Detroit Auto Show: Ford Shows 10 Cylinder 590 HP Sedan

Ford 427 Concept Aims to Rekindle America's Love Affair With the Sedan 

    DETROIT, Jan. 5, 2003; The 1960s were the heyday of the
truly cool American car; a time when slabs of sheet metal, chrome and the Rat
Pack defined cool.  Those days have given way to multi-purpose vehicles,
pop-idols and plastic.  But, Ford is signaling a renaissance in the classic
American sedan with the new Ford 427 concept introduced at the North American
International Auto Show.
    The Ford 427 concept is a showpiece of the possible design direction for a
future lineup of Ford cars.  It debuts at the 2003 North American
International Auto Show as part of Ford's biggest-ever wave of new product and
concept introductions, nine of which are cars.
    The 427 concept is a modern, all-American sedan inspired by the exuberance
of the company's landmark sedans of the 1960s, replete with the
uncompromising, 590-horsepower engine that inspired its name.
    "This is a car that you take home, park in your driveway, sit back and let
your neighbor eat his heart out," said J Mays, Ford Motor Company vice
president, Design.  "The 427 concept is unmistakably Ford and 100 percent
American.  It demonstrates that a sedan from a U.S. manufacturer can once
again be exciting, sexy, sophisticated and powerful."

    The Exterior - An All-American Design
    Menacingly blunt in its all-black silhouette with glints of chrome and
billet aluminum, the 427 concept is dark and mysterious, day or night.
Striking an almost sinister pose wherever goes, the car seems like it was
designed for film noir.
    "It's the kind of car that, when you drive it, makes you look like you're
doing something wrong," Mays said.
    To create the 427 concept, Ford designers went back to the blue oval
sedans that defined American luxury and performance in the 1960s.  They
constructed a wish list of elements they felt would be needed to create a
modern-day interpretation of the large, family sedan and then incorporated
those into a car that would unmistakably be a Ford.
    The Ford 427 concept proportions are long, low-slung and wide.  The hood,
roof and rear deck surfaces are purposefully taut with deliberate graceful
transitions.  The car's profile can be described in a single line, flowing
crisply through the front fenders and over the roofline before returning on
itself in an accelerating sweep into the rocker.  This graphical simplicity is
emphasized by the use of brushed billet trim to highlight the window line and
rocker.
    The car's overall profile is clean, smooth and unfettered by extraneous
detail.  The front fascia is vertical and linear with a powerful, thick bent
bar grille that was inspired by the mid-sixties Galaxie lineup.  The front
headlamps and rear taillamps are vertical, drawing from the same era but
adding modern rounded square cues.
    The wheels feature an iconic five-spoke wedge-shaped configuration wrapped
with 19-inch rubber.  The nomenclature is a modern rendition of the '427' logo
that saw use on the Galaxie 500 XL 427.  When all of these elements are
combined, they cast a silhouette that is unquestionably Ford and unabashedly
American.
    Even the license plate, with "DET PWR" machined into billet aluminum,
articulates the throbbing, made-in-Detroit presence within the 427 Concept.

    The Interior Design - All Modern
    Where the Ford 427 concept exterior design is all-American, the interior
is fully modern.  Contemporary exterior themes of the muscular bent grille,
the squared vertical headlamps and clean American profile are carried over to
the interior in an uncompromising fashion.  There is no mistaking that the
exterior and interior of the 427 are in complete alignment with the car's
mission and mystery.
    The sedan's striking black interior is tightly wrapped in sophisticated
black handcrafted leather with cornmeal stitching.  These long, flowing,
stitched lines are consistent with the soft and sexy lines of the 427
concept's exterior silhouette.  The detailed stitching has no harsh corners
and describes the interior in a single fluid graphic.
    Recessed brushed billet trim panels near the A-pillars create the visual
effect of the door as a solid, cohesive part of the car.  The doors are
wrapped in leather and feature offset armrests.  They include additional
brushed billet trim and door handles, building on the structural visual
experience.  The seats have racing inspired contours with brushed aluminum
seat backs and bases.  They also add to the structural effect, making it
appear as if long pieces of soft leather have grown out of steel bases.
    The steering wheel carries the same leather stitching, with a tight
sectional pattern inspired by the angular waterfall bends in the front grille.
Visible through the steering wheel is an instrument cluster with a rounded
square speedometer and tachometer that are direct descendants of the front and
rear lamps.  These gauges are analog with bold black numbers bathed in a fiery
red glow.  The instrument panel also employs billet end-caps that create the
illusion that the panel has a core of solid steel.  The rearview mirror is
trimmed in similar fashion.
    The center console runs the entire length of the interior, conveying the
sense that the car has the strength and structure to handle large, potent
powerplant.  It also creates a sensation that its four-passenger bucket seats
form individual roomy fighter jet cockpits.  The console houses the six-speed
shifter with a modern authoritative brushed billet base capped off with a soft
leather shift knob and integrated aluminum emergency brake.  Its lower portion
adjacent to the floor pan is trimmed in billet and accents the angular slotted
billet pedals.  Finally, the carpet is all black with chrome checkered flag
buttons fastening it in place.

    Detroit Powered
    "From the first time we drew it up, we knew we had to do a powerplant that
lived up to the image of this sinister sedan," says Chris Theodore, Ford Motor
Company vice president, North America Product Development. "Putting a 590-
horsepower 427 in this car is like putting a Navy Seal in an Armani suit."
    The modern version of the Ford 427 concept's power plant started off as a
cloak and dagger "skunk works" project commissioned by Theodore, who wanted to
know if it was feasible to craft an all-new, lightweight 427 cubic inch
(7.0-liter) engine out of Ford's highly flexible modular V-8 engine family.
Ford's Powertrain Research & Development answered the call and began working
under the radar screen on a limited budget.  The result shocked everyone.
    The 427 engine produces a tremendous 590 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 509
foot-pounds of torque at 5500 rpm.  Remarkably, the engine is almost 70 pounds
lighter than the 5.4-liter 32-valve Cobra R engine from the Ford Mustang.  The
427 achieves this astonishing power-to-weight ratio through the following
attributes:

    * Siamese bore aluminum V-10 engine block based on Ford's modular V-8 DOHC
      engines
    * Ford-pioneered metal spray process to maximize the bore at 95mm
    * Newly designed lightweight forged aluminum pistons with a very short
      compression height
    * Aluminum cylinder head derived from the SVT Cobra R Mustang
    * New billet H-beam connecting rods and billet steel common pin crankshaft
      for increased strength without the need for a balance shaft
    * Lightweight hollow stem valves

    The engine technologies were developed in Ford facilities between Detroit
and Dearborn.  So, it was only logical to carve the "Powered By Ford" and
"V-10" logo with a Redline Red finish on the billet cam covers.  Above that,
the engineers bolted a massive aluminum strut tower inspired from the grille.
As a final touch, they added lightning bolt caps along the inner fender walls.