IN THIS FEATURE Early days Popular personal luxury The Squarebird Projectile styling Growing again Ugly duckling Aerodynamic phase Temporary retirement New Thunderbird

Limping into the 1990s, the Thunderbird received a minor makeover in '91 with a small power upgrade. Attention turned to reviving the Mustang range - basically unchanged between '79 and '94 - and the T-bird was left behind. Minor facelifts, specification upgrades and general tweaks did little to stem the decline in sales, and Ford discontinued the model in 1997 with no replacement planned, although the Mercury Cougar and Lincoln MK VIII coupe on the same platform continued with a new 4.6 V8 (280bhp). The Thunderbird had died, though many pundits reckoned that the '80s and '90s cars had hardly been 'proper' Thunderbirds anyway.

Thunderbird show car

At the end of the decade - and century - retro was all the rage. Volkswagen had wowed sentimentalists with its new Beetle concept, BMW was about to start making its new Mini and Chrysler had revealed a small family car which looked like a vintage hot rod, the PT Cruiser. Ford revealed the new Thunderbird show car at the 1999 Detroit Motor Show: not only was its styling a direct homage to the original Thunderbird, it was a return to the basic two-seater concept. Production was confirmed in May 2000.