I came across this site (click on the title of this posting above) the other day... I had no idea a site dedicated to the Ford EXP would ever or could ever exist. I didn't even think anybody would ever remember this thing.
I never owned one... I never wanted to and never would even imagine such a thing. But I did drive one once in the mid-eighties. This was in the fall of 1983 (the beginning of the 1984 model year). A brand new 1984 120 HP turbo EXP had just come in at the dealer. The dealer's owner, being a a friend, tossed me the keys. I looked over the car - it was odd beyond belief. The styling appears to want to imitate a car with pop-up headlamps...up! Perhaps the budget failed at the last minute and the car was originally supposed to have pop-ups? I seem to remember a spy pic in AutoWeek of such a thing.
Speaking of the car mags, I remember when Car & Driver and Road & Track went at it against each other in the (in)famous 24 hour endurance race at Watkins Glen (this was before the SVOs were brought) in matching EXPs. These were naturally aspirated cars - with all of ~90 HP! As I remember, both entries failed due to repeated front wheel bearing failure. The hot ticket was the European Diesel bearing, if I remember, and of course Ford of N.A. got cheap with their development budget. Seems to me I also remember that the entire line of Escorts (and more recently the Focus) have all had this issue. Ford apparently never got it right.
The test drive started well enough.. I started the car and remember a nice burble in the exhaust. When I took off, there was HUGE torque steer (far more than in the Rabbit GTI I had driven a few months before). It was all I could do to immediately let off the gas. One tire was spinning like mad... there was traction from (barely) 1 side. If the EXP wasn't already entirely pointless, it sure was once you drove it.
The handling, despite Michelin TRX tires, was also poor. The seats were a cheap version of the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe seats (Lear Siegler), the same cheap seats used in my own (and much-hated) 1983 Mustang GT. Again, in both ways, the GTI was far superior. When I finally got back to the dealer, one front tire was ruined (and not from me abusing it, all it did was spin the entire time) and the engine was hot (Fords were as bad from over-heating in street driving as they are now).
All in all, a very very *very* poor effort by Ford.
Some time later, I did notice a somewhat better effort - but not by Ford. I was at a swap meet in Columbus when there was a huge exhaust and induction roar behind me. I turned around in came.. .an EXP! I walked over to talk to the driver... the car had been converted to RWD and it was powered by a BOSS 429 engine. Built for drag racing, it was nonetheless registered for the street (something you couldn't get away with these days). I saw this car featured in Super Ford sometime later (you may be able to find that issue for reference). I may have some pictures somewhere, I'll have to dig around and see what I've got.
The car evolved a bit over the years of it's lifespan, eventually switching to the front end from the later Escort GT (1986?) along with it's far better 1.9 liter "CVT" engine. That engine was the first Escort engine specifically designed for North America, and had decent torque and acceleration - especially in the even later high-output "GT" form. But, as is so typical from Ford, even that car never approached the far more serious Escorts in Europe - such as the : 1982 RS1600i Seems that Ford never learns.. even today our own N.A. Focus is a mere shadow of it's European namesake. It's down 1 evolution of the platform, it's down 1 cylinder, it's down 1 turbo, and it's down in nearly every other way.
