Whitewalls!
Great color on a beautiful Thunderbird, but it really needs a set of correct '60s thin whitewalls like those on the Chrysler and Valiant above, and of course some Thunderbird wheel covers. For '61 whitewalls were still a little bigger than the rest of the '60s but not nearly so large as '50s whitewalls, which look terrible on '60s cars.
I always loved those '61-'63 Thunderbirds, ever since I was small. For an American luxury car of the time they are compact although quite heavy. They share a lot with the period Lincoln Continentals - including unibody contruction - and were made in the Lincoln plant in Wixom, Michigan. This helps explain the very high OEM prices that were way above any other Ford badged car and more in line with a nice Buick, back when nice Buicks were bought by people who today would be buying Lexuses. Unfortunately Thunderbirds shared most of their chassis engineering with the big Fords, which means steering and braking aren't nearly as sporty as the car's looks, but the Lincoln connection meant overall build quality was very nice and clearly better than a regular Ford or Mercury.
That Valiant is so nicely proportioned, I really like both that and the corresponding Dart. I'll always remember when I was a kid and a neighbor drove a '63 Dart Sport Coupe. She loved it and was really unhappy when her husband swapped it on an enormous Olds Delta 88. I wonder what the weight difference is between the 271 V8 and slant six? Slant sixes are good engines but super heavy for a compact car, in particular when compared to a Falcon/Comet 144/170 six or Corvair six.
