A very special find, seen on the premises of the Beijing Film Academy. This is a ninth generation Ford Thunderbird, made from 1983 until 1988. The Elan model however was only made from 1984 until 1986, most were powered by the 5.0 Windsor V8. The Ford Thunderbird was never exported to China so how it ended up in Beijing is a mystery. It could be an ex-diplomatic car or it could be an ex-foreign company car. Foreign-registred companies were allowed to import their own cars in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.

This silver Thunderbird was clearly abandoned and in a very bad shape. It was parked in a small corner and left to die a long long time ago. Tires were flat, bodywork rotten and dirty, and the Ford-badge was gone. The area is often used to shoot actual movies, so maybe this fine Ford was once a star in some odd Chinese movie. Or maybe it belonged to some hot shot director who dumped it for an Audi like he would dump his wife for a young and willing ‘actress’. Well, who knows?

Thunder on my old beauty…