We had just bought the house when this issue came out...
Pretty "bold" or egotistical line...
The Thunderbird launched in 1989 Model Year, I think (so production started in late summer/fall, 1988).
I had a rotation working at the Assembly Plant for the Thunderbird, in Lorraine, Ohio.
Lived in a hotel for 3 months. The hotel was a "resort" near the lake. It had a golf course, restaurant, bar & a bowling alley, among other amenities. For staying there, you got two free drink tickets for every night. In the end, I ended up with a stack of tickets that I had not used!
I did try the bowling alley once.
I didn't golf at the time...
Unfortunately, I ended up in a group doing the quality reporting, on the paperwork side, not the active investigation/resolution side.
So, doing just paperwork was very boring.
The older guys I worked for were nice enough & often we went to lunch at a local bar. The food at the bar was really good, as I recall...
I worked out of a trailer on the plant grounds & occasionally went into the plant to see some of the pre-production builds and the problems that they were having with running the new model on the actual line.
As I recall, things were not going that smoothly, at least initially. I remember seeing assembly issue (stuff just didn't fit or fit poorly or were difficult to install...).
I remember that the rear C-pillar inner trim panel didn't fit well and was kind of loose when installed. It's a large piece of plastic and wasn't designed with any support in the middle of the panel... I think the solution that they landed on at the time was to shoot a self tapping screw through the middle of the panel, directly into the C-pillar inner sheet metal. They used one of those chrome plated screws with a small finish washer so that it wasn't so unattractive...
One thing that I did that was fun on the rotation was to test drive some of the early pre-production cars.
There was a version called the "Super Coupe" with a supercharged V6. It was pretty fast.
The car was not too much fun to drive, mostly because it was very large and heavy, but the supercharged engine was pretty impressive.
That engine in a smaller, lighter car would have been pretty impressive.
One experience I will never forget is being caught in a thunderstorm in the middle of the day on one of these test drives.
I was driving on a rural 2-lane road when the rain hit. It rained so hard that I could barely see the end of the hood, let alone the road!
I was probably going about 25 MPH & I wanted to pull over somewhere until the rain abated.
But, since I couldn't see the road, I didn't know where to stop. I was afraid that I would pull to the right and off the road into a ditch!
Fortunately, the roads were pretty straight in that part of the countryside so I just drove slowly & straight.
I did "pull over" where I guessed that I was off the main road, but wasn't sure.
I was also afraid that someone would drive right into the back of me, if I stopped somewhere...
It was truly nerve racking and frightening!
After a couple of minutes, the rain subsided and lessened to the point that I could start to see. It turned out that I was stopped on a shoulder area next to the road and somehow had found a good place to stop.
Things could have been very bad...
I felt lucky that nothing bad happened.
The subject line of this article by Peter Egan really piqued my interest...
Selling stuff is something I'm uncomfortable with...
I'll read this article. The 1994 Thunderbird is five years after the launch of this model. Wonder how it changed in 5 years...?
I don't remember if I ever drove one of these. I have a vague recollection that I may have but don't have any memories or impressions of the car...
While working for GM, I'm pretty sure I had an Opel Tigra to drive for a day (drove it home & back to work...). My commute was about 55 miles each way at the time so driving it home & back is a pretty good chance to get a feel for a car.
There's a short piece on Bugatti buying Lotus. I know Lotus has had a checkered history of ownership but didn't recall the Bugatti ownership...
The special versions by RUF, AMG & Alpina were and are pretty special...
I think this was the last Prelude before they dropped the model...
I drove a late 1980s Prelude with the four wheel steering, when I worked at Ford.
I was very impressed with the car.
It was fun to drive and just the right size.
I was driving my Honda Civic LX hatchback at the time (5-speed manual). Two things went against the Prelude for me at the time. I wanted the functionality of a wagon-like hatchback, which the Civic had, and the Prelude was significantly more expensive than the Civic at the time...
This and the Milano was the last hurrah for Alfa Romeo before then gave up and left the US market, I think right around the time of this magazine...
A co-worker drives one of these as his main vehicle.
It's kinda built like a tank.
The interior on his has kinda deteriorated. So he has had to replace the sun visors, front seat leather trim, center console leather trim & steering wheel leather trim...
He's also had to replace the head gasket & rebuild some of the front suspension.
I can't recall exactly which year, but in the early 1990s, I went to both the Pebble Beach Concourse and the Monterey Historic Races.
It's the only time I went to the Pebble Beach Concourse.
It was nice to go once but it's too expensive.
The Vintage Races at Laguna Seca, on the other hand, I've been to several times since the early 1990s. It's much more affordable and more dynamic an event. Walking through the open pits is one of the highlights of the event...
The Probe was still in clay design phase when I worked at the Ford Design Center. It was supposed to replace the Mustang.
It's front wheel drive.
I knew the other to Korean-Americans working in the Design Center (I was the only engineer and the other two were Designers/Stylist). I think Richard Chung was the designer given/credited? with the styling on the Probe.
I think the Probe was built on a Mazda platform (may have been the same as the 626 coupe?).
Also, I think it was built at the time in the Mazda plant in Flat Rock, Michigan.
I'll read this short article. $27,500... pretty expensive for 1993...
Cool wagon with turbo engine (222 hp). Wonder if you could have gotten a manual trans with it...
Now Volvo is owned by a Chinese company. In 1993, I would have never imagined such a thing...
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