I know as a general rule of thumb, the thunderbirds were dogs. But a classmate bought a mid 90's thunderbird supercharged 5-speed. He brags to me about how fast it is and how quickly it accelerates. I'm not really asking if I'll win, because I don't race my max much. But how do those cars compare to a N/A Maxima without nitrous? I think he said it's rated at 240 or 250hp but then again, they're freaking boats.

 

One of my buddies used to have one... He had changed the pulley size and done a few other things to it, and it ran a 14.1, topped out above 150mph... it was also a 5spd, which I'm sure helped. Guy always drove crazy though and ended up wrecking it...

 

Those cars are hella fast, I has a 92 T-bird 5.0 with some mods ans I would always get raped by those SuperCoupes. Don't even try it!

 

it's a shame they're ugly as hell.

 

Looking at an old Motor Trend from March of 1995 the Super Coupe 230 hp and 330 pounds of torque (automatic):

0-60mph= 7.0 sec
1/4 mile= 15.2 @ 88.1 mph
5spd was 6.5 sec
1/4 mile= 14.9@ 91.0 mph

Thunder V8 was
0-60 mph= 9.0 sec.
1/4 was 16.5@ 83.5mph

Thunder V6 was
0-60 mph= 10.9 sec
1/4 mile= 18.1 sec@ 78.6 mph

Go for it all the sources I have seen put it in the same area,you could win!

 

supercharged 3.8L V6.

Before 1991, they had TurboCoupes...with the same motor as the SVO Mustangs...2.3L turbocharged 4.

 

automatic fords drive funny

 

I have to step in here....First, 1989 was the first year for a super coupe. Second, early 90s came stock with 210 horse. Third, I must say that my old 90 SC would eat up my 98 Max off the line. Those cars fly, but better cars have been built on "Junkyard Wars"!!! They are nothing but money pits. I owned mine for 2 years and AAA towed it well over 20 times!

 

The Thunderbird SC have "Roots" style superchargers which means they pack a mean punch off the line, but in the topend they fall off pretty hard (ie like the Grand Prix GTP). There are a couple modded SCs at my track and they are relatively competitive with me, but they don't come anywhere close to matching my trap speeds. They're usually in the 91-92mph range where as I'm in the 96-97mph range.


Dave

 

I had a 89 SC a while back. They drained my bank account and had many problems. However, I think that they were pretty close in acceleration to the Maxima. I would try to race him if I were you, he might beat you by a little bit but he has a supercharger under his hood. The Thunderbirds after 1994 (I think it was 94) were nothing more then slow wanna be family cars.
Thanks,
Paul