In 1984 Ford was in development with Yamaha, planning on making two different cars, both using the same power plant. One of which actually met the light of day, was the Ford Taurus SHO. It was initially designed to be a sport sedan, to take on the 5-Series BMW’s, and were an instant success, eventually receiving praise and awards from auto magazine publishers and reviewers such as Motor Week. The other vehicle intended to release was the GN34. Ford had never decided upon a better name as it was axed later on. The car was either to be a MR or MAWD car, similar to Lamborghini and Ferrari. It was to have a 3.2-3.8 NA SHO V6 making upwards of 300hp, which would have been a serious competitor for Chevy’s Corvette at the time as well. In development ford had 3 different groups design a body/chassis for the car: Ghia ( which their version is shown above ), Chausson, and SVO. The thought behind the car, was to be a $25,000 alternative to the Ferrari Testarossa, that was also a cheaper and smaller version of the GT90 ( which Ford had axed as well ). Ford had a plan, to advance into the performance market of the world, but the desire and funding was really there for them to take the risk, and ford ended up all together only producing the Taurus SHO and the Sn95 mustang which was designed in a similar department of Ford, evolving from the Mach 3, but that is for another time.
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In 1984 Ford was in development with Yamaha, planning on making two different cars, both using the same power plant. One of which actually met the light of day, was the Ford Taurus SHO. It was initially designed to be a sport sedan, to take on the 5-Series BMW’s, and were an instant success, eventually receiving praise and awards from auto magazine publishers and reviewers such as Motor Week. The other vehicle intended to release was the GN34. Ford had never decided upon a better name as it was axed later on. The car was either to be a MR or MAWD car, similar to Lamborghini and Ferrari. It was to have a 3.2-3.8 NA SHO V6 making upwards of 300hp, which would have been a serious competitor for Chevy’s Corvette at the time as well. In development ford had 3 different groups design a body/chassis for the car: Ghia ( which their version is shown above ), Chausson, and SVO. The thought behind the car, was to be a $25,000 alternative to the Ferrari Testarossa, that was also a cheaper and smaller version of the GT90 ( which Ford had axed as well ). Ford had a plan, to advance into the performance market of the world, but the desire and funding was really there for them to take the risk, and ford ended up all together only producing the Taurus SHO and the Sn95 mustang which was designed in a similar department of Ford, evolving from the Mach 3, but that is for another time.