9/11 Firefighter's T-Bird Restored: SEMA Feel-Good Story of The Year

By Jen

Editor

Because the SEMA show is so huge, it’s inevitable that you’ll only get to see some of the coolest cars after the fact—like this ’55 Thunderbird that I read about today in the SEMA newsletter. What’s special about this ride is that it belongs to John McLoughlin, the 9/11 firefighter who spent nearly 24 hours trapped under the smoldering rubble of WTC 2, and whose story is dramatized in the Oliver Stone film World Trade Center. When Melvin Benzaquen of Classic Restoration Enterprises discovered that McLoughlin owned a rotting basketcase of a T-Bird that would probably never see the road again, he decided to restore the classic completely from the ground up—free of charge. The unveiling at SEMA was the first time the 9/11 hero had laid eyes on his beloved T-Bird since its restoration. Check out the full story at SEMA’s site.