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Well, the GT was the starting point for the striking Shelby GR-1 concept coupe of 2005, so that’s one possibility. For the sake of everyone in the company and all who love cars, we hope Ford will come up with the “better ideas” it so urgently needs. Can it succeed? While we can’t say for sure at this writing, we think there’s a better-than-even chance. First, though, Ford Motor Company must get back on its feet. Ford has staked its reputation — and thus its future — on innovation. Several planned products hold promise, especially the hybrid-power versions of the Fusion and other models to follow up on the popularity of the 2005 Escape Hybrid, the first gas/electric SUV from an American auto manufacturer.
Even the Mondeo dash was little altered for the States. A new all-Ford design optional on lesser Contours, this engine made 170 spirited horses — enough for Consumer Guide®’s five-speed car to charge from 0 to 60 mph in just 8.9 seconds. Still, this was the closest America had yet come to an affordable European-style sports sedan. Critics raved. Road & Track called Contour “a giant step forward in the compact sedan arena.” Car and Driver termed it “stunningly satisfying.” Those verdicts came from road tests of the top-line SE model and its 2.5-liter “Duratec” V-6. Unfortunately, so was its snug interior. Despite a wheelbase half-an-inch longer than Taurus’, the Contour was frankly cramped in back, with little underseat footroom and marginal knee, leg, and headroom.
One outside team was headed by George Walker, bangkok condo for sales (best site bangkok.thaibounty.com) who hired onetime GM and Raymond Loewy employee Richard Caleal to join designers Joe Oros and Elwood Engel. When Caleal became disenchanted with the direction taken by the other members of the Walker team, he was given permission to pursue his own ideas at his home in Indiana. Working in his kitchen with clay modelers Joe Thompson and John Lutz, Caleal shaped his design.
Serving “active safety” were standard antilock four-wheel disc brakes and traction control. Though classed as a large car by Consumer Guide®, the EPA, and others, the Five Hundred arrived with a midsize-car engine: a modestly improved “Duratec 30” twincam V-6 with 203 bhp. Drivelines were brand-new, however. Most front-drive models employed a six-speed automatic — Ford’s first — and there were all-wheel-drive versions with a “gearless” continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).
V-8 choices expanded via two new “FE-series” big-blocks: a 332 offering 240/265 horsepower, and a 300-bhp 352. A deep national recession cut Ford volume to just under 988,000 cars. Chevrolet sold over 1.1 million, but spent much more money to do so. Chevy then unveiled an all-new line of radical “bat-fin” cars for 1959. Ford replied with more-conservative styling that helped it close the model-year gap to less than 12,000 units.
