Lot Ended
Description
Just two owners and 14,274 miles from new; Jaguar 4.0 V8 power;
electric roof; recent service; sparkling condition throughout
The
11th generation Ford Thunderbird came out in 2001 and took many of
its retro styling cues from the original 1955 T-Bird. Under the skin though it
was radically different, sharing its platform with the contemporary Jaguar
S-Type (petrolheads will remember that Ford owned Jaguar from 1999 –
2008).
This gave the new Thunderbird independent double wishbone/coil
spring suspension and a slightly detuned version of the same all-alloy 4.0-liter
DOHC AJ-V8 that powered the Jaguars. With 256bhp on tap and mated to Ford’s
5R55N 5-speed automatic transmission, it could sprint to 60mph in 6.7 seconds
with a top speed of 130mph. It remained in production until 2005, by which time
around 70,000 had been sold, all in LHD.
This
particular Thunderbird was bought new by a Mr TP Cornish of Fareham, Hants, to
join a large collection of American cars. Importing it from the USA, he had it
registered here in February 2002 with his private number plate, T2 TPC, which
remains on the car and is included in the sale.
When Mr Cornish passed away, our vendor, who had previously owned
and enjoyed an identical car while living in California, acquired T2 TPC from
the collection in November 2021. At this point it had still only covered 11,200
miles and was in pristine condition having been used so very lightly and always
stored indoors.
In January 2022 (at 11,926
miles) the car was sent to LMC Auto Services of Pulborough for a very thorough
service which cost £2,070 (invoice on file). Our vendor then drove the car to
his second home in the Algarve and it has remained in those sunny climes ever
since, being kept in a nice dry garage when not in use. Invoices show that in
October 2023 (at 14,180 miles) the car was serviced again while in Portugal.
It was shipped back to the UK in
January this year, the odometer currently showing 14,274
miles.
As you can see in the photos, it remains
in excellent condition with glossy black paintwork, an exceptionally clean dark
grey leather interior and an unmarked black canvas soft-top with a glass (not
plastic) rear window. This operates as it should, folding away behind the
seats at the touch of a button with a hood cover which is manually clipped in
place to keep it looking neat with the top down. An after-market wind deflector
is also fitted to keep your hair looking equally neat!
Starting promptly and running beautifully as we have moved it
around on site, it is currently on SORN and has an MOT until February 2025 with
just a couple of minor advisories for the ball joint dust covers.
Supplied with its original handbooks in the
original wallet and two sets of keys, this T-Bird is a very rare car in the UK
and you will be hard pressed to find another for sale, let alone with such low
mileage. On offer here at a very enticing guide price, it looks like a lot of
fun and will be a great companion on those long European tours that we all dream
of…
For more information contact James on
07970 309907 or email james.dennison@brightwells.com