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1961
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The biggest news at Ford for 1961 was not car-related. President John F Kennedy appointed Robert MacNamara as Secretary of Defense. Lee Iaccoca took over MacNamara's role as company president, his biggest legacy would be removing corporate silos internationally thereby paving the way for sharing models across the globe.

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The Thunderbird was redesigned for 1961. The car returned to being a two seater and sported sleek styling that made it look more compact than the 1960 model despite having the same exterior dimensions.


For 1961, Ford redesigned its pickup trucks. They tried something new. The cab and bed were integrated into a single unit body construction. This meant greater structural rigidity and lower stamping costs but this idea had some big downsides. Some owners complained that putting a heavy load in the bed would distort the sills and jam the doors shut. Others claimed the twisting motion from going over railroad tracks would pop the doors open. Ford scrambled to get a traditional seperate bed and cab model into production.

Ford saw sales jump in front of Chevrolet in 1961 as former Mercury buyers migrated over, a position the blue oval would hold largely uninterrupted.

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