Actually, the changes for 1960 were minimal: mainly, there was a new eight-segment grille up front and six tail lamps out back instead of four. The T-Bird is given the lifestyle-glamour treatment in this 1960 commercial: Note the gated mansion, the jet airliner, the cool jazz soundtrack. Though it wasn’t quite clear at the time, they had essentially invented the personal luxury coupe. (More often, the opposite occurs as demand tapers off.) Clearly, the Ford product planners were onto something with the Squarebirds, as the 1958-1960 ‘Birds are known today. And although this rarely happens in the Motor City, sales of the second-generation Thunderbird actually rose over the three-year product cycle: nearly 38,000 units in 1958 67,000 in ’59, and 93,000 in 1960. In 1960, the Ford Thunderbird was on a third-year facelift of the original four-place T-Bird introduced in 1958. Glamour is the theme in this original two-minute promo for the 1960 Thunderbird, Ford’s personal luxury coupe.

60s ford thunderbird