Discontinued years ago, the Ford Thunderbird has thus far lived through 11 generations, though it has been absent from The Blue Oval’s lineup since 2005. However, prior to that last-gen, retro-themed model, the Ford Thunderbird was a larger coupe that doubled as the automaker’s NASCAR racer of choice for some years. From time to time, we see these T-Bird racers pop up for sale, and now, another one is available via auction.
This 1989 Ford Thunderbird NASCAR racer is currently up for grabs at Bring a Trailer, and during the 1989 and 1990 seasons, it was piloted by Mark Martin under the Roush Racing banner. During those two seasons, it wound up finishing second at both Watkins Glen and Sonoma, at least, until it suffered a crash in practice and wound up being dismantled, stored outside, and largely forgotten about. That is, until a company called Rhine Enterprise purchased the old racer and made it whole again.
During that process, the damaged body panels were replaced, the tube chassis was repaired, and the red Folgers #6 livery was reapplied. Four wheel disc brakes have since been added, as well as a replacement 358 cubic-inch V8. It sends power to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual transmission, which has also been rebuilt. Martin even slipped back behind the wheel of the T-Bird racer in 2017 at Darlington for a segment of NBC Sports Network’s NASCAR America – and his signature is present on the dash, to boot.
Sure to appeal to any NASCAR or Mark Martin fan in general, this Ford Thunderbird racer is just the latest we’ve seen hit the auction block as of late. That list also includes a Taurus once campaigned by Ricky Rudd, a 1994 T-Bird driven by Greg Sacks, and a 2001 Taurus NASCAR racer piloted by Jeremy Mayfield and Mike Wallace.
We’ll have more cool auction finds like this to share soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Thunderbird news and ongoing Ford news coverage.
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