1995 Ford Thunderbird Hooters Nascar 20th Anniversary Alan Kulwicki

The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the 'Strictly Stock Division', and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the 'Grand National Division.' In 1971, when the series began leasing its naming rights to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, it was referred to as the 'NASCAR Winston Cup Series' (1971–2003). A similar deal was made with Nextel in 2003, and it became the 'NASCAR Nextel Cup Series' (2004–2007). Sprint acquired Nextel in 2005, and in 2008 the series was renamed the 'NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' (2008–2016). In December 2016, it was announced that Monster Energy would become the new title sponsor, and the series was renamed the 'Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series' (2017–2019). In 2019, NASCAR rejected Monster's offer to extend the current naming rights deal beyond the end of the season. NASCAR subsequently announced its move to a new tiered sponsorship model beginning with the 2020 season similar to other US based professional sports leagues, where it was simply known as the 'NASCAR Cup Series', with the sponsors of the series being called Premier Partners. The four Premier Partners are Busch Beer, Coca-Cola, GEICO, and Xfinity.

Alan Dennis Kulwicki, más conocido como Alan Kulwicki (Greenfield, Wisconsin, 14 de diciembre de 1954-Blountville, Tennessee, 1 de abril de 1993), fue un piloto de automovilismo de velocidad estadounidense, que se destacó en los stock cars.

Kulwicki comenzó su carrera a los trece años como corredor de karting. Luego corrió en varias pistas cortas de tierra de Wisconsin, y en la ASA.

Participó en la NASCAR Busch Series corriendo cuatro carreras en 1984 y dos en 1985, logrando 2 top 5. Debutó en 1985 en la Copa NASCAR, y al año siguiente se convirtió en piloto regular de la categoría. Resultó campeón en 1992, octavo en 1990 y fue premiado como Novato del Año en 1986. En total, cosechó 5 victorias y 38 top 5 en la categoría.

Durante toda su carrera corrió para la marca Ford, y en casi toda su trayectoria compitió con su equipo propio.

Kulwicki fue el que creó la vuelta polaca, que es un festejo que empleó en sus victorias, que era una vez terminada la carrera, daba una vuelta con su auto pero al sentido invertido del circuito. Actualmente es usado por varios pilotos de NASCAR como festejo de victoria.

A la edad de 38 años, Kulwicki murió el 1 de abril de 1993 en un accidente de avión, cerca de Bristol, Tennessee.

2002 Ford Thunderbird Show Car Maisto 1:25

The eleventh generation of the Ford Thunderbird (internally codenamed M205) is a two-seat convertible manufactured and marketed by Ford from 2001 to 2005 for model years 2002 through 2005. It followed a five-year hiatus of the Thunderbird after the 1997 discontinuation of its tenth generation.

Evoking the exterior styling of the earliest Thunderbirds, the eleventh generation features a removable hardtop with a prominent porthole window, power folding fabric top, and vinyl tonneau cover. Sharing mechanicals with the Lincoln LS and using Ford's DEW platform, it has a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout with a 3.9-liter (240-cubic-inch) V8 engine and a five-speed automatic transmission.

Part of a retro-styling trend in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the concept was introduced by Ford in 1999. The production model debuted two years later, winning the Motor Trend Car of the Year award for 2002. Despite this, the eleventh-generation Thunderbird never achieved its sales projections and was discontinued after 2005. After studying alternatives, including the closely related Lincoln MK9 concept, Ford declined to introduce subsequent generations of the Thunderbird.

The eleventh generation reach a production of just under 70,000 over four model years. Critics attributed the lackluster sales to poor marketing.

1955 Ford Thunderbird Sunnyside 1:24

The first generation of the Ford Thunderbird is a two-seat convertible produced by Ford for the 1955 to 1957 model year, the first 2-seat Ford since 1938. It was developed in response to the 1953 Motorama display at the New York Auto Show, which showed the Chevrolet Corvette. The Corvette in turn was developed in response to the popularity of European sports cars among Americans.

Dubbed a "a personal car of distinction" by Ford, this appellation was also used by the motoring press at the time. The car built upon the heritage of the bespoke roadsters of the 1930s, yet was constructed largely of existing components, marking the first step toward the evolution of the personal luxury car as a mass market segment in the United States. While light weight for its era and fitted with a standard V8 engine, the Thunderbird focused more on driver comfort than speed, and was not a direct rival to either the Corvette or European sports cars. The Thunderbird proved more suited to the American market than the Corvette, with sales of 16,155, versus 674 Corvettes in 1955.  This remained the only two-seat convertible Thunderbird until the eleventh-generation was unveiled in 2002. The design of this generation of the Ford Thunderbird was the direct inspiration for the Auto Union 1000 Sp sports coupe.

2004 Ford Thunderbird Maisto 1:18

El Ford Thunderbird del 2004 en la escala de 1:18 y de la marca Maisto.

From Wikipedia:

The eleventh generation of the Ford Thunderbird is a two-passenger, front-engine/rear-drive grand touring convertible manufactured and marketed by Ford for model years 2002-2005, sharing the Ford DEW platform and styled to strongly recall the first generation 1955-1957 Thunderbird, including its removable hardtop with prominent circular glazing, with a power folding top that could lower in ten seconds and a vinyl tonneau cover.

Ford introduced a concept prototype for this Thunderbird at the 1999 North American International Auto Show on January 3, 1999, 45 years after the debut of the original. Production models arrived in mid-2001 for model year 2002, more than two years after the concept.

Foregoing an emphasis on sports performance or dynamic balance, the design featured a competitively powered V8 engine with weight and suspension favoring comfort and grand touring.

1983 Ford Thunderbird #90 Junie Donlavey Chameleon Racing Collectables 1:64

Wesley Christian "Junie" Donlavey Jr. (April 8, 1924 – June 9, 2014), a native of Richmond, Virginia, was the owner of Donlavey Racing; he began fielding the team in 1950. He drove for his team at first, but soon gave way to other drivers. Donlavey earned a reputation as working well with young drivers over his tenure, as Ken Schrader and Jody Ridley won NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors while driving for Donlavey. Donlavey served in the United States Navy during the 1940s. Afterwards, Donlavey started his own auto repair business, and began to develop an interest in racing. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007.
Donlavey closed his racing team after the 2004 season when Andy Hillenburg failed to qualify for the Daytona 500; in 2006, he stated that he still had several cars in his race shop, but was in the process of selling them and had no plans to return to racing. He died in Richmond, Virginia on June 9, 2014.
Donlavey was honoured shortly after his death by the Sprint Cup Garage at Richmond International Raceway being named the Wesley C. Donlavey Garage. At the September 2014 Cup race in Richmond, team owner Joe Fal changed the number of his Circle Sport car from 33 to 90 and used a retro paint scheme similar to Donlavey's Truxmore-sponsored cars. The deck lid contained the names of the 67 drivers who raced for Donlavey. Falk considered Donlavey a mentor.