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The BirdCats web site, now known as the TCCoA, came about as an offshoot of the Super Coupe Club of America's site. The SCCoA announced the decision to stick with the Super Coupes and only with Super Coupes.. This left all of the NA 3.8L, 5.0L and 4.6L owners out there with no real place to find information on their cars. There were also many SC owners who were looking for more than their present club could offer them. There were and are several personal sites that have a lot of pics and info, but no single depository of this information. That's when we stepped in.
On February 22, 1998, the first incarnation of what was known as the BirdCats site went online. There was much discussion on the name, but it was all we came up with at the time. The idea was that it was short, easy to remember, it included both MN12 cars, it fit well on printed merchandise, and the domain name was available.
By March 3rd, we'd reached 1000 hits and just 6 days later we had 1000 more! On March 12th, BirdCats.com went online with support from some very generous readers and has been growing ever since. BirdCats received its 10,000th hit on 5/1/98, its 20,000th hit on 6/5/98 and continued to gain traffic.
On April 16th, it was decided to make BirdCats an official club. We started accepting members that day. Mark McCormack was asked to come on board as Vice President and he enthusistically accepted the position. With Mark's help we obtained some substantial discounts on parts for the clubs members and the membership started to grow. The only funding this club has is from the membership dues. We do not now nor will we ever sell parts or non club-promoting merchandise, as we feel this would be a conflict of interest. Our focus is on our club members only and the opportunities to help MN12 owners obtain some fantastic discounts on parts and accessories, (these range from factory to performance parts as well as some unique handling components that will be available only to club members), general and tech support, initiating & testing new and exciting prototypes, and getting together to participate in car shows and events around the country.
We rang in the New Year with our main page receiving a total of over 100,00 hits and over 5,000,000 raw hits (wow) to the Technical & Misc. BBS's. As membership continues to grow, we strive to offer more and more to our members. We found that the name BirdCats, while being a good name on its own, didn't provide enough info by itself. People outside the website had no idea what our club was all about. Having to explain it all too often to potential members led us to understand that it was time for a change. Our name must include both Thunderbirds and Cougars specifically and it needs a title that will reflect our professional image.
Therefore, on February 12, 1999, the new TCCoA website went online and was announced to the readers. Although the initials are similar to other 'Clubs of America', rest assured there is no other club out there like ours! To those of you who have written in with comments and suggestions, thanks for your input and keep those ideas coming.
Around late Summer 2000, we decided to bring 1983-1988 Fox Body Thunderbirds and Cougars as well as 1984-1992 Lincoln Mark VIIs under our Wings.
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