Hey guys, as some of you may recall October 29th 2012 changed my world forever during Hurricane Sandy. Lost most everything, home, cars, sanity on and on. 3 Years later i am back home, settling in, and found a very nice replacement to my beloved 83 Bird. This is a very interesting car with a very interesting back story. I was recently in touch with the 84 year old original owner and this is the account of this cars history.
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Saturday, October 8, 1983
Race 33 of the 1983 NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series,
event at Charlotte Motor speedway. The story is, 38 Thunderbirds of all model types were rushed off the line to be ready for promotional use for Ford execs and there spouses for the weekend. The idea was to show the cars off to enthusiasts. After the race, local dealerships were to absorb the cars and sell them off as used cars. My car in particular was sent around the track and supposedly burned up a alternator in the process. The towing genius then towed the car back to the local Ford dealer with the car in gear and destroyed the transmission. The car had less than 45 miles on it. The buyer of the car, a very nice southern gentleman paid $12k in cash and drove the car off the lot. I have the dealer invoice showing the car was sold USED with 45 miles on it. There was never a window sticker as the car was never serialized for retail sales, or ordered by customer or dealer. I am trying to verify that this was ordered by Ford Marketing as a promo or exec car. The odd story does not end with the ordering. The options list is very weird. For those that may not know the trim levels for Thunderbird for 1983, you could order a base model and add all kinds of options, a Heritage model, which was usually a very well equipped luxury model and the well known Turbo Coupe. This car is digital dash delete in favor of base model analog, no electric fuel door release, which i have never seen a Heritage without, and no power antenna, which is very odd too. In addition, a car with DSO 22 (North Carolina) is equipped with the only engine block heater from factory i have ever seen on any year Fox Bird. I will post some photos for you all, would love to hear the feedback.
From a proper photo shoot last week.
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