1957 Ford Thunderbird Greatest Ford Design for the T Bird Ever? on My Car Story with Lou Costabile

hi I'm Lu another episode of my car store were in the western suburbs of Chicago I'm here with George Hansen a little George good to see you today we're gonna have some fun because in my opinion in 1955 56 57 some of the greatest Thunderbirds ever I would say the 57 is possibly the greatest you can tell me what you think about that thought and George he has one so George thanks for being on my car story let me grab the camera how did you end up with a 57 Thunderbird well I've always wanted one I always thought they were such pretty cars even you know when I was a kid I remember a neighbor had one and they just seemed to be so expensive and so out of our reach yeah but now that I'm retired I was able to find this car actually in the northern suburbs it had been completely restored about eight years ago yeah and it's it's a it's the right color as far as I'm concerned it's a such a pretty car I feel honored that I was able to get it let's take a look at our prized attraction and we've got the Sun on it right now George come on back with me wow that is a parade on wheels I mean the 55 was to compete with the Corvettes and such a great job to have the two-seater and then the 56 comes out which is just a little bit not as long as this one is from a length standpoint and then 57 before they had the duel up the headlights in 58 I mean this is the whole Sunday the double scoops the banana the whipped cream I think it's the whole thing George what's the reaction when you're driving this and people see this well I put gas in it last night and three people came up and said would you bring it over and put it in my garage so when they see it they just can't help themselves as the bottom line it gets a lot of looks and a lot of positive comments you know we're gonna we're gonna give people just a little flavor of that today I just want to hit it from every angle and man I'm a fan of Ford's and I'm a fan of the t-birds and I'm a fan of probably a lot of cars but the styling on this one is just so great I think the styling is truly timeless it just looks as good today I think as it did in 57 the 57 s I said to be the most collectible although they did make more 57 production here because they were not that's the exhaust right there that comes out the envelope I'm going to show that back view and the porthole hardtop man just let people just meditate on that for just a second man i sweet George tell me about these these uh these wire wheel rims we have it's a little bit windy today so if you're hearing that noise that's what that is those are Kelsey Hayes wire wheels okay Ashley came out in 1958 okay so they are not originally equipment to the car they didn't have wire hubcaps in 57 but they didn't have the full wire wheel and a lot of the cars that have been restored owners have put the the full Kelsey Hayes wheels on them and it is a Ford wheel but it just wasn't produced in 1517 nice curvature there let me open the door take a look at the interior got a duck your head a little getting in this is the pop off top it's a wonderful spun metal on that they great Thunderbird logo there master glide power steering an interesting thing about the Thunderbird the automatic transmission is a three-speed but in Drive it starts out in second gear is that right when you put in and low it's in the first gear it's a lower gear so if you're gonna do some hot rodding you can put it in low and manually shift it up to to drive but for most of the driving you just put in and drive and it acts like a more like a Powerglide transmission from a Chevy Oh George right I'm going to go on record here and say probably the nicest 57 t-bird I've encountered so if he was read it was restored by a place up in Wisconsin that he has a reputation for restoring well then just show people this this is the original brochure that came with the car too so that people can kind of take that in and give you the details there so you can pause that as need be and that great and that and then it flips on here's the complete backside as well talking about specifications they go down so you can't read those details or stop or ever you may like the video that's pretty cool and then it also opens up here show you all the new let me show you what this looks like here so you can see it from length I'll give you the time to dial in to the details that you may want to try to read there well the combinations the tops assist excetera some of the details there I'm gonna close that wonderful piece of information put that there and let's take a look under the hood giving you a little more time on this one because it's just good now this is the optional engines correct this is an actual engine right i its 312 cubic inches and 247 horsepower it really is pretty spunky I'm surprised with the acceleration again and they did race him back in the day me yeah and overall shot of that front hood just what that looks like when it's up that's cool that's pretty cool George we'll all I'm here let's start her up shall we George is that smooth Oh Bert the car has that I think it's kind of interesting is that you have to put it in neutral to start it camp started in part started in neutral and inputted into park let's take the hood off real quick go see it for a quick ride just around the block right let me put the camera back on the stand momentarily I'm gonna do this momentarily I'm gonna jump in and we're gonna get your ride and your 57 t-bird it's interesting the way you kind of sit over the top of it too it sounds great George I just want to get a little exhaust note there look at that George let's take a quick ride around the block like a great idea okay here we go oh yeah the top off is perfect on this isn't it I mean it's just fantastic what it was meant to be I've written it I've written in a few cars but phew that probably gained this kind of attraction when you're gonna when you're gonna drive it just wanna focus on those gears right there looks great keep it out of the water for obvious reasons yeah it's actually it just just clean underneath it is nicely because like it came from the factory it was I hope people can hear that sound it sounds great a lot of fun to drive well it writes wonderful minutes it's extremely comfortable and once you take the top off I mean it's a little claustrophobic sometimes with the table but I mean once you take that top off it's great oh yeah yeah the top makes a big difference George stay seated I'm gonna have you just uh it's dashboards time this I'm gonna have you let me jump out George a pleasure thanks for being on my car story thank you very much Thanks

Channel: Lou Costabile

Views: 73,797

Keywords: 1957 T Bird, 57 T Bird, 1957 Ford Thunderbird, 57 Ford Thunderbird, 1957 Thunderbird Video, 1957 Ford Thunderbird Video, Video of a 1957 Ford Thunderbird, American Graffiti T Bird, American Graffiti Thunderbird, Greatest Fords, Greatest Ford Designs, 1950s Thunderbird, 1950's Thunderbird, 1957 Ford T Bird, 1957 Ford T-Bird, 57 Ford T-Bird, 57 Ford T Bird, Greatest Ford Thunderbird, Jay Leno's Garage, Jay Lenos Garage, Video, Review, Ford Thunderbird, Ford T Bird, Ride

Id: RjPbDGXUW1s

Length: 13min 3sec (783 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2016