Hobby Car (Part 1): Wherein I Begin To Shop

I won’t bother you, dear reader, with excessive detail but life has been a bit challenging for the past year or so. One outcome of that has been a small inheritance in the form of a small payout from my mother’s life insurance policy. Although other options were considered I’ve more or less settled on buying something that has been missing from my life for a long time. Specifically, I’m now shopping for a (cheap) fun old car.

Now it’s fair to say that my automotive interests run pretty wide in the sense that everything from the early brass era to brand new electric vehicles interest me. I can see myself owning a ‘34 Chrysler Airflow, a ‘57 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser, a ‘64 VW Type 34 Karmann Ghia, or an ‘85 Subaru XT, all pretty much equally. We need to narrow things down a bit.

First off, budget. Roughly speaking I’m looking at mid to high (US dollar) four digits. That range is bounded at the low end by the desired to have something reasonably nice I can immediately start driving. I’m not looking for a total restoration project. And I’m bounded at the high end by what I’m willing to spend.

Second, mission. Aside from the usual Cars & Coffee, “Let’s take the fun car to dinner,” and occasional weekend fun drive, I’m looking for something I can enjoy in semi-regular daily use. In other words, I want a car I can enjoy driving to work or the grocery when the mood strikes. The other major mission is something suitable and fun for long distance trips, a poor man’s grand tourer, so to speak. Wrapping that up it needs to be sporty but comfortable and reasonably reliable. My life just doesn’t have room for a pure toy at the moment. This pretty much eliminates a lot of older stuff. A SAAB 96 is fun but it’s probably not the car I’d choose for a fast multi-day drive to California or whatever. Plus, my personal long term plan is to transition to a daily use EV sometime in the next five years or so and having a good combustion car for long road trips would make that a little easier.

Third, physical characteristics. I’ve spent the past decade or more driving front wheel drive automatics and that’s fine for the regular commute but I’m ready to go back to rear wheel drive with a manual transmission. That eliminates things a few otherwise nice things like a Honda CRX Si.

Finally, I really enjoyed attending a recent Radwood car show and I’ve really warmed to the idea of owning something appropriate for showing. I’m old enough to remember that era and seeing those cars brought back so many memories. Plus, they’re modern enough to cope with the kind of usage I have in mind but old enough to still be affordable. (FOR NOW.) Plus, I’ve always been a sucker for silly digital dashboards.

The first candidate up was the Corvette C4, namely the early (1984-89) version with the digital instrument panel. The car is just so pure 1980’s chic. I found a really good candidate near me in the form of a 1988 35th Anniversary Edition with rare manual transmission. In case you’re unfamiliar, these cars are all super white. White paint, white seats, white door panels, even a white STEERING WHEEL. This one was also very well equipped with pretty much every option including two roof panels (one black, one clear tinted blue). The price was (barely) within my range and the car was only a couple hundred miles away so I got in touch with the seller and headed out to take a look.

I’m not going to say the ad was misleading, but the car definitely came off as less ideal in person. The solid painted top was missing, the stereo didn’t work right, some of the power seat stuff didn’t work, the door panels and sun visors needed replacement, the (loud!) aftermarket exhaust needed to be put back to stock, rubber for the removable top needed replacement, and the seats themselves needed, at a minimum, a really deep cleaning if not new covers. One wheel had too-many-balancing-weights syndrome and the owner said the car vibrates at 80 mph or so. That said, the car appeared to be mechanically sound. I started adding up what the car needed and it didn’t take long to get to 50% of the purchase price and that just became too much for me, especially since the seller seemed unwilling to move much on the price. The car came across as a good project but not a good driver, and that’s just not what I’m after right now so I said “Thanks for your time but no thanks.”

I’m still open to the idea of a good C4 but I suspect the ones I want are all going to be more like $12k or $15k and that’s too much for me right now. So I’m looking in a slightly different direction towards Ford.

I should mention at this point that my mother, who is more or less funding this, spent many years working for Ford’s aerospace division. For my entire life she always drove Ford cars and was able to buy them at an employee discount price. In my formative years she drove an early Fox-body Mustang hatchback. It was 4-cylinder automatic, and it wasn’t fast, but it looked nice. So letting her buy me a Ford feels appropriate in a way.

My current thinking is bit less sporty and more GT than a Corvette; I’m looking for a 1987-88 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. For those who might not be versed in the esoterica of three decade old domestics, Ford had introduced a totally redesigned Thunderbird in 1983 with what today appears to be very upright styling but at the time it appeared almost shockingly aerodynamic. This generation came to be known as the “Aerobirds” and it set Ford’s styling direction for years. Like the Mustang and just about everything else Ford was making at the time, the car uses the Fox platform. The Turbo Coupe was the high performance trim with a 150 hp turbocharged inline four.

By the time the 1987 model year came around Ford was working on a totally new Thunderbird but it wasn’t going to be ready until 1989, so the car got a two-year refresh. The Turbo Coupe got an air-to-air intercooler with matching NACA duct hood inlets yielding 190 hp, very similar to the Mustang SVO. Other upgrades included suspension with electronically adjustable damping, octane-specific ignition and maximum boost, and a beak-like nose with unique wheels. If you picked the automatic transmission the power was backed off to 150 hp, so go for the 5-speed manual.

All this is slightly ironic considering how, back in the 1950s, rumors about the upcoming Corvette inspired the creation of the Thunderbird and then, when the Corvette was barely selling, the Thunderbird’s success kept the Corvette in production. I have a soft spot for the nearly vanished Personal Luxury Coupe or GT car, so here we are.

How you feel about this depends a lot on the way you think about cars. For a lot of people the Thunderbird is just a fat Mustang, so why would you want one? If you’re more of a GT person the car is (period) fast, handles well (considering), and is extremely comfortable. I knew a person who owned one back in the day and I really enjoyed riding in it. I appreciate the styling in a 1980s way. The follow-on Thunderbird SC (Super Coupe) is faster but also a bit more bland, a bit more 1990s. It doesn’t resonate with me in the same way.

These cars are pretty thin on the ground, especially good ones in the right color with the right options, but they exist and I’m keeping an eye on craigslist, eBay, Hemmings, and so on. Stand by for part two of this little adventure.