Thunderbird 2

How two generations of Brits tried to win over America 

- Guy Allen

Looking at the giant current Thunderbird LT, it’s not surprising the name had its genesis in Las Vegas. That seems to be a mistake of history rather than long-term corporate design. For anyone who’s seen The Strip in the centre of town in recent years, it’s easy to imagine riding past the spectacular light and fountain show outside The Bellagio, late at night, with the T-bird’s own three-lamp light set blazing as you cool down from the desert’s daytime heat.

The current model is the complete opposite of the 1949 original; the latter would look as out of place there as a cello at a rapper gig. There’s the rub — though they share a name, the two machines are eons and worlds apart.

This story came about after one of those conversations: wouldn’t it be cool to get together a current Thunderbird with the original and see how they compared? It was, but, in the end, it’s difficult to imagine two objects with so much in common that are also so different. A bit like a school, or family or workplace reunion some decades down the track — you knew the connection but soon realised there was sod-all in common.

BIG BOY

Fantasies of cruising down the Vegas strip aside, the original T-bird was very much an American-inspired development. While Triumph’s Meriden factory was perfectly content to produce sharp 500-class Speed Twins, the opportunity to enter the giant post-war (WWII) USA market was big and demanded more cubes — particularly in an environment where 1200cc tourer engines were the norm. Enter the 650 Triumph twin. It now had just enough capacity to be taken seriously as a sports bike.