The earlier Turbo Coupes were a bit more restrictive in comparison to later cars like these, as the ECU didn’t allow for maximum boost beyond the first two forward gears. The turbocharged 2.3L featured a top mount intercooler and dual exhaust to push out a respectable 190 b.h.p. This Turbo Coupe likely doesn’t need any immediate work done to the chassis, but having gone through the nightmare of trying to re-create what engineers get paid a bunch of money to do, it cured me of any interest in owning one. I ran into this with the horrible Subaru XT6 project I bought years ago, which featured an obsolete air suspension with no off-the-shelf parts that would work. My bigger concern was the adjustable electronic suspension – there’s no direct swap in from the aftermarket if the trick adjustable suspension stops working. I briefly considered acquiring one of these off of my friend’s property in Georgia, as it was bone-stock mechanically but needing all the usual deferred maintenance items addressed. Cosmetically-speaking, this Turbo Coupe looks quite clean, and you don’t see these in white all that often. Red and black/gray striping was seemingly required to appear somewhere on the car if it had some speed under the hood, as it was used by imports like the 16 valve Volkswagens and the Fox-body Mustang GT. Some of the cosmetic tweaks included the blacked-out taillights out back and the Marchal driving lamps in the front air dam that seemingly every performance-oriented Ford and Mercury product left the factory within the middle-to-late ’80s. The Turbo Coupe stood apart from lesser models both under the hood and in the looks department. This is a later production example that made maximum boost in all five gears, and it has the preferred manual transmission with a price of $10,800 and the option to submit a best offer.

Fortunately, we see survivors like this 1988 Turbo Coupe listed here on eBay fairly often, wearing low miles and remaining in stock condition. The powertrain is proven, and responds well to additional tweaks should you be chasing more horsepower – now, the trick is finding a nice one. These are handsome cars, and of course, they are peak 80s when it comes to buying a vehicle that will always draw a crowd at your local Radwood gathering. For a short time, I was dead set on owning a Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.

88 thunderbird for sale