Aurora 67 Thunderbolt

Made by the tragically short-lived American car company, Aurora. During its eleven years had the reputation of being America’s Lancia, making sports cars that excelled in several racing categories. The Thunderbolt being the Aurora’s venue into Super Street Pro class drag racing.

Designed by the uncompromising and antagonistic French Canadian car designer, Alfonse Gauthier. Alfonse had joined the Ford Motor company to replace Carol Shelby after he left when Ford dropped the GT40 program. During his stay Alfonse expressed only to have interests in continuing Ford’s development into racing programs, particularly with Ford’s range of muscle cars. Ford had other ideas, wishing to use Alfonse’s designs of cars that looked sporty and tone them down for something marketable.

When Alfonse left he took his designs with him, which Ford took an issue with and attempted to sue the Aurora company, saying its flagship vehicle had too much of a resemblance to the Ford Mustang. Aurora’s lawyers argued the Thunderbolt only had a superficial resemblance, as the car was a full six inches shorter in the wheelbase, and literally everything under the body was a completely different animal. This led to a historic ruling regarding that companies could not copyright the look of a car.

With its wide Hexagonal grill, that later became a trademark look for Aurora, the Thunderbolt was like a Mustang envisioned by someone who made absolutely no compromises whatsoever. Compromises that Alfonse argued was plaguing other car companies. A gigantic 7 liter engine, already rated at over 400 hp naturally aspirated, came with a factory supercharger that doubled its output to more than 800 hp. The cartoonishly massive rear wheel well, leaving no room in the already small rear end, made for a near non-existent back seat and impractical trunk.

Chain-smoking his Du Marier cigarettes, Alfonse was often quoted as saying “The trunk only needs to be big enough to hold a nitrous bottle and a fire extinguisher.” Later those were sold as options. The cavernous well made room for the largest street legal tires allowed on a car, and a special made suspension designed to force the wheels into the ground and handle acceleration off the line with the car’s insane 1000 foot pounds of torque.