Ford goes global – what it means to us
A Focus 3-door? Impossible!
I originally made this post for tunedtech.ca, and thought I'd cross post it here too. Check out the original here!
Ford, though born in Detroit, has not been good to the North American market. It's a name ubiquitous to the North American auto market, but has not sold it's best cars here. Sure, we've had various Mustangs, F-150 pickups and other big, fuel-hungry, V8-powered high-end Fords on the market... but we've been not seeing the other side of the market. Ford has not sold most of their high-end small cars in North America. This has (presumably) been done so the Mustang does not have competition from its own badge.
Maybe you, much like me, did not know that this has been going on for years! We missed out on the good years of the Ford Capri, which is not the same car as the Murcury Capri (which was just a low-end 80s Mustang). The Capri is known as a respectable 80s sports car, only available in right hand drive. James May even took one out for a spin in the 'Rear Wheel Drive Challenge' on Top Gear. It broke down... but it remains a good example of a good-looking and good performing car produced by Ford that was never sold here.
A Ford Escort Cosworth rallying
Then, there's the Cosworth-tuned cars. The Ford Escort Cosworth and the Ford Sierra Cosworth. The Escort Cosworth was a homologation car (much like the Subaru WRX STI or the Lancer Evo) to qualify the car for racing in various race leagues. It was a high-power 4-cylinder that remains highly desirable to this day. The big 3-point functional spoiler and turbocharged engine have gone made this car go down in history as one of the best sporty small cars in history. Here in Canada, the Escort was a family eco-box with as little flair as possible, and shames the roads to this day.
The Ford Focus might seem like a strange thing for this site to focus on (pun intended), since it's a mediocre eco-box family car in North America. But that's the thing... in North America it's lame. Check out the lead image... that's a Ford Focus RS... this last year's model. Ford stopped selling the Focus 3-door in North America in about 2004... but it only got better overseas.
The original GT40
And lastly... the Ford GT40 - the original GT40. The Mustang is the flagship of Ford North America.... the GT40 would run laps around the Mustang... and was rarely manufactured in LHD. The GT40 was a thing of beauty, intended to compete with Ferrari and other supercar manufacturers. But, the year was 1966... the musclecar era of North America was budding, and this car would have never fit into the Ford niche they were creating at the time.
The European Ford cars are so good that TopGear.com has a tribute to them! Check it out. There's lots of great photos of great cars... that were never available on Ford's native soil.
Overall, yes, I'm looking forward to Ford going global. That is, as long as it means North American Ford gets better... not European Ford getting worse!
rob