Ford's #Wild Nuclear Car | The Bad Blonde Car History

A car that if it had been produced would have made you more nervous about a collision than a Ford Pinto, a car that looks straight out of the jetsons, a car that if you had an engine swap you’d have to worry about disposing of radioactive waste.

Today we discuss the Ford Nucleon.

Let’s paint a little picture of the times, we are at the end of the 50’s, the cold war simmering, and a growing interest in nuclear energy is spreading across the US.

This was the beginning of the atomic age, with promises of nuclear power stations producing electricity that would be “too cheap to meter”..  Promises that small nuclear reactors would be an option for everyday practical uses.

To many the thought of limitless inexpensive power for the populace was enthralling. The public welcomed nuclear energy with open arms.

Nuclear energy and all it’s potential glory was on every consumer’s and the US government’s mind. Ford was not going to miss out on the opportunity.

Ford endeavored to build this futuristic nuclear-powered concept car in 1957. While they had been tooling with the idea but this was the first to come to scale.

Ford showed off the Nucleon concept to an intrigued public in 1958. What would people’s reaction to that be now? It kind of looks like a thumb drive.

The Ford Nucleon was to be powered by a small nuclear reactor placed in the rear of the vehicle. It was devised to use a similar steam engine used by nuclear submarines, a uranium fission.

A little background, in 1955 the US launched the USS Nautilus, the first submarine featuring nuclear propulsion. Nuclear power was an excellent idea for submarines as your normal combustion engine was loud and easily detected by sonar plus internal combustion would give off fumes! Like a dolphins blow hole.

Now they did also use electric propulsion via batteries, but then (just as it does now) limited the time of underwater operations before necessitating a recharge. However, with nuclear power, a submarine could continue it’s mission underwater for months.

These nuclear reactors could create not just power but also potable water, electricity and air for the submarines.

In the Ford Nucleon, passenger and driver sat in the front with reactor at back. With how heavy the nuclear reactor would have been, ford needed to distribute weight as best as possible.

Similar to nuclear power stations, the reactor would be used to heat water which would then turn turbines, powering the wheels and also any other equipment. With the cycle starting all over again once the water condensed.

Sounds kind of like a steam car huh? Which steam was one of the three major power options for the birth of the early automobile, steam, electricity, and combustion engine.

The Nucleon’s reactor could be expected to run for 5k miles till it might require a swap out for a new reactor. Keep in mind, when you do that that also means you have to dispose of radioactive waste.

The man behind the futuristic Nucleon design was Jim Powers. This was not his first fantasy inspire whip to create. Powers was also behind the Volante, a flying concept car. Jetsons anyone?

But likely his most well known design was the 1961 Ford Thunderbird.. Which were affectionately nicknamed Bulletbirds.

Ford’s attempt at a nuclear powered car was not just a one hit attempt, they also would reveal the Seattle-ite XXI at the World’s Fair in Seattle in 1962 (because of this fair we still get to enjoy the space needle). This wild car featured six wheels and a swappable front end.

The designer of the Seatlle-ite was Alex Tremulis… Who was behind the Tucker 48, he also did the retro Thunderbolt. BUT also get this, Tremulis was behind the canceled Dyna-Saur military space plan that was a predecessor to the 1980s space shuttles.

Side note, Ford was not the only automaker enticed by nuclear energy, Studebaker and Packard came up with the helicopter looking Astral prototype.  The Astral balanced on a gyroscopic ball AND was touted to supposedly be able to hover over water.

Though sadly none of us would be hovering on water in a Studebaker as both brands would be gone within the next five years. Full video on history of Studebaker as well as Packard below.

The excitement for Nuclear energy dropped when it became clear this power source would cost the same as the more common oil, gas or coal.

They also figured out nuclear waste was not easy to dispose of.. Plus you add a few nuclear reactor leak scares and you have the public opinion starting to pivot. Add the Chernobyl disaster and public opinion has done a full 180.

Just imagine two nuclear powered cars crashing into each other on a highway.. scary thought.

However, years later in 2009 GM decided to catch some headlines with Cadillac introducing a 100 maintenance free car powered by thorium instead of uranium.

The reality is that the ability to make a nuclear device small enough for a car has not yet been proven.

