Can you believe that it was branded as a luxury car with OEM Ford Wheels standard on it? I think it’s still considered some type of luxury car now – even if the last model was 2005. When it was first introduced, it eventually created the market calling that was known as the “personal luxury car”. The name came from stimulating the mythological creature of Indigenous & native people of North America.. so I guess they put a lot of thought into it because they wanted to make the car & Factory Ford Thunderbird Wheels “classic” – mission accomplished. The Thunderbird & OE Ford Thunderbird Wheels had first entered production for the 1955 model year as a sporty two-seat convertible.

It wasn’t put on the market as a sports car like the Chevy Corvette; instead, it was marketed as a “Personal Car”. It was a new market segment from Ford. When it was released again in 1958, it had second row seats! The next few generations kept getting bigger and bigger until they decided to downsize it in 1977, and in 1980, and again in 1983. I guess they can say that sales on the T-bird were good until about the 1990s.

They started making Thunderbirds again in 2002 with Factory 2002 Ford Thunderbird Wheels already on it – but then again, what other wheels would they want to put on it? It made the “2-seater” look good again and this model was available all the way until 2005. Ever since it was first manufactured in 1955 until 2005, Ford had made over 4.4 million models with more than 4.4 million Factory Original Ford Thunderbird Wheels to go along with it. » Read more: Classic T Bird

One of the most recognised and plagiarised car designs in the World, immortalised in films such as The Italian Job, the Mini became an icon of British design during the swinging sixties in London and around the globe. The Mini was the brainchild and end product of a two year research project by the chain-smoking Sir Alec Issigonis for the British Motor Company (BMC) started in 1957 and launched to an astounded public in 1959. The Mini was born out of economic necessity and demonstrated the differences in the mindsets of US and British car owners at the time.

In America, multi-laned freeways were springing up everywhere and the 1950′s was a time of indulgence in classic muscle cars and massive engined saloons. Fuel and economy was not a consideration. However in Europe the mindset and zeitgeist was totally different, with the first two lane UK motorway not opened until 1959. In 1956 petrol rationing had been reintroduced in the UK due to the Suez Crisis. When Egyptian leader General Nasser shut the Suez Canal, Britain’s largest oil supplier of the time, Burmah Oil, which operated out of Persia, had to find alternative and much longer routes.

Demand for sales of small economic to run cars soon outstripped supply and this gap was filled by the famous two seater ‘bubble cars’ and other strange machines of German origin like the gull winged doors on the three wheeled Messerschmitt Kabinenroller (cabinscooter) KR175 and KR200. Against this background, BMC commissioned Issigonis to come up with a world-beating small car to replace its aging Morris Minor, a previously untested idea.

The Mini’s ingenious concept and design meant it offered a staggeringly large amount of interior space for what was essentially a 10 foot long car. The short wheelbase meant the Mini was extremely maneuverable and the car only weighed just 587 kg. When Issigonis set to work he imagined an ultra compact cube to house four passengers, fronted by a space-saving front wheel drive system. However in a flash of genius he positioned the engine transversely across the engine well with the gearbox underneath it, to keep the drive-train super compact and outside his cube, and in doing so he invented the transverse engine. » Read more: Classic Cars – The Mini

In the summer of 1986, Vauxhall acquired the cult British sports car company, Lotus, and the motoring world wondered what on earth the maker of the Viva and Cavalier family saloons was going to do with the high performance car maker. They had to wait three years to find out. Take a normal family saloon car and stick a 3.6 litre Lotus Engine in it and what do you get? The Vauxhall Lotus Carlton which in 1990 became the fastest saloon car in the world capable of speeds up to 176 mph.

Vauxhall Motors had been owned by US automobile giant General Motors (GM) since 1925 and since 1962 when GM acquired German manufacturer Opel, both companies had regularly shared the same designs, engines, components and cars under different badges for their respective markets. The early Carlton’s were modest relations of what was to come. The first Vauxhall Carlton or Omega as it later became known in Europe and the US, was the British version of the Opel Rekord from Germany.

The Mark 1 Carlton was a typical 1.8 or 2.0 litre petrol four door large family car aimed at the middle market to compete with the Ford Cortina and Granada. A spacious and comfortable real wheel drive motor with reasonable performance, it was also available as an estate car. Yet despite many interior design upgrades and a diesel version, sales were not spectacular. The Mark 1 Carlton was mostly built in Germany and assembled at the Vauxhall Luton plant from 1978 until 1986 when it was replaced by the Mark 2, which was to become the basis of the Vauxhall Lotus supercar. The new Carlton was a totally different beast to its predecessor. Designed to take on both Ford and BMW for the British executive saloon market, at the end of its launch year of 1986, the Carlton / Omega range earned itself the industry accolade of European Car of the Year. » Read more: Modern Classic Cars