![1963 ford thunderbird sports roadster 1963 ford thunderbird sports roadster](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/2b/c7/772bc74640479ec7fccbf3a783cd8182.jpg)
Exquisitely restored using many NOS parts documented by restoration book and sales invoice copy.One of only 455 Sports Roadsters produced for 1963, of which only 37 received the most powerful M-Code engine finished in factory-correct Rangoon Red over a Pearl Beige interior.A rare final-year third-generation Thunderbird Sports Roadster featuring nearly every available factory option.No matter how it goes we'll keep an eye out for this Thunderbird and update this story as soon as we have a figure. And that can only mean one of two things: it will either be a dud, or make a splash and enter the history books. Worth knowing is that the auction is a no reserve one, meaning the Ford will sell to the highest bidder, no matter the amount of money offered. For reference, valuation house Hagerty puts a Concours condition Thunderbird at around $57,000, but that probably doesn't take into account the particularities of this exact model. There is no info on how much the seller expects to get for the Thunderbird. We're told the Thunderbird Sports Roadster Society also acknowledged this vehicle as a real Sports Roadster, and the Ford build sheet is thrown into the package. It's a highly documented machine, certified by the Vintage Thunderbird Club International as an authentic car. The 1963 M-code Ford Thunderbird will go under the hammer at the end of September in New Orleans. No visual enhancements were made to the car's exterior and interior, so we get the original lines on the outside and the standard appointments inside: leather seats, power windows, tinted glass, power seats, and air conditioning, among others. The engine runs a 3-speed automatic transmission. The original engine is there, complete with the three Holley carbs which helped it develop a total of 340 hp and 430 pounds of torque.
![1963 ford thunderbird sports roadster 1963 ford thunderbird sports roadster](https://img.hmn.com/fit-in/900x506/filters:upscale()/stories/2014/10/1963FordThunderbird_01_1000.jpg)
The Thunderbird seems to pack most of the gear it originally had on. According to Barrett-Jackson, the auction house that's responsible for selling this Thunderbird, just 37 of them were produced in this configuration back then, making it even more special. That meant not many of these things were made. Just to give you an idea, the one you're looking at now had an MSRP of $6,286, which would be $63,209 in today's money. The combination of an M-code engine and the Sports Roadster package was rather expensive, even for a luxury car the likes of the Thunderbird. The engine was of course the only version available at the time, the then-new 390ci unit. The M-code Thunderbird on the other hand meant first and foremost the car used three two-barrel carburetors over the engine instead of a single four-barrel one. It came with several unique features, including wire wheels of Kelsey-Hayes provenance, a removable tonneau cover made in fiberglass, a passenger grab bar and, obviously, all the required badging. The Sports Roadster is one of the packages offered back then by the Blue Oval for the Thunderbird. That's what the 1963 model you see here has to offer: the looks of a third-gen Thunderbird, the bling of it being a Sports Roadster, and the rarity of the letter M in its VIN. Especially when the example is a rare one. My poison is of course the first gen, but the other two aren't shabby either, and my blood gets pumping when I come across representatives of gen two and three as well.
![1963 ford thunderbird sports roadster 1963 ford thunderbird sports roadster](https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3292/2945044189_158bb437d8_b.jpg)
But the first three generations, which cover the period from 1955 to 1963, surely were. It burned through a total of 11 generations and true, not all of them are the pinnacle of Ford's work. The Thunderbird was around for a long time, as it wasn't pulled from production for good until 2005. Introduced in 1955, it completely transformed what people thought of car design before the war, and would probably have no problem winning any beauty contest even today, in the age of hypercars. Of all the cars mentioned above and the many others I left out, the Ford Thunderbird is my personal favorite. And it's all because of the spell they still cast on us thanks to their design, their engineering, and what they meant for the world. Many of these cars are no longer around, but we still come across them almost on a daily basis. It is then that names like the Chevrolet Bel Air, Chevrolet Impala, Plymouth Barracuda, Chevrolet Chevelle, Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, and many, many others were first used. Fueled like everything else by the euphoria of the war's end, and later on by a complete switch in ways of thinking, carmaking enjoyed its best times during these two decades. It's the 1950s and 1960s I'm talking about, two decades that will forever be listed in the industry's history books.