1960 Ford Thunderbird: The Square Bird's Best Year

This record's own overview states directly that Byron Olsen gives 92,843 Thunderbirds for 1960, 11,860 of them convertibles, making it the best year of the 1958-60 generation, and that Wikipedia gives the same two figures independently. This record's own dek repeats the 92,843 and 11,860 totals directly and adds that a sliding sunroof hardtop was new for the year while the 430 V-8 remained on the option list into its second and final season.^1,2

This record's own overview also gives John Gunnell's figures for the hardtop, $3,426 and 3,799 pounds, and the convertible, $3,860 and 3,897 pounds, both prices later repeated in this record's own prices section, with the 300-horsepower 352 V-8 standard and Olsen crediting the optional 430 at 350 brake horsepower for 1959-60; the same overview notes a sunroof option new for 1960, which this record's own options section prices at $212 for the sliding roof itself.¹

This record's own production section partitions the 92,843 total into six rows drawn from the Over-Drive Magazine image captions, each row's accounting basis given as "delivered" rather than "built": 74,547 hardtops and 3,900 hardtops with the 352 and 430 respectively, 2,159 sunroof hardtops with the 352 and 377 with the 430, and 10,606 convertibles with the 352 and 1,254 with the 430; this record's own production note calls the sum to 92,843 and to the 11,860 convertible total arithmetic rather than a statement the source itself makes, and flags that the captions use the words "sold" and "delivered."³

This record's own unpublished-leads section holds a separate sunroof-hardtop figure, 2,530 "Golde" cars from Wikipedia, apart from the published count because Wikipedia gives no reference for it; this record's own production notes add that the Over-Drive captions' own 2,159-plus-377 sunroof total comes to 2,536, a different figure from a different lineage than the unreferenced 2,530, and that no source in this record's own citations resolves which count is correct.²

This record's own options section prices the 430 engine at $177, Cruise-O-Matic (standard with the 430) at $242, power steering at $75 and air conditioning at $466; a 70-amp battery came standard on the convertible per this record's own note, and leather interior is priced separately at $106. This record's own paint table carries 18 colours, from Raven Black to Platinum, each with its own single-letter code, all eighteen sourced to the same Body Paint Color Mix Codes list.³

This record's own specifications section gives a 113-inch wheelbase, a 205.3-inch overall length, a 76.9-inch width, a 52.5-inch hardtop height against 53.1 inches for the convertible, 60.0-inch front and 57.0-inch rear track, and 8.00x14 four-ply tubeless tires; a separate rear-axle row gives 3.70 standard with the three-speed manual and an optional 3.10, 3.10 standard with the 352 automatic and an optional 2.91, and 2.91 only with the 430, no optional ratio given for that combination. This record's own conflicts and identification sections are both empty for the year, and its own performance section carries no entries either, leaving the production and options sections as this record's own richest sources for 1960.³

This record's own interiors section carries 19 entries from the Automotive Mileposts interior trim page: six cloth-and-vinyl combinations coded 72 through 77, six all-vinyl combinations coded 52 through 57, four leather combinations coded 84 through 87, and three convertible-top codes, Black rayon, White and Light Blue, all lined black with a black frame. Code 75, Black with Light Gray, is listed in the shop manual per the page while code 76 carries the same colours, and this record's own row keeps both rather than choosing one. The Tan leather of code 84 is the only leather trim the page describes with a contrasting dark-beige instrument panel and carpeting.⁴