86' SVO 1C # 17 of 3379 86's #6475 of 9837
86' SVO 1C #497 of 3379 86's #6955 of 9837
84' GT Turbo #4 of 3241 GT Turbo HB's #560 of 3935
87' Thunderbird TC 1 of 10
http://www.foureyedpride.com/content...e-of-the-Month
Gateway Classic Cars = Megabucks
Mike
My '78 Fairmont build - http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...539-78-Big-Red
Nice but not 28K nice.
Scotty
1985 Fox Notch 4-banger Ranger tube header Eastwood Royal Blue
1988 Fox LX 5.0 AOD Vert BBK 170mph speedo Candy Apple Red
1999 Mustang Coupe V6 Auto Chrome Yellow -Daily Driver.
Past Pony's.....
68 Coupe Inline-6 3-Speed-Man. Primer
78 II Hatch 302 3-Speed-Auto Sunroof Black
81 4-Eye Coupe 4-Banger 4-Speed-Man. White
My best friend a few years younger than had one of these. His parent bought him one as a graduation present in 1987. His car color was the Lt. Blue-Silver color, and had all of the same options as this car shows. From a dead stop, these cars were OK, but nothing like a 2.3 SVO Mustang 5 speed. Their real talent was in handing. I recall both of us driving that car,pushing the envelope on roads with twists, hair pins, and poor surface conditions, I wouldn't dare attempt today. The '88 'Bird with the sticky Goodyears and Active Suspension handle like they are on rails. As for ride quality, I recall these cars were very comfortable with "Firm Ride" switched off. Switched on, if you went over one of those hills where stomach arrives after you are well over the other side, the car wouldn't bounce dive or dip. Touchdown, dig in and go. The 5 speed and rear gears were matched and worked well with the Turbo 2.3.
IMO, the 88 Turbo Coupe is best looking, best handling, best looking mostall around fun of all the Thunderbirds. Mom bought a '94 Thunderbird SC new with the supercharged 3.8. I never had a chance to place both cars nose to nose, but her SC Thunderbird felt slower seat of pants than the Turbo Coupe with the 2.3 turbo. It didn't handle near as well either. My buddy messed around with the engine after the warranty expired, modifying the wastegate to increase boost, the studding the block, head work, injectors,computer flash exhaust, etc. The result was car that could have been, had Ford been building the same car today. Straight line performance, awesome handling, while riding in AC comfort, every option at hand. A win-win.
Seeing this car brings back great memories, but the asking price is not so great. Even if I was looking for a car like it, and was wealthy, I would never pay that much, even if the car had 0 miles on it. Where these dealers come up with these prices, and who they find to pay them is beyond me.
Gateway has the vehicles, at least the ones that I have inquired about, on consignment. Higher price equals higher commission, capitalism. They price the vehicle way over market to see if anyone will bite, they do have a little bit of flexibility. If no one bites, over time the price will slowly and I do mean slowly start to come down. They have excellent pictures and detail the vehicles nicely. Not much seems to sell but they sure do have tons of vehicles they are marketing, they cover up ebay big time.
I had one of these and loved it. When it was new it was cutting-edge everything. Turbocharged, fuel injection-most cars then still had carburetors- and it was real fuel injection, not throttle body, 16-inch wheels, selectable handling, anti-lock brakes, electric fans, automatic headlights with auto dim, climate control ( that worked well) Nowdays, that describes every car on the road, but back then is was all new. It was good at a lot of things. It handled like a sports car, had all the creature comforts to be a luxury car and got good enough mileage to be an economy car. Kind of a dog off the start but ran well once it was wound up. Would cruise down the highway, 80-mph was the sweet spot, and would get 45-mpg. The quality on my '88 was much better than my friend's '86 SVO too. I bought it new in '88 and drove it until I sold it last May. Very dependable but many key items went 100% obsolete. It would have been tough to keep as an everyday driver. There is a website similar to FEP for just turbo coupes with tons of info like this site. NATO. North American Thunderbird Organization if anyone is interested.
Jason Smith
MCA #65481
'82 Capri RS Resto-Mod
'88 #400 Saleen Coupe "Mean Machine" Legal Guardian
'93 LX Yellow/Black Summer Feature - 2,800 Mile Original Survivor (Foxtoberfest 2019 Best Original 87-93)
'05 S-281 Mineral Grey
From what I have seen some of the cars they have are not even really all that nice yet fairly pricey.....though this T-Bird is a really nice one!
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