This Might Be the Weirdest Car in America, and It’s For Sale

• The custom 1955 Ford Thunderbird "Moon Rocket" mixes Mustang, Corvette, and Cobra design elements.
• The one-off custom build has raced at NHRA events, toured the USA, and won awards.
• Currently bidding at $36,000 with 54,000 miles on the clock.

Simultaneously owning a Mustang, a Corvette, and a Cobra would be a dream, but it’s out of reach for most — unless you’re willing to mash design elements of all three together in a single car. That’s what appears to be the motivation behind perhaps the weirdest car for sale in America, this custom 1955 Ford Thunderbird “Moon Rocket,” now bidding on Bring a Trailer for just $36,000, with four days of bidding remaining. Built nearly 70 years ago, it’s an award-winning creation, bagging the People’s Choice Award at the Oakland Roadster Show in January 1957, just two years after it was purchased new by San Francisco-based hot rodder Jerry Anolik.

This Thunderbird Has an Incredible Backstory

According to the listing, the car had a crash shortly after winning the abovementioned award, and that’s when custom front-end bodywork was created. It’s reportedly been rebuilt three times between 1954 and 1959, with the last year being when it was reintroduced in silver and red at the Oakland Roadster Show, where fellow builder George Barris dubbed the car, which was originally blue, the “Moon Rocket.” The car was toured across America and also raced in NHRA events, but after a fire at Bonneville Speed Week in September 1960, it was disassembled and stored until 2010, when it was placed on a rotisserie and reassembled by its original builder. Later that year, it was sold, with the new seller restoring the Moon Rocket over the course of several years. Under the hood is a 331 cubic inch (5.4-liter) Cadillac V8 with a GMC blower, quad Stromberg carburetor, and a three-speed manual transmission from a LaSalle (a now-defunct GM brand that was positioned alongside Cadillac). The shifter for this transmission is also out of the GM parts catalog, having been sourced from a C1 Corvette, and other highlights include a dual exhaust system with Smitty mufflers, a power-adjustable bench seat, and an AM radio.

Overdone in Every Sense of the Word

Besides the outrageous bodywork and the protruding power plant, the car has been overdone in the paint booth, too, with some 31 coats of lacquer paint reportedly being applied during its refurbishment. But why not? This is a car with a louvered tail panel made from 1941 Chevrolet truck door skins; nothing on this car is ordinary. Fake side pipes are made from 1936 Ford driveshafts, the taillights are from a 1956 Buick, the fuel filler is now on the trunk, and there’s no way to put a roof on this thing anymore. The BaT listing documents a lot more of this once-famous build, and for whoever does buy this weird and wonderful one-off, it’s still got plenty of life in it, with just 54,000 miles on the odometer.