Heat Two of this year’s Kingstown Shipping & RH Insurance Car of the Year competition was won by a car that may look familiar to Classic American readers: this beautiful black 1962 Ford Thunderbird was featured in the May 2018 (no. 325) issue of Classic American. Owner Kevin Moss bought the car in March 2017 and has done a lot of work to it since, including an interior retrim and getting the electric top (including all the original solenoids,) to work reliably – Although as anyone knows with these cars – which utilise much of the retractable technology pioneered on the ’56-’58 Skyliners – they can be a little temperamental.
The car was originally ordered new by an American serviceman in Germany (hence the speedometer in Kilometres, rather than miles) and is nicely optioned with leather interior, power-windows and –seats, push-button radio and tinted glass. Those Kelsey Hayes wheels were a $373 option, but were added later, as was the fibreglass tonneau. Power comes from Ford’s venerable 300bhp big block FE 390 motor, which is hooked up to a three-speed Cruise-O-Matic automatic transmission. This American cruising at its finest!
