Ford Experimental -Concept Vehicles

[shelbydoug]

I know that exact spot on the banks at Utica. I ran over a 66 GT350's left brake scoop there in '82.

He was going so fast it blew off of the car. Who expects to run over a brake scoop?

He was trying to outrun me and get me out of his rear view mirror.  All he saw was a grin. I should have been watching more carefully but you know at that speed you need to look down the road pretty far and I was looking past him.

The rules were, no passing and I didn't want to embarrass him anyway. The Webers were on the car then and they were just getting warmed up at 6,500 rpm.

Plus I did have some concern. The air through the nostrils of the hood was whistling and the hood was rippling from being sucked on by the carbs. When I came in, Eber said, "do you know I could hear the car whistling all the way out there?"

Maybe it was bored and just humming a tune? 



Interesting concept car. Kind of like a go cart at that point?

[FL SAAC]

Kool story thanks for sharing

I know that exact spot on the banks at Utica. I ran over a 66 GT350's left brake scoop there in '82.

He was going so fast it blew off of the car. Who expects to run over a brake scoop?

He was trying to outrun me and get me out of his rear view mirror.  All he saw was a grin. I should have been watching more carefully but you know at that speed you need to look down the road prety far and I was looking past him.

The rules were, no passing and I didn't want to embarrass him anyway. The Webers were on the car then and they were just getting warmed up at 6,500 rpm.

Plus I did have some concern. The air through the nostrils of the hood was whistling and the hood was rippling from being sucked on by the carbs. When I came in, Eber said, "do you know I could hear the car whistling all the way out there?"

Maybe it was bored and just humming a tune? 

Interesting concept car. Kind of like a go cart at that point?

[FL SAAC]

1962 Mustang concept

[shelbydoug]

Kool story thanks for sharing

I know that exact spot on the banks at Utica. I ran over a 66 GT350's left brake scoop there in '82.

He was going so fast it blew off of the car. Who expects to run over a brake scoop?

He was trying to outrun me and get me out of his rear view mirror.  All he saw was a grin. I should have been watching more carefully but you know at that speed you need to look down the road prety far and I was looking past him.

The rules were, no passing and I didn't want to embarrass him anyway. The Webers were on the car then and they were just getting warmed up at 6,500 rpm.

Plus I did have some concern. The air through the nostrils of the hood was whistling and the hood was rippling from being sucked on by the carbs. When I came in, Eber said, "do you know I could hear the car whistling all the way out there?"

Maybe it was bored and just humming a tune? 

Interesting concept car. Kind of like a go cart at that point?

Sooner or later the owner of the 66 is gonna' get on my case?

Maybe he should have used bigger rivets? 

[Dkutz]

I never knew about this Turbine semi.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/35030/fords-giant-turbine-semi-truck-big-red-is-lost-somewhere-in-the-american-southeast?fbclid=IwAR34Kx1HZgP61_tKgHhYUUr3HkV5dWXZzh04cKCHDpQ0TNhfm_B1Z0VhhZ8

[FL SAAC]

larger ribets.....

Kool story thanks for sharing

I know that exact spot on the banks at Utica. I ran over a 66 GT350's left brake scoop there in '82.

He was going so fast it blew off of the car. Who expects to run over a brake scoop?

He was trying to outrun me and get me out of his rear view mirror.  All he saw was a grin. I should have been watching more carefully but you know at that speed you need to look down the road prety far and I was looking past him.

The rules were, no passing and I didn't want to embarrass him anyway. The Webers were on the car then and they were just getting warmed up at 6,500 rpm.

Plus I did have some concern. The air through the nostrils of the hood was whistling and the hood was rippling from being sucked on by the carbs. When I came in, Eber said, "do you know I could hear the car whistling all the way out there?"

Maybe it was bored and just humming a tune? 

Interesting concept car. Kind of like a go cart at that point?

Sooner or later the owner of the 66 is gonna' get on my case?

Maybe he should have used bigger rivets? 

[FL SAAC]

outstanding

I never knew about this Turbine semi.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/35030/fords-giant-turbine-semi-truck-big-red-is-lost-somewhere-in-the-american-southeast?fbclid=IwAR34Kx1HZgP61_tKgHhYUUr3HkV5dWXZzh04cKCHDpQ0TNhfm_B1Z0VhhZ8

[FL SAAC]

continuing our educational process, here we have the 1954 Ford Maxima

this three-wheeled Maxima designed in 1954, intending to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Henry Ford's land-speed record at the helm of the Arrow. A jet engine would have theoretically powered the Maxima to 500 MPH; the Farrells claimed that it would later inspire Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America land-speed car.

to infinity a and beyond.....

[FL SAAC]

1956 Thunderbird Mexico

Alex Tremulis' design philosophy had always been to strike a happy marriage between aircraft and automotive styling. As a teenager, he already inherently knew that smooth flowing lines would not only look better but would be more efficient at slicing through the air. During World War II he spent a great amount of time designing aircraft to fly faster than had ever been achieved through the use of wind tunnels. It would be at Ford, over a decade later, that he'd finally be able to prove his automotive philosophy in the design for a streamlined Thunderbird capable of speeds of over 200 miles per hour. By mid-1955, Chevrolet was already exploring design improvements to their 1956 Corvette that would eventually lead to the 1957 Sebring SS. It would be Tremulis' competitive spirit that would bring the much-needed data that only the design refinement within a wind tunnel could provide. Tremulis' highly modified supercharged 1956 Thunderbird Mexico was going to be Ford's reply to Chevy's racing Corvettes, including wind tunnel tests for a car incorporating ground effects now common on all high performance cars.

