See the best of Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen in a 1959 Ford Thunderbird during the St. Mary's Trophy at Goodwood Revival. Full races available for GRRC Fellows and Members. Find out how to join: www.goodwood.c... #goodwoodrevival
"I need a short throw shifter to make me a faster driver" This man's shifter goes from Florida to New York from 4th to 3rd and he's still lapping the pack
Many race drivers in the old days preferred factory style shifters as they fitted better into the car's interior. With a big, flimsily steering wheel like in that T-bird it would be less operable to reach all the way down to a short, sporty stick everytime. Cool car, cool driver, massive fun to watch!
That's funny as hell! Back in the sixties Ford had a cab-over truck called A C Series. They had 5 speed manual transmissions in them and by the time you got from 1st to 5th you'd covered most of the United States. They were seriously a mystery shift. As they wore out they got worse and you ended up banging your knuckles on the dash. Thanks for the Memories!
Back in the day, my grandmother had a 58 Thunderbird. Never considered it a pretty car. And certainly, never thought I'd see one of the racetrack. Like another viewer sent., she's aged quite well! Goes to show you! Things just get better with age!
I must protest. NASCAR on street circuits are fun to watch. Ovals are not my thing, though. Too many stupid crashes and too many weather delays. And still the same 3-4 persons pull off the victories. I'm excited for the new season of NASCAR, though, when Matty D. will get into the Wood Brothers #21 car. Could be a regular top contender if they get it right.
I have a 97 thunderbird I plan on doing the same thing with. Mixed reviews about it but like pops "kristensen" I'm here to smoke you in my soaring barge around the corners and through the straights.
Short, lightweight cars are terribly difficult to drive. Those big RWDs practically drive by themselves. You just have to tell them the direction and they do everything else alsmost on their own. Weight distribution.
Piotr Malewski yeah they can get squirrelly but so do American cars with their soft suspension and super light springs. In a lot of ways of handling they are inferior to the foreign cars but if you build it and actually try to focus a little bit on handling they can blow through corners
@@theeoddments960 I switched from modern short hatches to 70ies rwd with leaf springs and live axle and went rallying with both. Like you they say it's inferior but with proper technique it can be very fast through corners, because it can use grip of all wheels evenly if thrown into a corner properly. Also it's much more forgiving. Since I've tested it, I value weigh distribution more than any other parameter. If short fwd skids in the rear axle, often it is a fight for survival, one move too late and you're done. In my old rwd nothing happens that quickly, when the rear goes, you just give it the direction and it drifts towards to, almost on it's own. And if i leave the steering wheel, it counter steers and gets the straight line on it's own- not the best idea to do, but if someone ever went panic, the car could have saved the person on it's own.
First time I see it called meatball. Will use it! If anyone doesn't know, the still black flag with orange mark is a mechanical black flag, and the car should retire to the pits. But I was under the impression they should show it with the cars number?
That’s about the best thing I’ve seen in a while. Way more exciting than Nascar. I was actually laughing at how those little cars looked afraid as he was catching them. Outstanding driver. Made my Day!!!!!!!
lol thats what you call knowing your car, ihad a 64 fairlane that would do the same thing, just drift around corner when you hit the gas right, drifting is better than having car roll that is too disturbing while steering, my 67 cougar would lean too much if i took a corner fast but the fairlane just drifted and it was sweet
I love how the Minis take that one turn probably thinking this is where they can split away from the T-Bird only to have the T-Bird kick out the rear end and swing through the turn just as fast. Love it!
I had a 1960 T-bird in 1964. I bought it from the original owner, a doctor who actually drove it. I learned that it had the 430 Lincoln engine in it. That was a tire smoking beast.
Neil Dohi, the easiest and cheapest way to go is to get a 428 engine which is in the FE engine family and do a rebuild. Do a .010 clean-up overbore and that’ll give you about 432 cid. Outward look is the same but you’ll have more modern, stronger and performance proven internals.
PissAllOverMyAnusWhileMaintainingProperHomeostasis he touched it. The car even budged a little when he tapped it. Kept that line clean like nothing even happened.
I seen this race before that Thunderbird is fantastic. lifting the right front wheel on the right hand corner. it's such a shame the exhaust system came loose he had that race won handily. that's how the racing Gods work sometimes.
People always giving TOO MUCH praise to drivers who drive heavily modified purpose built machines without acknowledging the fact that those modifications make the vehicle EASIER TO DRIVE. The real heros are those who can make a brick swim like a fish . This guy is the real deal.
