Ford Taunus TC high profile General Motors executive and from early 1968 till Autumn/Fall 1969 Ford's Dearborn-based Chairman. The car is often nicknamed "Barock 2" (recalling the Taunus P2 series of the late 1950s, commonly known as the "Barock-Taunus") or "Knudsen-Taunus" in Germany, because of the prominent hood/bonnet scoop that, as the legend has it, was put there on direct order from Knudsen. Otherwise the major design work is rumoured to have been done by German car designer Luigi Colani, who later supplied design concepts for BMW's motorcycle division in the late 1970s. The lower end of the market segment previously occupied in
Ford Thunderbird previous Thunderbird, the new Thunderbird featured a radically sleeker, more aerodynamic body and a slightly shorter wheelbase of . To power the new Thunderbird, the 3.8 L Essex V6 and 5.0L (302 cid) V8 were carried over from the previous generation with the V8 engine gaining CFI electronic fuel injection in 1983, and the V6 in 1984 for US models, 1985 for Canadian models (which was in turn replaced by multipoint fuel injection on the V8 in 1986 and the V6 in 1988). All-new, and a Thunderbird first, was a turbocharged 2.3 L OHC 4-cylinder engine featured in the 1983