DRIVING: that's what it's ALL ABOUT! A blog and website for automotive driving enthusiasts, featuring my interests as I see them: news and opinion about manufacturers of interest, significant enthusiast cars, and driving them hard and well.
All blog postings on this site go on my site's main RSS feed, but very often they also go into 1 or more of 48 other posting categories - each with it's own matching RSS feed. This way readers can focus only on their own interests and not get burderned with other news and information they may not care about.
As an example: this is certainly a good thing for Ford fans... who would have no interest in the S2000 blogs - and vice-versa.
An additional purpose of all these categories is to make searches for information in old postings easier. I've posted almost 2100 times in the past few years... and there is a wealth of interesting and valuable information embedded in all fo those posts. Categories is how you can find it.
But what if you want to look over all prior posts for a particular topic, going back to the beginning?
Here's how: under the list of Blog Categories, is the "Index of all Postings". This page will show you all the categories again - but when you click on one this time you'll see a listing of all prior blogs for that category by title. Click on any title of interest, see that posting.
A private campaign to persuade Ford to bring out a SHO model of the new Taurus. This image is their idea of what a 2010 SHO would look, parked next to like next to a 2008 "SLO".
"SLO" is the term used by SHO enthusiasts for non-SHO Tauri.
I have a couple of issues with the rendering:
Bumper height is changed - this can't happen. Ford has to meet the regulatory requirements for any potential new model. While a half inch or so might be optimized (dependent on firmer spring rates), the kind of difference shown above won't work.
Neither will the tire clearance. You'll also note the increased tire height.
And I have a couple of basic issues with the idea of a SHO model based on the Taurus.
The Taurus is *large*, and heavy. >200 inches long, and >3800 pounds in weight with a "SLO" V-6 and AWD. Is this the platform we want underpinning a new SHO? Why not the Fusion, which is smaller, lighter, and far more nimbler?
What engine to use? Their forum is bristling with mega-HP dreams... and that was not what the SHO was all about. The SHO was about a small displacement engine making very good but not excessive power. Instead, it was a fun engine to drive and flexible over a wide rev range. What modern Ford engine could be used here? The Yamaha V-8 comes to mind, as does the Lincoln twin-turbo V-6. Both are expensive, but good news is that their budget is being paid by Volvo and Lincoln.
Then there is the transmission issue. Transmissions have always been the downfall of past SHOs. The transmisision here would preferably be a 6-speed manual that is going to have to take between 325 and ~360 lb-ft of torque depending on the engine used. Yes, we all want a manual - but reality is that one doesn't exist that can handle that and there is no transmission development budget (~$100M) for a very short run that has a very limited market.
Clearly given Ford's near-fatal financial issues, there won't be budget for a unique engine or transmission. With >$23B in loads and even the corporate HQ and factories mortgaged, money is very very tight. Instead, the SHO woudl have to be a handling package and a reuse of existing engines and transmissions.
I'm very glad to see that the SHO moniker is being proposed, rather than "SVT". SVT might have some lingering appeal, but in reality their products were of poor quality and required numerous recalls and repairs. We're better off without them. Ford apparently agrees: SVT was killed off and the entire original staff is no more. All that remains is a virtual team of engineers assigned to individual product teams as suspension experts. Evenb Coletti is gone - and some believe the quality issues of the Ford GT were the last straw there. Lets use the SHO name instead... even if it doesn't end up being used on a Taurus.
Being a former SHO owner (twice), I wish these folks luck with their campaign. I woudln't bet ont he results, because even if Ford wnated to do such a thing, the potential market is small (and was never very much in terms of volume, leading to the cancellation of the original SHO) and the development budget is probably nil. One possible path to a SHO might be to bring a "sports" version to market to test the reaction. But then that is exactly what is scheduled for the Fusion before it gets a performance model later on. Again, the overlap with the Fusion.
This engineering "mule" is a Charger with a Challenger front end. The purpose is to test cooling thru the new grill, packaging of the engine compartment, or possibly even new front suspension components. Mules build on an existing platform save money over building the complete car and allows engineers to finds problems before investing in the complete car - which is very expensive to build.
The platform underneath the car is essentially the same as the 300C/Charger/Magnum, although some believe the Challenger will use a gen 2 version of the platform. And I'd like to see some serious weight-saving measures - because the Challenger is a *large* car. Even larger than the tank Mustang and the upcoming Camaro.
Hopefully the front leading edge of the Challenger will be the same as the concept car - instead of the rediculous very high leading edge of the Charger. The huge grill the high leading edge forces is beyond is beyond ugly, IMHO.
