Our coverage of SHO topics today ends with two videos of a SHO Taurus at Watkins Glen. From July 2008.
Kudos to the driver of the SHO. When I was driving the Glen with the local BMW club back in the early eighties, they hated the fact that a mere Ford Mustang was passing most of their cars so easily (what's a 115 HP 1.8 liter SOHC engine to do?). So much so that it was suggested I consider racing elsewhere. To hell with them & their elitist attitude - I went back anyway.
This makes me wish I'd taken my own SHO to the Glen when I had my chance to visit there again in 1993... instead I took my Mustang GT. It did well... but after seeing these videos I wish I'd taken the SHO. It's charge up into the upper RPM range would have been great fun down the back straight (as was my original Mustang SVO)... but course Saturday night it would have needed completely new front rotors, calipers, pads, and bearings. But then so did the GT (despite the big SVO 5-lug 4-wheel disc braking system).
Yes, SHO Tauri are alive and well... and are moving into the collectible realm. There are technical problems galore... but the *very* active SHO clubs across the country are a great resource.
Will Ford ever again create something as unique as the original SHO? Doubtful... an AWD Taurus/Volvo with a Lincoln engine (assuming it ever comes to be) might be a nice car but it won't introduce the same measure of uniqueness in the market that the original did.
Yamaha owns the rights to the SHO name for engines, while Ford owns the rights for cars. Yamaha is not sitting down - their new 1.8 liter SHO supercharged engine in the jet ski shown below accelerates faster from 0-30 than a Z06 Corvette. Like Ford's original SHO engine, this one is very much worthy of the name.
Follow the link in the title of this post above for more information.
But wait - there's more. This time the SHO engine is put into a Cobra kit car. It's not a real Cobra, so what the heck...? On the other hand, the engine is far more modern than any of the iron lumps originally offered. And it looks the part of a true exotic - the SHO engine is an engine which you would be proud to SHOw.
Follow the link in the title of this post for more images.
We've been posting nearly every SHO engine swap we've seen - but to date there hasn't been as clean and professional a swap as this one. The SHO engine looks like a factory option under the hood of this 1972 MBG. Follow the link in the title of this posting to the owner's site for full details.
Looking over our site stats here at the DrivingEnthusiast network, we see a couple of hundred hits in the last month from the folks at the SHOForum.com forums. They are reading our comparison of our original '89 versus our '97.
You'll find plenty of SHO information on this site - we were an enthusiast SHO owner twice. We've got information about these original SHOs, and much more including SHO engine swaps and projects.
And while there may be another SHO around the corner from Ford (new Taurus, AWD, 3.5 liter twin-turbo with 340 horse/340 torque - but only if near-bankrupt Ford can afford to do it right), it will be tough to beat the originality of the first SHO (and the resulting owner loyalty). The original SHO was from a different Ford Motor Company, one that had a different set of problems (although not life-threatening) and some serious quality issues, but one who also knew that true (versus poseur) performance enthusiasts look for all-around & balanced performance - not simpleton straight-line performance at the expense of all else. Lets hope the current Ford Motor Company tries to more fully understand it's potential customer base and doesn't leave most of them out of the equation of they ever again try to build a true performance sedan again.
From Autoweek, July 18 1994. A Tennessee Corvette tuning company named Air Dynamics built this prototype of a mid-engine sports car that they intended to put in limited production. Owner John Watson intended to build about 6 per year at $100k apiece in 1994 dollars. Initially, the SHO engine was stock (225 HP, under-rated), although a 300-HP version was planned later. The Wraith II weighed 2600 pounds and was composite-bodied. It uses 18" wheels and rides on a 100 inch wheelbase for a total of 179 inches in length.
Apparently none were built beyond this prototype. However, the basis for this prototype was the "Turbo Interceptor" from the movie "The Wraith" (a very early Charlie Sheen film). John Watson had planned to offer that car as a kit for $70k, so apparently the $100k "II" model included the engine and was complete. The Wraith from the movie of the same name is shown to the upper left.
Well, the secret is out, and Ford has done all but admit it by going after websites who published the picture. Yes, the glove fits, and he did it.
But lets stay real here... this is obviously just a clay styling buck - so it does not mean that this *is* the final appearance of the upcoming "new" Ford Taurus.
Do note that the roofline is very similar, if not the same. And the overall proportions of the car are the same. And of course a this point in time an all-new Taurus is an impossibility given Ford's financial crisis. So if this is it then it's just a "top hat" restyle (like the new F-150).
The good news is that we know the Taurus will receive the EcoBoost engine - that's already been revealed. But then so will everything built on this platform (Flex, MKS, MKT) as well as the new F-150 and very likely the 2010 Mustang as well. The April 7, 2008 Automotive News notes that the Taurus and Mustang will both go into productioin in "early 2009". I interpret that as meaning that the model year 2010 will be a long one.
Meet the new Ford EcoBoost twin-turbo DOHC V-6 engine. Follow the link in the title of this post above and select the "EcoBoost" section. Press releases, and several technical high-res images are available. Note the EcoBoost blog category I've set up to highlight EcoBoost topics.
Click on the image to the right for just one of several high-res images showing parts of the engine in great detail.
This interesting new engine will be available in 2009 in the Lincoln MKS and MKT, the Ford Flex, the new F-150, and the 2010 Taurus (SHO?). It only makes 340-350 HP, and it's not intercooled. But it does make ~340 torque and the torque curve is very flat. It's been shown and discussed only with a 6-speed automatic at this point, although further transmissions are a possibility. Although Ford is not talking any further details, it's interesting to note that Ford has started to use a new automated manual dual-clutch 6-speed transmission in Europe behind a meager 4-cylinder engine. An advanced and much higher capacity version of that same type of transmission (although from Getrag) is used in the new Mitsubisho Evo X MR - and it's rated there at 340 torque. That'd make a nice SHO transmission!
Did you know that Yamaha is producing a new SHO engine? Sorry, it's unrelated to our favorite Taurus engine... except that it is from Yamaha and they do brand it specifically as a "SHO".
The new SHO engine is 1.8 liter DOHC 4-cyliner, EFI, 4-stroke with a one-peice block and head, and is supercharged. It's the largest engine ever offered in a PWC and Yamaha claims it accelerates from 0-30 faster than a Corvette Z06 (it's been tested at 2.2 seconds). Specific power figures are well over the >215 HP range.
Follow the link in the title above to the Yamaha FX SHO site.
Specific power figures are well over the >215 HP range. 
