever’s first symptoms invariable manifest themselves on the roof and C Pillar, and the Thunderbird is no exception. And this one is sporting that same color combo that afflicted 83% of every car coming out of Detroit between 19. It’s hard to think of a more appealing interior the ’63 Riviera comes close, but I have to give the nod to the T Bird.īut back on the outside, that Town Landau just doesn’t cut it. That all changed quickly starting in 1967 ’66 was the last year I could still muster some enthusiasm for the T Bird’s interior. It was still early 60s style, with thin, sporty bucket seats and lots of bright work and space-age influence. That’s ok at least the T Bird hadn’t succumbed to Brougham Fever on the inside yet. Frankly, the Overhead safety Panel was a lot more sizzle than steak, with a quartet of warning lights. The vinyl roof and fake landau bars of the Town Landau worked even less for me.īut I was a sucker for the T Bird’s interior, and had been ever since I first saw a Bullet Bird shortly after arriving in the US in the fall of 1960. Maybe because I was a foreigner, and had natural immunity? It still doesn’t, but then I hadn’t yet come down with Brougham fever. The huge C Pillar and that curve in the trailing upper edge of the door glass just didn’t work for me. I found the new roof style jarring and inharmonious in the fall of 1965 when I first saw it. It sold in very modest numbers then, but there’s more than ever nowadays.įor 1966, Ford offered the new “Town” hardtop as an alternative to the traditional hardtop, which didn’t exactly have much of a rear side window to start with. The previous effort was the Sports Roadster, essentially a fiberglass tonneau cover over the rear seats with built in headrests, available on the previous generation Bullet Bird. So Ford kept placating them in ways to make the Flair Bird look more like a two passenger car, like this 1966 Town Landau. Who needs rear side windows anyway? Despite the fact that switching to a four passenger format in 1958 was the key breakthrough for T Bird sales, Ford knew that many lovers of the ’55-’57 T Birds were never quite resigned to that fact. Brougham fever was virulent in 1966 at Ford, and the results speak for themselves.
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