Auctions are great places to go looking for and stumble upon incredible vehicles, rare as hen’s teeth and with stories to tell. Take Mecum’s event in May in Indianapolis: there, not one, but two beautiful Ford Thunderbirds are going under the hammer, hoping to enter the car collectors’ circuit for years to come.
We’ve already talked about one of them, a McCullough-supercharged 1957 Thunderbird of which only seven others are believed to exist still. It was put back together by first-generation T-Bird expert Amos Minter, just like the F-Code example we have here today.
F-Code Thunderbirds (a.k.a. F-Bird) take their name from the powertrain, comprising a supercharger slapped on top of the 312ci (5.1-liter) engine, which in turn was tied to a 3-speed automatic transmission. Just under 200 of them were built that year, making them incredibly rare on the market today.
The one you’re looking at here is even more special because it is one of just 53 to come in Raven Black, according to the seller citing info from the Thunderbird Registry. More important, perhaps, is the fact that this particular car once belonged to Jack Roush, as proven by the copy of the title that goes with the vehicle.
Like the other Thunderbird, this one also underwent the Minter restoration process, only in this case, the work ended much closer to the present-day, meaning this year. Since completion, the car was used for just 57 miles, making the correct 300 hp V8 under the hood virtually brand new, in some respects.
The car is considered by Mecum a main attraction of the May sale, but we are not as lucky as to get an estimate of how much the car is expected to fetch. We’ll make sure to come back on this story, though, should it sell for a sum worth talking about.
