A superb and rare photo, made from what we believe is the original negative, taken during the 1957 edition of the famous Daytona Beach Speed Weeks. Shown is the Ford “ Daytona Bird “ Thunderbird racing car. This car was build by the Ford factory, using a stock Thunderbird as a base. The Daytona Bird was crammed with special parts. Most noticeable was the heavily modified engine, which was a super charged and specially build up 312 with Hunt magneto, headers, and Hilborn injectors. The body was made as light as possible. This was achieved with drilled parts and by extensive use of aluminum paneling. The Daytona Thunderbird racing cars also featured Halibrand quick-change rear ends and a sturdy crash roll bar. In 1957 only two Daytona Birds were build. They were build by Ford backed Bill Stroppe and went to DePaulo Engineering in Long Beach, California, USA.
Shown in this gorgeous period image is the number 98 Ford Daytona Bird of Chuck Daigh (seen in the photo on the back with a checkered shirt). The photo was taken during 1957 Daytona Beach Speed Weeks. Incredibly, Daigh recorded during this event with the photographed car a Flying Mile speed of no less then 205 mph (328 km/h)!!
It is a great period Daytona beach shot, also notice the Chevrolet Corvette in the background.
The negative comes from the private automotive collection of one of Europe’s oldest Ford importerships that was in business since 1905. We took over the impressive literature collection from the retired last owner. It consisted of a vast collection of mostly very exclusive automotive literature of Ford and other famous brands in the automotive industry. There are a lot of old negatives, both on celluloid as glass plates, in the files we took over. We consider this material very historic. Interestingly, a part of the collection consists of racing images.
The Ford Thunderbird was originally created to act as a retort to the Chevrolet Corvette. It became available for sale to the public in 1955. That year, exactly 53,166 models were produced, either with Fordomatic or Overdrive transmissions. It featured four-way powered seats and pushbutton interior door handles. As standard, the 1955 Ford Thunderbird included a removable fiberglass top; a fabric convertible top was an option, although commonly specified. The engine was a 292 c.i. Y-block V8. The car had fender skirts. The exhaust pipes exited through twin bumper guards, which are bolted to the rear bumper. Equipped with a V-8 engine, the Thunderbird could accelerate to 110-120 mph. It was also a smaller two-seating "personal luxury car", compared to the wallowing barges that roamed all the roads in the 1950s. It was designed to be a brisk luxury tourer, and not a sports car.
For the 1956 model more trunk space was added, the spare wheel was mounted outside, the exhausts were moved to the ends of the bumper, and air vents were added behind the front wheels to improve cabin ventilation. To improve rear-quarter visibility with the removable hardtop in place, "porthole" windows were made available as a no-cost option. An optional 312 c.i. Y-block V8 was made available for those that wanted more performance. 1956 sales were 15,631, the lowest of all three 2-seater Thunderbird model years.
For 1957, the year of the “Daytona” Thunderbird on the photo that the winner of this auction will receive, a more radical restyle was performed. The front bumper was reshaped, the grille and tailfins were made larger, and larger tail-lights were fitted. The spare wheel moved inside the trunk again, which had been redesigned to allow it to be mounted vertically. The side "Thunderbird" script moved from the fins to the front fenders. The later British Ford Anglia bore an uncanny resemblance to it. The Corsair was heavily influenced by the later "Bullet bird" of 1961-63. As well as the standard 292 and 312 engines, versions of the 312 were produced in higher states of tune, and even a few McCulloch supercharged versions, rated at 300 and 340 hp respectively. 1957 sales were 21,380, including three extra months of production because the 1958 models were late. The 1957 Thunderbird would be the last two-seater Ford ever built and sold to the public until the 1982 Ford EXP sport compact car.
Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, the Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated in June 16, 1903. Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce, especially elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford's combination of highly efficient factories, highly paid workers, and low prices revolutionized manufacturing and came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914.
This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful era of Ford ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way. This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 12" (ca. 20 x 30 cm). It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.
PLEASE NOTE: This is not a digital print (!), but a traditional photograph, which is processed through the traditional photographic process by a professional photo studio. Every negative is fully processed by hand, obtaining the best result possible. As most negatives are very old, several traditional photographic prints of each negative are made. Each has different settings (like varying brightness and contrast). Out of these, the best of the photographic prints is then selected, and shipped to the winner of this auction. This way the best result possible is obtained, and each photograph is absolutely unique and collectable!
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