Imagine the adrenaline flow of the dude in the mini seeing nothing but a ginormous T-bird, sideways, filling his rear view mirror, slowly getting closer and closer!!!! This is roughly a millon times more entertaining than modern F1 or superspeedway draft-fests.
That thunder bird is ridiculous! Too cool seeing that thing flying and sliding around the track over taking everyone in the little Brit cars that are planted to the track. 🤣 The guy driving is one bad mother too. He wrestled that thing effortlessly floating the car all around. Awesome video 👍🏻🤘🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
What a great drive from Tom in our 59 Ford Thunderbird! A great shame the exhaust was knocked loose but a brilliant show regardless. For onboard footage visit our video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NWPe4A0FSO0.html
Bill...........I would think most of the race parts on that car are custom?......suspension, etc etc......was that car ever road raced in period?. is it a big soft sloppy girl?....hp figure?......450?
Man I have always loved these races and the Goodwood Festival. Watching these guys run these classic vehicles to their max. I hope young people watch this & racing classic motor cars like this never ends!!
These guys are all very talented drives, but even they do mistakes, slide around, drift and save again. It's soo much fun to watch and shows how difficult it is to go fast with these classic cars!!
Just see mopar guys power shift. There’s a channel named uncle Tony’s garage and he has a video of him powershifting and tips on it and if you did that in any stick shift automobile from 1983-up you’d have a freshly picked gear shifter in your hand dismounted completely from the fuckkin console... impressive though.
One of the greatest revival clips I have seen this year! As great as this is, I could only imagine seeing how devastating these were on the Daytona race track back in the day!
I love these races! They’re all over the track, different power from different cars, etc. seems like such a challenge trying to keep those boats on the road haha and the noise is beautiful! Wow
This is the kind of racing people like to see. Cars sliding and bouncing all over the track, and the drivers fighting to keep them straight. Nowadays in nearly all forms of racing the cars seem so relaxed and calm, which never translates into one-track action and drama.
;@@scootergeorge9576 Hey Scooter! Steering with his right foot f' 'sho! Would love to know if it has the optional Lincoln 430 mill or the std. 352...Edit: looks like "352" on the hood maybe? Would be interesting to know what suspension mods they're allowed. Would appear we have similar watch lists! Dave
@@UberLummox - A Holman Moody built 430 T-Bird was a very close second in the 1959 Daytona 500. That being said I spent some time with Google trying to find out what powers this car. Could only find, "big V-8" which is obvious. I'm guessing an FE; perhaps a 427 or 390. A lot of parts available for these engines. And it sounds bigger than a 352.
@@scootergeorge9576 Nice! Yeah, I've seen pix of Squarebirds on the ovals. Surprised they weren't outlawed for not being based on a conventional full-size platform. I read they were 3500-3600 lbs. so maybe they met a weight requirement - if there was one. Then again, the average US battle ship was 4000-ish, so who knows.
@@UberLummox - By 1960, it made sense to go with the Galaxie. One glance of the Starliner fastback brought out that year and the "Squarebird" gets parked.
The Car looks big among the European Cars.. but here in the State's not too big.. my Brother owns a 58 Tbird.. 390 Y block. Can't wait to Show him is Classy Cruiser
So happy to find this video. Just recently obtained a 69 Thunderbird & had a hard time finding an old bird that handles around a course on RU-vid. Inspiration video for my new project!!!! Thanks Goodwood for sharing 😁.
I can't stand fords but seeing that T-Bird gliding across that track among compacts, was a thing of beauty! Look at that old man tap dance on the tarmac! Wow!
I have a 1960 t-bird. Mine is white with a 352 and an automatic transmission its a great cruiser. I realize the car in this video is built to race but knowing how big and sloppy these old barges are it is hard to imagine driving one that hard. Looks like a lot of fun though.
Probably some really HD shocks. Springs, too. But that old T-Bird is almost too beautiful to race. My dad had a '64 but I really like the fins on those 58-60 Birds. I saw a video here on RU-vid where a guy did a restomod and put a 5.0 Coyote motor in a black '63 Bird, sounded absolutely cool. I would love to do that on a 65 or 66.
Must have been unnerving to see that menacing front end roaring up to your rear bumper during this race. It had a Batman /Mad Max vibe to it - and an aggressive driver to boot!
Hats off to Tom. You know that he could hear that tailpipe hitting the pavement. Most likely didn't know what it was, and still endured lap after lap of thinking his car was going to fall apart...