The Rise and Fall of the Ford Thunderbird | The Bad Blonde Car History

Let's talk about the rise and fall of the Ford Thunderbird. Don't forget to subscribe to The Bad Blonde Car History for more car history! Let’s paint the picture, it’s the start of the 1950s the US is still on that post-WWII high! US auto execs were seeing an influx of European roadsters flooding their back yards and took note. I’ve said this in multiple videos, but the Post-WWII, many European governments were telling their manufacturers to export OR die.. One designer at Ford started a little side project of creating his dream roadster, that was Frank Hershey. Frank Hershey and I have something in common. He loved the XK120. The 120 was style and performance perfectly coupled and it was said he was influenced by the 120 but I don’t see any resemblance between the two. So Frank Hershey’s little side project wasn’t exactly condoned by his superior George Walker and Walker told him to put it on the back burner. Walker didn’t think there was enough of a market… Boy he was really wrong on that. Hershey was like nope and he continued working on the project secretly that would be come the Thunderbird. So also during this time Henry Ford the second.. the Duece was starting to take notice of the European roadster imports and was like why don’t we have any of these! Though side note they did have the Ford Vega concept in 1953 that sprouted from a design contest that looked really interesting… it actually had concealed pop up headlights.. I liked it. So back to business, the Deuce wanted a roadster… George Walker who had put the kibosh on Hershey’s roadster designs was like ummm can you bring those out again? The thunderbird was not a creation meant for high speed performance or catching bugs in your teeth.. The Thunderbird was a part of the market segment that would eventually be know as personal luxury cars.. An emphasis on comfort and convenience over high-speed performance. The thunderbird was not marketed as a sports car. Like the Karmann Ghia was not marketed as sports car either. You want comfort and style at a slow speed? We are your car! AND frankly, if they hadn’t beefed up the Corvette from the Blue Flame inline six to a V8.. It may have eventually been tossed into that segment too. Thank god for Zora Arkus-Duntov. Ford actually had a company wide name contest for the roadster… The prize was so 50s.. Whoever won the naming contest won a suit.. SO the guy that won was sitting at a café sipping a cup of coffee and on the side of his cup of joe was a thunderbird.. Which the roots are in north American indigenous mythology.. Anyways.. Thunderbird won! So within 20 months of Henry Ford 2nd asking they had the car ready… It was a two seater with a detachable hardtop or folding soft top… Powered by a 4.8 liter Y block V8 capable of 193 hp.. The first gen had the beloved porthole and continental tire. The second generation did a design leap, turning the two seater into a four seater and really squaring it up. Garnering the nickname of a square bird.. Now that increase in size meant they had to bump up the engine to a 5.1 liter V8.. they also had the option of a 7liter V8 that could hit 350 hp… That is a lot of horsepower for a car that did not yet have seatbelts.. The third generation sleaked up a bit and lost the square body and went more bullet earning the nickname of bullet bird. Good looking.. It was around 1964 that the T-bird suffered from a bit of lack of attention.. You can imagine that was likely due to the introduction of the famously popular and well selling Mustang. Kind of cannibalized itself within the market so Ford realized they needed to further distinguish the T-bird. With the next few gen they bumped up the size but this was bad timing… as a gas crisis popped up and to top it off this was around the time that safety regulations were popping up and every auto manufacturer thought that convertibles were going to be outlawed.. That fear of banned convertibles is how we got the Targa top. I digress, so Ford did away with the Tbird convertible.. So let’s jump to the Fox body… This one of of Lee Iaccocca’s last efforts before heading to Chrysler.. The fox body platform was super versatile you’d see if on the fox body mustang, the mercury cougar, the Lincoln Mark VII.. This is also where they put a turbo in the T-bird.. a 2.3 liter turbo four cylinder with ported fuel injection.. and it was only available in a 5 speed manual.. It really was intended to compete with the performance imports of the day. Sales boosted with the turbo coop, Ford was like hey… It was actually dubbed car of the year by motortrend in the year of my birth. It also won again in 1989 with the super coupe 3.8 liter V6 with an eaton m90 supercharger.. So in the 90s sales would drop and Ford would give up on the thunderbird line.. And you wouldn’t see a Thunderbird till 2002 when all the manufacturers were throwing it back.. and we would see the retrobird.. It threw back to the first generation..