Need data on 88 Sport Coupes
Reply #51 –
There is much evidence that cars were produced and sold as "Sport" models with various equipment lists. That said, IMHO as the original owner of an '88 T-Bird Sport (as it was called), there was a very specific list of options that made the car desirable to me in 1988. The total package was the finest, most highly developed iteration of the Fox platform, perhaps the best car that Ford never told anyone about. It was and is "A Mustang for Grownups". What I remember (and this list may not be comprehensive as I am writing without referring to sales literature) made a T-Bird a "Sport" was:
5.0L roller lifters & chain w/forged pistons, but not a full HO (the HO engine had Mass Air injection, tube headers and a hotter cam)
4-shock rear suspension from Mustang, 8.8" traction-loc diff.
Polyurethane suspension bushings, larger front and rear sway bars, harder springs than the LX, stiffer struts.
6-way power front seats with special center console housing shifter, window and seat controls, also different column, wheel & dash with buttstuffog instruments. I have optional Premium Sound but Sport could be had without that.
Aluminum 4 lug wheels with distinctive eight hole pattern.
I remember seeing Sports offered by dealers with and without the moon/sun roof. It cost about 1 1/2 inches of headroom and was a guaranteed future leak. I called them Rain Roofs and got a car without one.
Am I forgetting anything?
It looked to me like a convenient platform around which to build a Ford V-8 hotrod when the wife was done driving it. So far, so good..
First, mass air is a type of algorithm used by the vehicle's EEC to measure the incoming air, as opposed to the term speed density, which is a preset and unvarying number that is used on ALL '88 and down 5.0 Tbird, Cougar and ALL Mustang 5.0 (except the California versions, also, Mustang went to Mass Air in 1989 across the board for 5.0 cars...in 1989, there was NOT a factory 5.0 Thunderbird or Cougar made.)
No Fox 5.0 Tbird/Cougar had forged pistons factory.
The Springs were very similar to the LX 5.0 upfront, and TC springs out back. Believe me, I have changed my Sport's springs 3 times, there is not one ed bit of difference between the 5.0 springs and the TC springs.
The Tbird 5.0 had the lo-pro "SO" cam, and manifolds, as well as E6 heads...only the HO had the y headers, the truck, aka E7 heads and only Mustangs had mass air, of all the Fox cars. Mark VII's had the HO as well, albeit the speed density setup.
Not all Sports had the dual power seats, mine did, and mine also had cloth, moonroof, EATC, autolamps, basically everything but memory seat.
The suspension was the same type as the Mustang, but the control arms are longer. Poly bushings were never a factory option on these cars.
The column, wheel, and dash were identical to an '87, an '86, etc...the dashes were the same from '85 to '88, also. There were 4 types of clusters; the base digital-had the digital speedo ONLY, then there was the full digital-what some of us call the star wars cluster, then of course the buttstuffog TC, and then the '88 Sports and XR7 cars had their own buttstuffog cluster that was basically the same as the TC, less the boost gauge.
If there's going to be information thrown about, at least make sure it's more than half-assed. Not all of us have owned a Tbird since new, but quite a few of us have taken our cars apart more than once. I'm on my 4th Tbird and 7th Fox...I reckon I've learned a little over the years. :flip:
Topic: Need data on 88 Sport Coupes (Read 8468 times)
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