1984 Ford Thunderbird Turbo vs BMW 633csi Manufacturer Promo
To silence those who doubted that an American manufacturer could beat the Europeans at their own game, Ford brought in Sir Jackie Stewart to demonstrate the handling prowess of the Turbo Coupe. At Laguna Seca, Stewart reportedly beat an established lap record (presumably for production cars below a certain displacement) by some two seconds. Changing to a BMW 633 CSI, Stewart lapped the track some two seconds slower than in the Turbo Coupe, despite “reducing the (BMW’s) tires to shreds” in the words of Thunderbird stylist (and author of Thunderbird: An Odyssey in Automotive Design) William P. Boyer. For the first time in decades, Ford’s Thunderbird had taken steps to reestablish itself as a performance car with luxury aspirations, instead of just a luxury car with a “sporty” theme.
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