As Tremulis put it: "I have always considered the Mexico as a milestone. It opened the door to the windtunnel for the first serious investigation of the new aerodynamic art of the automobile. For many years when I thought I was on the verge of selling a wind tunnel program I was always shot down with arguments such as - 'But Alex, remember the Chrysler Airflow'. Some even referred to it as the 'Airflop'. Others presented arguments such as - 'If all automobiles were streamlined they would all look alike.' I would counter their arguments by comparing the styling of two airplanes: The Lockheed Constellation and the DC7. Both planes had the same HP, they weighed the same, they went as fast and they were as different as night and day."

Although the Mexico never made it to a full-scale model, the development of many future record-setting race cars and their drivers would benefit directly from the lessons learned by Tremulis a decade earlier.

[Side-Oilers]

^^^Any info on why it was named the Mexico?^^

[FL SAAC]

No sir, could be the designers personal preference

Notice on the attached the name keeps being mentioned

^^^Any info on why it was named the Mexico?^^

[honker]

1955 Lincoln Capri Sportsman

[FL SAAC]

X 1000

By 1955, Fords use of the fin on their production vehicles was still in its infancy, but back at the design studios the fin was reaching for the stars. Ford stylist Alex Tremulis designed the X-1000 during 1955-1956. The X-1000 was a pure flight of fancy. While many concept cars forecasted a significant design concept that would later appear on a production-based car, the X-1000 was a pure dream. The only components of the X-1000 that would see the production line were a few instrument panel knobs. A streamlined car by any standards, the X-1000 featured smooth lines and a huge set of fins that actually retracted into the body. The X-1000 was also designed to use a rear-mounted gas-turbine engine and it was campaigned extensively on the auto show circuit. A live display at the Chicago Auto Show featured several Ford modelers deeply engrossed in building a clay mock-up of the X-1000. This gave the general public a firsthand look at how the design studios actually worked.



FQRD'S model jet-styled X-1000 has floating fins, retractable canopy, instruments and push-button transmission controls in its steering wheel hub-features you may see on future cars. It also has three seats set in triangular pattern; the driver's seat swivels for easy access.

[FL SAAC]

1958 Ford De Paolo

This Ford concept car appears in the 1966 book Automobiles of the Future by Irwin Stambler. The description of the car appears below.

"Exotic engines of tomorrow may provide the power for a sports car such as this, which could be mass-produced while keeping the appearance of a racing car."



Though Tremulis didn't design the 1956 DePaolo 3/8-scale model, another of Tremulis's designs (the DePalma), inspired Buzz Grisinger to submit the DePaolo design for Ford's Stylerama program. Named for Peter DePaolo, Indy 500 winner and, later, Ford racing coordinator, the design – which looks to borrow much from contemporary Bonneville streamliners and "represent an inversion of the form most typical of American automotive styling," according to the Farrells – eventually became the catalyst for Robert McNamara's interchangeability program, which aimed to reduce costs by creating common body panels across the Ford, Mercury and Edsel model lines.

The Farrells credit Tremulis with a number of other concept cars as well, including the aforementioned DePalma and X-1000, the 1954 Mexico, the 1954 Taj Mahal, the 1955 Madam X, the 1956 999 dragster, the late 1950s Wind Brake Car, the 1956 Scorpion and the 1961 Astrion. He would found his own consulting and design firm after leaving Ford.

[FL SAAC]

1957-58 X2000

1957 Ford X-2000 concept car model - Designers: Alex Tremulis and Bill Balla
On a bubbletop kick, Tremulis – with help from Bill Balla – designed the X-2000 in 1956-1957. Like Tremulis's X-1000 that preceded the X-2000, little on the car was meant to predict the shapes or features of Fords of the immediate future; they were intended to be advanced concepts of the far-flung automotive future. However, the Farrells note that the X-2000′s grille shape certainly predicted the Edsel's horse-collar grille. Not many automotive historians connect Tremulis to the Edsel's most distinctive shape today, possibly because the X-2000 was only completed as a 3/8-scale model (a full-size clay was in the works, but was canceled before completion) and only shown in person at the Ford Rotunda.


This amazing creation is the Ford X2000, a styling fantasy from 1958, what the Ford design department thought we might just possibly be driving in the year 2000.

One of the most distinctive features, that nose, was not particularly modern, nor plausible, even back in 1958: The grille and bonnet (hood) are clearly related to those of the 1957 Ford Edsel, the car that lost Ford serious amounts of money. In that context the vertical oval motif was variously called the "egg on end", "sucking lemons", "horse collar", "impact ring" and other names that are more anatomical and even rude.

The passenger compartment is very Jetson's Sci-Fi, but the rear end is fairly typical 1950's yank tank apart from the bolt-on rocket booster tail-lights

Don't be too hard on the 1958 designers, Alex Tremulis and Bill Balla; it is very difficult indeed to predict the future. What will we all be driving in 2040? What odds will you give on the Moller Skycar?

The 1958 X2000 was originally just a scale model, but an English enthusiast, Andy Saunders, saw it in the "Dream Cars" book (J-R Picard 1981), pursued the impossible dream - and built one. The X2000 has been doing the rounds of the Motor Shows