The picture above is from a 1990s recreation of the design based on a 1962 Mercury Monterey. 'Selling that car was the thrill of my life’ says Barrasso ‘but it turned out to be an unhappy experience for Elvis'. The 1958 Ford X2000 concept car is another fantastic futuristic car design of the past. 'I'll take it', Elvis replied, and drove the Tbird home right then and there, sending someone later to collect his Cadillac. As I was showing him the breakaway steering wheel, he asked how much? The wire wheels caught his eye immediately. I ought to do a CC on the Chrysler Norseman, I wrote an article for a SAH newsletter a couple of years ago about the car. 'One Sunday, I left a brochure, and the next day he drove down in his Cadillac and asked to see the car, which was on the showroom floor. With power steering and brakes, automatic trans and a 390 cubic inch V8, the Tbird was too big and heavy for a sports car, but it was about the most glamorous set of wheels made in America circa 1962.īarrasso called into Graceland to tell Elvis about the amazing car. ex GM designer Virgil Exner, later designer at Chrysler. The car came with chrome wire wheels and a fiberglass tonneau cover with integral headrests that hid the rear seats so that it resembled a two-seater. When Ford decided that the 1958 Thunderbird should be a four-seater, Hershey withdrew from the. The bright metal band widened and narrowed through the years with annual model changes. Virgil 'Ex' Exner (September 24, 1909December 22, 1973) was an automobile designer for numerous American companies, notably Chrysler and Studebaker. A childhood friend of Elvis, Ernie Barrasso was working at a Memphis Ford dealership in the early ‘60s when a new, limited edition Thunderbird was delivered. When Hershey left Pontiac to take over the Buick studio in early 1936, Virgil Exner took his place, continuing the Silver Streak theme.
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