Does the car have a role in deciding the value of some one? Is the fame of a person depending on his car? Or is it the driver who makes the car famous?
Well, Ford Thunderbird, the American car icon was on roads from the Detroit plant in the US from 1955 to 2005. This car was a response by Ford to the Chevrolet’s Corvette. But it was not sold as a full-blown sports car upon its debut release; instead, Ford launched it as personal luxury car, which widely enjoyed a good reputation among the car lovers in the US.

While at the time of manufacturing this car, Ford thought of many names ranging from “Hep Cat,” “Whizzer,” “Beaver,” “Runabout,” to monikers such as “Detroiter,” “Arcturus,” “Savile,” “Coronado,” and the ever exotic “El Tigre”.”Whizzer” was seriously considered in the initial stages, as the winning model name. But stylist Alden “Gib” Giberson’s suggested “Thunderbird”, the name which was later accepted. This name was chosen from an ultra-exclusive housing tract named “Thunderbird Heights.”

The credit for the name Thunderbird goes to retired GM executive Lewis D. Crusoe, Ford designer Frank Hershey, and Ford chief stylist George Walker. It was the sports car Jaguar XK120 that gave inspiration for the development of thunderbird.

Thunderbird has been considered as an American car icon and has been chosen by many celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller, and Elvis Presley as their favourite. The new generation celebrities like Rosie O Donnell, Halle Berry, John Travolta, and the queen of talk herself, Oprah Winfrey have also chosen this car as their favourite chose.

Thunderbird is available for rent at any sports, exotic, luxury, and classic car rentals and can also be availed through websites. The demand for this car has gone up these years that even tourists who are on visit to America prefer to drive this car on Yankee roads.

On your next visit to the US, don’t forget to experience of driving Thunderbird which is really excellent, elegant and enticing.

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Hot-rodding is something popular among the Yankees. Because of its popularity of this phenomenon among the youths in the New lands, all magazines make it a point to cover it. Glossy print names such as The Rodders Journal, Hot Rod Magazine, Street Rodder, Popular Hot Rodding, and Rod and Custom Magazine feature this staple activity in the American life in full colours.

Apart from print, hot-rodding have gained mileage in the visual media also. Discovery Channel has telecasted many

hot-rod documentaries such as Monster Garage, American Hot Rod, and Overhaulin’. The television shows like My Classic Car and Horsepower TV also had telecasted episodes on hot-rodding.

According to Tom Wolfe in his book “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby,” the fascination for hot-roddding make Americans unique in their tastes and preferences. Even the Beach Boys sang about it in “My Little Deuce Coupe.”

Hot-rodding showed its first signs in the 1930’s in Southern California where people started modifying light cars with big engines and began racing them on the vast and empty lake beds northeast of Los Angeles. The original hot rods were old cars that were converted weightless with improved aerodynamics. The post World War II period witnessed many abandoned small airports across the country, which became venues for hot rodders to race on marked courses. World War II played its role in making the sports popular in California where a lot of returning soldiers had been given technical training in modification of cars.

It was the popularity of hot rodding that made 1932 Ford Roadster a big hit in the automobile industry. This car came with a very affordable engine, the V8, which made a nation that was obsessed with speed.

Many muscle cars like Plymouth Roadrunner and the Pontiac GTO were brought out into the automobile market by Ford with in a few years. In January 2007, hod rod culture celebrated its 75th anniversary by releasing The 75 Most Influential “1932 Ford Hot Rods”. Anyone who has a craze for hot rodding cannot shut their eyes towards Ford Roadster. If you wanted to be an American in America, you have to drive this elegant model from the Detroit motor giant. No doubt in that.

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