Anna Molly

So…I’m going to delve into something I’ve long found strange, and which was only compounded by a discovery I made today.
Why in the world is Ford so good at concept cars?

Exhibit the 1st

Ford Iosis

This might not look very special at first. In fact, one of my first reactions to it was to call it “a really surprised Toyota”. Back when it romped onto the scene, it premiered Ford’s new (international only, grumble grumble) design language, which I thought was absolutely funkadelic. It wasn’t the most spectacular car ever, but by god did this give the impression of a car you might like to own. Aside from that though, the Iosis still had some of those ridiculous concept car trinkets. Quadruple gull wing doors? A ridiculous orange and matt silver interior with a spaceship steering wheel, sideview cameras, and a windowline that looks like it was lifted directly from an Aston Martin? Hot damn, good job Ford. And the best part? Though the crazy concept car bits didn’t make it in the end, this is basically what the current Ford Mondeo looks like. Damn, I want one.

Lincoln MKR

What do we think of when we think of Lincolns? Those ridiculous, prehistoric, massive Town Cars probably. That’s why no one was expecting this, and that’s probably why everyone was so shocked by it. Because it’s a domestic brand though, even less of the stuff that showed up on this car made it to production vehicles than happened with the Iosis to the Mondeo (the current MKS and the next gen MKZ though show some traces).  Though the chrome is a bit naff, this thing is ridiculously handsome and just yells American businessman – the kind of thing Bruce Wayne might drive when he’s not in the Batmobile (or Andrew Carnegie, if he wasn’t dead).  I love the logic-defying tail lights, the massive logos on the front and on those side streaks, and even the Lincoln logos in the tire treads. It’s a shame then that real Lincolns are never this good.

Mazda Furai

This is the saddest case here. Unlike the Iosis or the MKR or our next entry, there is not a snowball’s chance in hell that the Furai (or probably anything from it) will exist in a way that we normal people can own. A huge shame, because honestly, I think this is straight up, the most beautiful car in existance. At first, it looks like a Batmobile, and it’ll go about as fast as one, too. See, unlike other concept cars which aren’t really meant to do anything but sit on a roating platform and look good…The Furai was built off of a Le Mans Prototype chassis. It has a rotary engine that runs off of E100, and it will very much drive around. But enough of that. Why do I think this is so good? Just look at it. I’ve always been a huge fan of Mazda’s flowing, organic Nagare concepts, and so it’s quite fitting that the Furai, the last one of them, would be the greatest. Its name supposedly means “The Sound of Wind”, but they haven’t really captured the sound, so much as the shape of it. Every aerodynamic device that you’d find on a normal racecar has been artistically raked into flowing veins of metal – the normal airbox intake has been replaced with an elegant blade behind the cockpit – the cooling cover of the engine is a sheet of steel punctured with hundreds of leaf shaped holes, and the diffuser…oh god, If I could only show you a picture of that. But I’m rambling here. Because it has such a sense of elegance and movement, but at the same time power and function about it, I love every part of this design.

Volvo S60

Wait a second here. Now I’m just going crazy, you say. A Volvo? Yes, I admit that suddenly I find I really like Volvos…Despite the fact that they may be a bit wonky due to Ford ownership, the new XC60 just looked…groovy. Straight up Scandinavian Saab style groovy. This new S60 concept? Oh jeez, well this definitely made my day. Though I can’t really provide you pictures of everything I find cool about it, I’ll say this: It’s quintessentially Scandinavian (from an ignorant foreigner point-of-view kinda way). How so? Well, according to the press release, the lights are supposed to be in the shape of two Viking longships sailing side by side. That huge glass roof, although not really Volvo’s style, is neat. The back end is a bit fussy, but not terrible. The color, well that’s not spectacular either, but it does sort of fit. The interior though, that’s a great piece of work right there. The normal Volvo style center stack with the wood has been given a bit of a twist…The center stack, from the console all the way back over the transmission tunnel and to the rear seats, is carved from a solid piece of crystal. Hello, list of features we won’t be seeing on the production S60… I find this really cool, especially how there are buttons and things embedded in the crystal so that they float over the wood underneath, and overall the crystal stack gives the impression of a giant block of ice in the middle of the car. Very snazzy. Oh, did I mention the ridiculously impractical suicide-but-not-really rear doors? I think we have ourselves a winner here.
So there you have it. 4 concepts by the major divisions of Ford. All good, no? Why can’t Ford start making road cars that are this good, then (and why haven’t they brought thouse damned Euro Fords over here yet)?

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