by Jon Osterholm

It’s fair to say that most American families love automobiles. It’s a romance that blossomed in the 1950s. For Coral Springs retiree Len Gilbert and his son Scott, also a Coral Springs resident, it’s a family affair with classic cars. They both own classic Ford Thunderbirds.

The elder Gilbert has a red 1966 Thunderbird that his wife Timmie also enjoys, and his son has a black 1957 model. Len recently retired from building company WCI, where he was vice president of the Financial Resources Group-WCI Community. Scott Gilbert, a chiropractic doctor, has two sons, Zachary (nine years old) and Adam (12), who jockey for rides in the classic Ford he’s owned for nine years. His wife, Michele, loves it, too. “She likes to drive it. They like to ride in it.” Since it has only two seats, “I’ve got to leave somebody home,” Scott admits.

Len explains that his affinity comes from "the classic lines of the T'bird,” and his fondness for its wide appeal, then and now: “There's so many of them in the older movies." Len purchased his ’66 sports car in 1980, his first and only collector car. The restoration was extensive on both cars. "We take very good care of the cars together,” Len says. He tries to drive his ’66 T’bird several times a week. They share their enthusiasm with others when they can. That includes enjoying the appreciation of strangers in lots of ways.

“Wherever I park it, I get a note,” Scott says. Those notes are often requests for contact should he ever decide to sell the convertible. Sometimes it means making a public appearance with their automotive pride and joy.

“We take the cars around town to car shows for charity,” Len says. He recalls one special event: “In March 1998, Broward County Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger rode in my T'bird,” he says, "in the Hollywood St. Patricks' Day Parade." She sent him a thank you letter, with a picture of them with Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne.

Len’s ’66 model is the last of what car enthusiasts call the "big bird" convertible, or the convertible Thunderbirds with back seats. Scott’s ’57 is the last of the iconic two-seater convertibles, which inspired Ford’s design of the current Thunderbird model.

Len has a sales sticker in his collection of Thunderbird memorabilia that reflects how loaded with options the car was for its day. The 1966 Ford Thunderbird “had power steering, cruise control, power windows and doors, and a power top,” Len shares with the joy of any historian. “That's 40 years ago, it had all that stuff in it. It had air-conditioning, AM radio, an 8-track tape player, and a slide-away steering wheel … (that) slides out of the way as you get in.”

It was a pricier car for those days, when a house could be mortgaged for around $40,000. “The dealer cost was $4,945.33 and the suggested retail price was $6,304.81,” Len says. “Forty years ago, if you were paying $6,000 for an automobile, you were in the Cadillac or the Lincoln class.”

Often, Scott and his four-wheeled friend head south to the Tower Shops on University Drive in Davie, where every Friday there’s an unofficial gathering of classic car enthusiasts. Scott quips that “it might as well be a show,” since there are so many classic cars there, but it is essentially a bunch of like-minded enthusiasts hanging out, enjoying the objects of their automotive affection.

The common thread in enthusiasts of any kind is how the objects of their affection spark their imaginations, as Len evidences. “You get in an old car like that, and suddenly you're transported into the 1960s. You put the old music on the eight-track player, and there you go.”

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Written by Jon Osterholm