One lingering question I have about Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen’s short tenure as Ford Motor Company president is what influence he had on the 1972 Ford Thunderbird’s design.
Jim and Cheryl Ferrell (2022) have written that Knudsen was heavily involved with the 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV (go here for our story). The T-Bird was based on the same body, and presumably was developed on a similar timeline. So if Knudsen’s preferred Mark IV design was approved for production before he was fired, then one might logically assume that this would have likely happened with the T-Bird as well.
Was the death of ‘Bunkie’s beak’ by suicide?
If the 1972 redesign of the Thunderbird had Knudsen’s blessing, that reflected a major retreat from its predecessor, which had a dramatically protruding nose. According to Jim and Cheryl Ferrell (2014), he had sent the 1970 redesign into production without first clearing it with CEO Henry Ford II.
If this is all accurate, then that raises the question: Why would Knudsen allow the nose on the 1972 Thunderbird to be considerably toned down? He was fired on Sept. 11, 1969 (Wikipedia, 2022). That was at the beginning of the 1970 model year, so it was still unknown how the market would respond to the car’s styling.
Also see ‘1958-76 Thunderbird: The rise and fall of the Ford that shook up GM’
Richard Langworth (1986) wrote that the 1972 Thunderbird’s design resulted from decisions made soon after Lee Iacocca replaced Knudsen as Ford president. This makes logical sense except that it doesn’t appear to align with the timeline presented by Jim and Cheryl Ferrell (2022). In addition, I am skeptical about Langworth’s version of events because his discussion of the 1972 Mark IV’s development did not mention Knudsen’s role.
1972 Thunderbird looks similar to the Mark IV
Even more significantly, the 1972 Thunderbird’s overall styling was similar to the Mark IV’s. That was a big change from the past, when the T-Bird and Mark III looked admirably different despite sharing the same body.
Although the 1972 Thunderbird had unique sheetmetal, at first glance it didn’t look like it. The car’s side crease was similar to the Mark IV’s, as was the butter-knife front fenders, which jutted out beyond the headlight area and housed wrap-around turn signals.
In addition, little effort was made to differentiate the Thunderbird’s C-pillars aside from slightly smaller rear-quarter windows and the continued use of fake landau bars.
Meanwhile, Bunkie’s beak was flattened into a narrow radiator grille with horizontal bars that evoked the 1970 Lincoln Continental. Exposed headlights were housed in auxiliary grilles that looked surprisingly bland for a luxury car.
Was the Thunderbird a victim of the brougham look?
The 1972 Thunderbird was arguably the most generic-looking car in that legendary nameplate’s history. Previously, the T-Bird had functioned as a halo car with trend-setting design, which to some degree trickled down to cheaper Fords.
Also see ‘Late-1960s Ford car design film shows US automakers losing it‘
One theory for why the Thunderbird looked so anonymous is that it was a casualty of the Ford Motor Company’s wholesale embrace of the brougham look. There are only so many ways you can vary the same basic design.
Thunderbird designers may have been further boxed in because the car was now full sized, which made it harder to avoid a bloated, latter-day Elvis appearance. In addition, the T-Bird’s target market was narrower than in the past — Ford offered a number of luxury coupes which were smaller and had somewhat more “expressive” personalities.
For example, the mid-sized Mercury Montego MX Brougham arguably had more of a kinship with previous T-Birds than did the new 1972 models. The Montego was smaller and had more expressive styling.
Was Ford more interested in selling Mark IVs?
The 1972 Thunderbird didn’t just look like a decontented Mark IV — it lost its unique four-door body style and was lengthened to fit on the same 120-inch wheelbase as its Lincoln sibling. Langworth (1986) wrote that a goal was to increase the T-Bird’s profitability by sharing more parts.
Also see ‘Ford did better than Chrysler in differentiating its 1970s mid-sized coupes’
That may very well have been true, but I also wonder whether Ford reduced the Thunderbird’s distinctiveness in order to shift attention to the higher-profit Mark IV. If that was indeed a goal, it eventually worked — Mark IV output almost matched the T-Bird’s in 1974 and surpassed it the following two years.
The Thunderbird’s flagging sales brought Ford to move the nameplate downmarket in 1977 to compete against the mid-sized Chevrolet Monte Carlo. That was arguably where it should have been placed back in 1972.
