'60 430 HT w/ Manual Trans?

Could you please post the serial number and data plate info? I'd like to be sure you're correctly interpreting what you have, verify date produced and what it has for drive train codes. Why? The 430 was only supposed to be available with the Cruise-O-Matic and was not advertised with any of the manual transmissions.

Production breakdowns by body style and engine can be found on the Vintage Thunderbird Club International's website, www.vintagethunderbirdclub.org, and going through the menu bars to find production figures.

I have learned never to say "never." A '60 convertible with a 430 and manual transmission turned up almost a decade ago and was documented by a long-time '58-'60 enthusiast, including a correctly-coded data plate and stamped VINs. There were some differences between its engine mounting versus production 430 installations, suggesting that some tweaks had to be made to fit the manual transmission components, including the bellhousing/clutch. It was a later-production car, but carried no DSO or special order numbers on the data plate. If memory serves me correctly an article on this car was printed in VTCI's Thunderbird Scoop in the very late '90s or 2000.

Ford did not build cars for NASCAR competition as it was cooperating in the AMA motorsports ban of the late '50s. An estimated dozen T-birds were built for 1959 by Holman-Moody from body shells and other miscellaneous mechanical parts that were designated for scrap at the Wixom plant in the fall of 1958. The cars that survived the '59 racing season were fitted with '60 trim and ran the next couple of years, after which those that remained went on to smaller tracks. These cars were not built from completed examples - they were "one piece at a time" cars with none of the interior trim.

Over the years there have been examples of stripped-down, fully-trimmed '58-'60 T-birds that have shown up with claims of being set up for NASCAR. Those claims are nothing but BS as Ford did not build cars for racing during the period, and NASCAR did not have homgulation rules like those that became prevalent in the late '60s for cars like the Torino Talladegas and Plymouth Superbirds/Dodge Daytonas.

People could order "strippers" with thoughts of modifying them for racing or high-speed driving or using them as delivered, but when you compare the cost of buying a T-bird versus, say, a base-model full-size Ford that weighed less as well as cost less, it makes such exercises rather unusual. More often than not such stripped-down T-birds were ordered by people who wanted no power or convenience options for various reasons - mechanical simplicity, lived in a temperate climate, could barely afford a base-model T-bird or were very thrifty.

It's funny you mentioned that car Alan, as I just finished up reading about it yesterday. I was cleaning some things up up in my spare bedroom at home (used as an office). I found 2 old Scoop's, and one of them had the article on this car you are referring to. It was a red 1960 convertible with a white top, 430cid with 352cid motor mounts, the 3-spd manual tranny, and the 3.70 rear axle ratio (OE tag still attached to 3rd member bolt). It seems "they" used the 352cid mounts to lower the engine down & forward enough so the standard transmission bellhousing would clear the firewall.....