Frank Hershey and William Boyer are credited with the design of the first generation Thunderbird which was launched at Detroit in Spring 1954 as a 1955 model. Although the green light for its development was given by Louis Crusoe and George Walker after they saw the unveiling of the Chevrolet Corvette prototype at the 1953 Paris Salon. In fact Ford were already developing a car and it was this project that was fast-tracked in response to the Corvette. Underneath the Thunderbird lay a shortened chassis frame of their larger cars and a Mercury V8 engine. Ford never saw the T-bird as a Sports Car, but rather what their own Jonah Lucas Bender termed a 'Personal Car'; a term later given to the Ford Mustang 1964. In 1955 the Thunderbird was given a more powerful 5.1litre V8, revised grille and lights. 1956-year Thunderbirds were given a rear-mounted spare wheel to increase boot space, but this was dropped for the 1957-year as it gave poor handling. 1957-year Thunderbirds also had revised lights and badging. Elements of the Ford Thunderbird can be found in the British Ford Consul. For the 1958 year a new second generation Ford Thunderbird was launched as a much longer four seater car.