Distracted driving’s granddaddy: the 1967 Ford Thunderbird Apollo
Long before Ford partnered with Eddie Bauer to sell upscale Explorers, and before Abercrombie & Fitch became the official clothing store of prep schools and frat houses across the country, the two companies got together to produce and market one of the most gadget-laden Thunderbirds ever conceived.
“I enjoy it, even though I’m a Chevy guy,” said Gene Martini of Denver, Pennsylvania, who brought his unrestored 74,000-mile one-of-five 1967 Ford Thunderbird Apollo to the Saturday car show at this year’s AACA meet at Hershey. “It’s unique.”
The Thunderbird Apollo’s story, some claim, started in 1966, when Chrysler displayed at that year’s New York Auto Show the Imperial Mobile Executive show car, an Imperial Crown Coupe two-door hardtop fitted with leather upholstery, walnut wood trim, a front passenger bucket seat that swiveled 180 degrees, a small desktop that flipped up, a typewriter, a couple of telephones, a dictating machine, reading lamps and even a television. A year later, the Mobile Executive would become a $600 Imperial option, one that included the swiveling front seat, flip-up table, and reading lamp, but not the phones, typewriter, or television.
Gene believes the idea for a Thunderbird version of the Mobile Executive came from officials at Abercrombie & Fitch, at the time a sporting goods outfitter with five flagship stores across the country—in Miami, West Palm Beach, Chicago, San Francisco and New York. Perhaps Abercrombie & Fitch, which had arranged with John Fitch to display the Fitch Phoenix at its New York store and take orders for it at other stores in 1966, had sought a substitute for the Phoenix when John Fitch canceled that project. Or perhaps officials there simply felt an uber-luxury automobile fit in with their demographics.
Whatever the case, Ford agreed and sent five Thunderbird hardtops with special blue metallic paint down the Wixom assembly line—four Q-code 428-powered cars and one Z-code 390-powered car—and loaded them with just about every available Thunderbird option. Ford then shipped all five over to Andy Hotten at Dearborn Steel Tubing—the same company responsible for the Ford Thunderbolts and many other special Ford projects—for conversion into Apollos. The process included cutting holes for electric sunroofs, transforming them into Landaus with blue vinyl roofs, and then loading them up with a whole smorgasbord of extras: blue leather upholstery, foldaway desks in the front seat backs, a footrest in the reclining (but not swiveling) front passenger seat, a Philco television set, a radio telephone that necessitated an aerial mounted to the trunk, and reading lamps.
Of the five, only four made it to their original destinations; the one slated for the San Francisco store was destroyed en route. The rest then went on display in their respective stores for the 1967 holiday shopping season and were sold off—at a cost of about $15,000—around the end of the year.
The Chicago car, the only one of the five with the 390 V-8, went to a Mr. Polsinelli. Then, in 1989, it showed up with a relatively recent repaint at the Kruse Auburn auction, where Gene’s brother-in-law bought it for $5,800. He ended up parking it, and for another 10 years it sat largely unused until Gene asked about it and was told he could have it if he got it running and out of the garage it inhabited. Despite his Bowtie loyalties, he took on the challenge just because it was such an unusual car.
Nowadays, he’ll point out a few flaws on the car—the special gold anodized badges and Thunderbird scripts have dulled over time, but he can’t remove them without removing the special sunroof-accommodating headliner, and so he’s leaving them as is for fear of making the car any worse—but notes that all of the add-ons still work, or at least they would if the television broadcasters still put out analog signals. For his first AACA show, he earned a Junior with the Thunderbird.
As for the other Apollos, Gene said that both Florida cars have been accounted for, and the New York car has reportedly surfaced, but has yet to be confirmed. That’s a pretty good survival rate for a bunch of cars loaded with potentially distracting gadgets and gizmos.
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26 Responses to “Distracted driving’s granddaddy: the 1967 Ford Thunderbird Apollo”
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I must really be an oldster, I still think of Aberchrombie & Fitch as a gun store. During WWII, my grandfather bought one of the Mannlicher-Schoenauers that they were clearing out. They took him to the roof (Park Avenue) to let him test fire into barrels of sand. Can you imagine today? Heliocopters, SWAt teams?
The Chrysler Imperial with the Mobile Office option brings about the same $5,800, though they are hardly ever seen for sale in decent condition. 67-71 Thunderbirds are about as inexpensive a hobby car (that is useful and pleasant to drive) as any old car I can think of.
The money that will buy a 70-72 Monte-Carlo with a vinyl bench seat and 350 will be enough to grab one of these T-Birds (without the designer-festoonments) but with a 390, 428, or 429, C6, A/C, funky sequential tail lights, leather, and plenty of personal luxury coolness.
These are on my list of top 5 old car bargains (along with the 25,000 mile 66 Imperial I walked away from at Hershey that I found out this morning sold for $11,000. I’d have paid that!!