So how much did Knudsen influence the 1972 Thunderbird’s turn toward generic brougham? I haven’t seen much discussion about this in the auto history literature I have access to. So dear readers, what do you know?
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Ferrell, Jim and Cheryl; 2014. “Eugene Bordinat Jr.: Durable Design Executive.” Collectible Automobile. October: pp. 76-83.
- ——-; 2022. “The Continental Mark IV—A Contest Of Wills.” Dean’s Garage. Posted June 29.
- Langworth, Richard; 1986. The Complete History of Ford Motor Company. Beekman House.
- Wikipedia; 2022. “Semon Knudsen.” Page last modified Feb. 28.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcaradvertising.com: Ford Thunderbird (1968); Lincoln Continental Mark III (1971)
- oldcarbrochures.org: Ford LTD (1972); Ford Thunderbird (1970, 1972, 1973, 1977); Lincoln Continental and Mark IV (1972); Mercury Montego (1972); Pontiac Grand Prix (1970)
I only have a few connections to people whom worked for Ford, as I grew up in a G.M. family. My only thoughts come from the books I have read about Ford and about H.F.II. I have tremendous respect for Semon E. Knudsen. From Allisons to Pontiac to Chevrolet to G.M. Corporate, he would have made a great president of G.M., but Ed Cole got the job. Perhaps DeLorean’s proposal for reasonable downsizing of the G.M. full-size and intermediates after 1971 and 1973 respectively would have made a difference under a Knudsen-led car and truck regime. Then too, the G.M. board might have over-ruled him.
I get the sense that Knudsen had a vision for Ford’s cars, but I do not know how much input Bunkie had on the trucks; however, I do know know what vision Iacocca had for Ford’s cars. The Iacocca-approved Lincoln Mark IV was too stylized. Ford’s cars after 1972 were getting more massive in appearance (after the Lincoln and the Mercury), which trickled down into the intermediate Fords and Mercurys. I get the sense that the Ford vision for the future was pretty much on hold, which may have been why H.F.II grew dissatisfied with Lee. Does anybody know for certain when the idea hit Ford that they had to down-size their full-size cars ? The Ford Fairmont / Futura and Mercury Zephyr were the right cars, but should have been the replacements for the Maverick and Comet, with the Granada and Monarch the next step up as intermediates. As someone who bought cars in the 1970s, Ford’s marketing strategy was fuzzy to me, which again if true, one has to blame Iacocca and his product planners. The best example was the Ford Elite. To my mind, all it did was undermine the low-end of the Thunderbird market. In the end (or the front), the 1972 Thunderbird front end revision was to erase Bunkie’s influence from the Ford. While I did not necessary like the front end of the 1970 – 1971 Thunderbird, it was exciting and make the car stand out, like the Pontiacs of the 1960s. My wife’s aunt and uncle absolutely loved their four-door black over white 1970 Thunderbird and drove it until they passed away. The car embodied everything that I associate with a personal luxury car for its time. I later drove a colleague’s 1973 Thunderbird coupe. To my eyes and feel, it was a big step down from my experience with my in-laws 1970 Thunderbird four-door.
The 1972 T-Bird was a definitely a step backward and Ford’s luxury halo car forever lost its “unique in all the world” appeal after this as the corporate decision to take it downmarket left it as an afterthought. The resurrected 2-seat T-Bird did little to nothing to restore the T-Bird’s lustre. As for who influenced the design of the 1972 T-Bird, it seems that whoever was in charge failed to see or care about the Thunderbird mystique. Like many Ford products, Thunderbird was left to wither until eventually it died as a result of corporate indifference.
Dean’s Garage has some good information about the Mark IV design development and the politics of Knudsen vs Iacocca/Bordinat on this program. Knudsen was able to get his selection into production development prior to his ousting. The finalization of details could have continued post Bunkie depending on the dates. Since the Thunderbird was based upon the Mark IV it would logically mean that Knudsen was instrumental in its basic design approval but, again depending upon exact dates, the detailing could have been after his departure. Could that include the nose cap? Could that include the grill textures and trim surrounds – at least a chance of that. The Thunderbird side of the topic is not addressed on Dean’s Garage.