Spotlight of the Week 1988 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe

After a rebirth in 1983 with a sleeker body design, the Thunderbird also took on a few new engines one of which seems taboo for the car. During the 1980's Ford was looking to rediscover the idea of the Thunderbird after a failed attempt in the early 1980's. This attempt was to expand it's performance division against the incoming Japanese competitors who were bringing over turbocharged engines that were more efficient and powerful. Enter stage right was Ford's solution known as the Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.

Design:


Exterior:

Known as the aerobird generation the 1988 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe was the last version before a redesign in 1989. On the outside this car distinct in its design. From the shield up front to the long hood and the coupe design it was hard to mistake it for another. Features that are notable include the aero-shield up front and the functional hood scoop that flows air into the inter-cooler.

Photo courtesy of http://www.biocrawler.com/

Interior:

Climbing inside is like stepping back into the 1980's. The best word to describe the interior is plastic. Almost everything in there is plastic some good some bad. The instrument layout is quite nice but when moving over to the center stack that where it looses it. Case in point the print is too small and overall it's too busy with knobs, switches and buttons all over the place. The center arm rest has the window controls, seat controls along with mirror settings some of which are similar to the late Pontiac G8.

Powertrain:
2.3 L OHC 4 cylinder coupled with a turbo and a intercooler outputs 190 hp and 200 lbs of torque. This power was sent to the rear wheels by a 5 speed manual transmission from a Mustang SVO. In the 4 speed automatic variant of this car the output numbers drop to 150 hp because of durability issues.  Other notable items for this car include the automatic ride control suspension between comfort and sport mode and four wheel anti-lock breaks.

Thoughts:

My take on the 1988 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe is a tad bias along the lines that its one of my favorite cars from Ford. That said I do have have some issues with the car and that revolves around the interior. The body is far more futuristic than vehicles of that era and even when you see them on the road they still have a essence with them. The interior on the other hand is classic 80's that tries to be sporty, but misses during the translation between paper and assembly line.

Price:

Then: $17,146

Now: $12,000 - $500 depending on condition

-DK