Danny Plotkin
This vintage of T-bird has my all time favorite interior; the wrap around rear seat is brilliant.
And the famous “across the border” full-width taillights. An aunt and uncle of mine had a triple green ’70 T-Bird 2-door hardtop (the generation with the “beak”), the 429, and the later mag-style wheelcovers. I loved that car, with the taillights, the wrap-around seats, the ultra-deep trunk (the gas tank sits over the rear axle), and the command center inside (warning lights for door ajar, low fuel, etc.) They must have thought it something special, since they traded in a ’68 Imperial Crown Coupe.
This is a very cool car. It looks like it came straight out of one of the Mat Helm movies – I can envision Dino in a turtleneck sweater, with a highball glass, sitting in the back seat, talking to ICE. I particularly like the custom leather seating. It looks very comfortable.
By the way, the guy pictured on the brochure in the Norelco shaver kit looks a heck of a lot like Mr. Spock, sans pointy ears.
I thought the same thing when I saw the shaver box…Nimoy used to drive around in a 65 Buick Riviera G.S their is a promo photo of him leaning on the car in the back lot of Deslu while filiming Star Trek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6MkESn1v1w
I have seen that photo and unfortunately the car has a damaged front end too!
Vulcans are sloppy drivers.
Live long and prosper! or is it? – May the Force be with you…
LOL
crash
What a cool car looking for Agent 99 to pull up in one of those saying have you seem MAX…..I have a 66 T-Bird Convertibile with the roadster package wire wheel set up the change over from 66 to 67 was light years the 67 was much more refined car for the money the biggest problem in the 67 was the HVAC systems and electrical it took a while for Ford to correct the problems eventully they did with outside help but by then the car went into the 1968 and Half Lincoln Mark III mode along with a 4 door version never looked right even in a strectch version I once saw.
I have always liked these; Aunt Helen had a 71 4 door (suicide back doors) that I coveted after she passed but some other relative grabbed it first!
I’ve never seen this model before. A Thunderbird?!.. Kidding, I mean, the Apollo version with the TV and lights and absolutely zero rear seat legroom for the executive that will supposedly be riding back there crunched up with no head or legroom.. That is super cool and it seems like it would have a crowd around it at any car show. An unrelated observation, why does it always seem to rain at car shows (other than Saratoga Springs)? I guess they can’t all be held in Tucson.
It wouldn’t be Hershey without wind, rain, snow, a hurricane, or some combination of all of the above.
Ha! Who knew that so much good chocolate could be made in such a turbulent area.
So every time you hit the brakes the phone goes flying off the hook?
You are right Daniel. At least now when the bad weather hits, you are not standing in knee deep mud! Although the paving has improved the overall experience, the event has lost some of its charm.
The front center console looks like it was made in a high school shop class.
My Grandpa was a Ford guy, and when the 1968 T Birds came out, he immediately went out and bought a GTO with all the suspension goodies and 3.90 posi. T-Birds died a horrible death with these boats.
Actually what interests me most is the Kaiser Darrin parked next to the Apollo!Have always admired them.
Hershey is NOT good chocolate! The T-Bird is unusual, but only a midget could function in the back seat, needs more leg room to be useful. If any readers want good to great chocolate, try Canada, the U.K., or a country in Europe where it’s made right. American chocolate is inferior due to profit margins of the manufacturers.
And good luck dialing that phone while driving, unless they offered the then-cool punched card dialer, which used plastic punch cards.
But then, that’s what secretaries were for, right?
I had a ’66 T-Bird with a 390. These cars were great cruisers. The ride was impeccably smooth at speed. I never cared for the later ’67 and on styling, though. For me, the ’64-’66 models were the cool ones. And the ’66 ‘Bird was a babe magnet. Dean Martin, the epitome of cool, drove one of these in the Matt Helm detective series. On the downside, this vintage of T-Birds was cursed with too much shaky new technology, such as Ford’s first try at disc brakes (awful, they only lasted 10K), and power windows that stuck in the down position during sub-freezing winters in the Midwest. Oh, and did I mention the brake system that lost all its fluid one day? Fortunately, I was able to drive to a garage using the hand brake. I like the styling, but I wouldn’t want to own one of these again– I couldn’t afford the repair bills.
Put pointed ears on the model pictured in the shaver case and he’d look like Mr. Spock. Well, what would be more appropriate than a Vulcan in a car called the Apollo.
[I wonder if one of these transported Apollo Creed to his championship loss to Rocky Balboa in Rocky II…LOL.]
Side note: GM must have liked the name too since they used it on Buick’s [a.k.a. Chevy Nova] 1973 – 1975 Apollo. Although…Buick’s Apollo shouldn’t even be allowed to park in the same lot as the T-Bird.
Gene is a member of the International Thunderbird Club. Look for his Apollo to be featured at the Carlisle, All Ford Nationals next June for the 60th Anniversary of the Thunderbird.