For Sale: 1955 Ford Thunderbird "Thundersnake" Restomod (427ci V8, 4-speed)
The vehicle you’re looking at is the result of 50 years’ worth of continuous modification and redefinition. To some fans of the early two-seat Thunderbird, it’s the car Carroll Shelby should have built, but didn’t. As a result, it fell to the seller’s late brother to gradually transform this “Early Bird” roadster into the “Thundersnake”, a roaring, road-ripping reinterpretation of the Shelby sports-car theme.
At its most basic, this car projects what a Cobra might have been if Shelby started out with an actual Ford product instead of the AC Ace.
Extensively modified, this Thunderbird now not only reinterprets the fabled 427 Cobra, but with its dual racing windscreens and roll hoops, it also evokes the competition “Battlebirds”. The “Thundersnake” was built by Sweitzer’s Performance Center of Bucyrus, Ohio. Its engine bay bulges with a professionally built Ford big-block V-8. It’s been driven only about 500 miles since its very gradual transformation was completed.
(photo credit: Hemmings Auctions)
