The American hot-rodders Hennessey were made famous by bolting a set of turbochargers to Dodge Vipers and then tuning them to produce anywhere from 800 to 1000 HP and given the name Venom. Now the tuners are focusing their attention to the new Ford Taurus SHO. Because the Taurus is part of Ford’s new Ecoboost family, the turbos now come from the factory, and because the manufacturer’s intention was to increase fuel economy there should be plenty of unused power waiting to be unleashed. Expect to see basic upgrades like intakes, exhausts and even boost controllers at first; but turbo and intercooler upgrades should follow close behind.
The new Ford Taurus SHO is already impressive, sporting a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V-6 engine that delivers 365 hp at 5,500 rpm and 350 ft.-lbs. of torque at 3,500 rpm. We’ve already seen what Hennessey can do with a Viper, so we’re getting excited about what may come from the family hauler.
Guess who’s back and all grown up? The Ford Taurus SHO was first introduced in 1989, and now the 2010 model is ready for its first big-boy drink.
We haven’t seen this old friend in almost a decade, and it seems the SHO has been spending most of that time in the gym. The original car was considered impressive with its 220 hp, and the last generation peaked with a 3.4-liter V8 making 235 hp. Now the 2010 car is SHOwing its muscles with a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V-6 engine that delivers 365 hp at 5,500 rpm and 350 ft.-lbs. of torque at 3,500 rpm.
The new SHO gets help by using the 2010 Taurus for its base looks. The sport treatment also adds decklid-mounted spoiler, twin chrome exhaust tips, and new wheels with low-profile 19-inch Goodyear Eagle or optional 20-inch Michelin high-performance tires. It will go on sale this summer, starting at a base price of $37,995.
Press release after the jump.
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Motor Trend caught the 2010 Ford Taurus testing. It will carry some elements of Europe’s "kinetic design" styling, but also design elements from current North American vehicles.
The 2010 Taurus will still be offered as a front-drive model, but AWD will be offered as an option. It will be offered in two different options: the current car’s Volvo-sourced D platform and the Mazda-derived CD3 platform that underpins the new Flex crossover.
Under the hood there will be the same EcoBoost family of engines that will first debut in the Lincoln MKS.
Most cars at auto shows are highly polished and gleaming, except one – a Ford Taurus that crashed into a 1 million pound wall at 35 mph en route to the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Deliberately.
Ford wants New York International Auto Show visitors to see how the Taurus – rated ‘Top Safety Pick’ by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) – fared in the 35 mph crash test. Positioned in the same place occupied by the seated crash-test dummy, showgoers view video of the actual crash test.
“We want people to see what happens in the blink of an eye,” said Stephen Kozak, North American safety chief engineer for Ford Motor Company. “We want to open people’s eyes that not all cars are created equal when it comes to safety. There is a difference and we want to show why Taurus is the safest rated large sedan sold in America.”
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Apparently when Ford CEO Alan Mulally waxed eloquent last week about the anticipated 2010 Taurus, calling it the car the company should have been building all along, he was being more accurate than it first appeared. According to Edmunds.com, the 2010 Taurus isn’t a new car, it’s a face lift of the current one, itself a mild facelift of the Ford 500. An all new Taurus isn’t on track until 2012, it seems. Apparently, however, Ford has decided that the current Taurus is in sufficiently desperate circumstances that diverting attention from the 2012 model long enough for an unplanned redo of the current car is warranted.
The redo includes sheet metal and interior changes, according to an unnamed Ford supplier cited by Edmunds. Exterior styling is said to be more aggressive and interior materials are described as “richer.”
Ford sales have been dropping dramatically over the past year, so Ford may feel that it must do something with the 500/Taurus as rapidly as possible to keep the Taurus name viable until the all new model arrives. But, restyling an existing car is generally confined to redoing the front and rear. Modifying the core body shell, which includes the doors, is far too expensive to be practical, though the doors can be reskinned. That means, however, that the basic profile of the car cannot be changed.
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Ford Motor Company carries plenty of hometown momentum into the 51st Annual New England Auto Show by winning an award from New England journalists and debuting a race truck for Boston-based Roush Fenway Racing.
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Ford Motor Company yesterday announced that it has hired Jim Farley, most recently the U.S. boss of Lexus and previously the marketing manager for
Toyota who supervised the launch of the
Scion line, as its new marketing manager. His title will be “Chief Marketing and Communications Officer.â
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History is replete with civilian Detroit cars that were upgraded to “performance” cars, wowed the folks at Car and Driver and Motor Trend, and then screwed everyone who bought one.
Exhibit A would be the
Ford Taurus SHO.
In 1989, Car and Driver put it on the cover and compared it favorably to German performance sedans.
Unfortunately for the owners, the clutch in the car was only good for 15,000 miles. It came out of an Escort. Eventually, Ford solved the problem by (...
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2008 Ford Taurus X was awarded today by IIHS a Top Safety Pick, after it has received the government’s highest five-star rash test ratings. The 2008 Taurus X will be available on showrooms starting this summer.
The IIHS Top Safety Pick rating can only be earned by vehicles that achieve the best-available safety performance in front, side and rear collisions and offer electronic stability control. In addition to its Top Safety Pick designation, Taurus X is among a small group of vehicles in (...)
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Ford has announced pricing for the 2008 Taurus X. Priced at $27,365, the crossover that replaces the Freestyle will be available on showrooms this summer.
In the change from the Freestyle to Taurus X, Ford has made several major upgrades. Among them:
A new 3.5-liter V-6 engine that makes 263 hp, 60 more than the Freestyle’s 3.0-liter. A new six-speed automatic transmission that replaces the continuously variable unit that is going out of production. A restyled front end (...)
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