Daily Slideshow: Corvette Year-by-Year Comparo: 1961
The earth didn't move in 1961. Could a big-inch Ford T-Bird or Austin-Healey 3000 move you away from Corvette?
The Contenders
Nineteen sixty-one was the calm before the storm. With Porsche, Jaguar, Shelby, and Chevrolet all preparing new sports cars, and a full-on assault from both muscle and pony cars just around the corner, it was a year of left-overs and presages. So for a slow news year, we present a twofer and compare the 1961 'Vette to one of each: a traditional Austin-Healey 3000 and forward-looking Ford Thunderbird. The year was transitional even in that the Healey 3000, in its third year of production, underwent a change from MkI to MkII versions mid-year. The 3000 was as British as British could get, being built on the same assembly line as MGs and using bodies made by Jensen—though the vast majority of 3000's were sold outside Britain (over 91 percent in 1963). The T-Bird, on the other hand, was as American as could be in 1961, with its jet-inspired styling and increased dimensions no one would confuse it for the 'Bird that was vying for a chunk of Corvette's market in the previous decade.
Style
Chevy gave us a glimpse of the future with the restyled 'Vette, featuring a tail design based on the 1959 Corvette XP-87 Stingray Racer's styling, and featuring the four-taillight treatment that would become a Corvette trademark. The new tail, now devoid of exhaust cut-outs, blended remarkably well into the only-slightly-changed C1 front end, which featured a chrome grid in place of the previous models' large teeth, as well as body-color headlight bezels instead of chrome. Corvette has some tough competition in the looks department from our two Comparo foes. The Healey is a charming car, and with plenty of chrome and contrasting-color cove-like side panel paint schemes it wasn't a world away from earlier Corvette designs. The '61 Thunderbird might just be peak Thunderbird, as more clumps of chrome were added in the following years that break up the car's flowing lines. The T-Bird could be had in both coupe and convertible versions, the latter was available as a Sports Roadster version with a fiberglass tonneau that converted the car into a two-seater by covering the back seats. It's impossible to mention the Gen 3 T-Bird without bringing up the Swing Away steering wheel—the wheel swung a full foot-and-a-half out of the driver's way. The 3000 was also available as a two- or four-seater, though the four-seater was a 2+2, and barely even that, the rear seats consisting of tiny jump seats. Whichever version of the 3000 you got, in 1961 you were relegated to side curtains for protection from the elements, the Healey being a true roadster.
Performance
Corvette was still killing it in road racing throughout 1961, again winning its class in every featured race in SCCA B Production. It still featured a solid rear axle, and the top-spec engine was still a fuel-injected 283 ci small-block putting out 315 hp. Austin-Healey 3000s did a fair amount of racing, too, though their 2,500 lb weight and 134 hp 2,912cc inline-six put them at a disadvantage in many classes, but their heavy steel body made them a contender in rally events. Nineteen sixty-one marks the first year of Ford's 390 ci engine, and they stuck it in the Thunderbird right off the bat. The engine's 300 hp was decent, but the really impressive number was the 427 lb-ft of torque at 2800 rpm it conjured to move the car's nearly 4,000 lb heft. The Healey's 10 seconds, and the T-Bird's 8.5 seconds, to 60 mph weren't exactly slow, but the Corvette's 6.6 seconds was in another league entirely.
Value
The pre-owned market hasn't been equally kind to all of our entries. Research shows that '61 T-Birds are a bargain: priced at over $5,000 when new, good-to-excellent examples have held steady in the $10-18K region over the last few years. Research also shows that people just really love Healeys. While 3000s listed at around $3,500 when new, compared to the Corvette's $3,872 list, at $45-75K for good-to-excellent examples of 3000 MkIIs, they just sneak in under the $50-83K good-to-excellent 1961 Corvettes command today. If you work it just right, or get lucky, you could bag a 'Bird and a 3000 for the price of a Corvette, though we'd wager most forum members would take a similarly-priced C4 Corvette over a Gen 3 T-bird most days of the week.
Decision Time
Not surprisingly, the 1961 car-buying public came down firmly in the camp of the largest, most comfortable car. Ford sold 62,535 Thunderbirds, while Chevy shifted 10,939 Corvettes (the second-highest sales figures for a C1). With overlapping models of the 3000 available in 1961, production figures are a little harder to allocate, but across all markets, Austin-Healey sold 13,650 MkIs from '59-'61, and another 11,564 MkIIs in '61 and '62. So the decision is yours: A gorgeous jet-age streamliner with a leviathan 390 V8, one of the last C1 'Vettes (with a C2 tail), or a pretty fugitive from the early '50s? We think we know which one you'd choose... but the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? They chose the Thunderbird for the official pace car of the 1961 Indy 500. It can't be a Corvette leading the pack every year.
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