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It’s SHO-TIME

By Turbonius J. Monkey | February 16, 2009

Ford has seemed to be a little engine that could story of late, chugging along through a slackened economy while GM and Chrysler beg for taxpayer dollars. The latest sign of a still vital Ford Motor Company has been the recent unveiling of an all new Taurus SHO at last week’s auto show in Chicago. With 10 years having passed since the last SHO variant of Ford’s family sedan this news is quite welcome to performance fans, especially in a world where underpowered and anemic offerings seem to be the only vehicles that make the news.

Pictures and more after the jump.

The original Ford Taurus was quite a surprise back in its day. The mild mannered family car SHO’d up in 1989 with a lively Yamaha V6 delivering 220hp. Handling was improved as well, and the resulting product was an American car that had at least some of the comfort, handling and power that was usually associated with higher end Euro-sedans of the day but at a far more reasonable price.

Interestingly, the Taurus SHO might never have existed in its original form had Pontiac’s Fiero been more successful. It turns out that the SHO’s high performance V6 was originally purchased from Yamaha to power a mid-engine Fiero fighter that Ford had in the works. Somewhere along the line the 2 seater got canceled but the engines remained in inventory. Then came the idea to put the 220hp engine into a special edition Taurus and voila… the Taurus SHO was born. Initial sales success led the the SHO to carry through 3 revisions of the Taurus until 1999 when then weaker sales caused its exclusion from the next revision.

Fast forward to present day and Ford is gracing customers with the opportunity to own an all new and even more potent version of its family four door. This time motivation comes from the freshly developed Ecotec V6. Both powerful and economic the new engine is expected to crank out 365 horses while still delivering the fuel economy expected from a V6 power plant. This SHO is much more than just high power and a pretty face. All wheel drive is available to help put the power to the road. The 6 speed manual, Ford calls the new system SelectShift, can be operated as a conventional automatic or gears can be selected manually from the steering wheel mounted paddle shifters. Further enriching the experience, downshifts are rev-matched in a manner similar to the technique used by racing drivers.

Modern technology abounds in the new SHO, there is a power restricting system called MyKey. Think of it as a safeguard that means you can lend the car to your teen without unleashing all the power contained beneath the hood. Exclusive to the SHO in the Taurus line is an optional reverse camera system which projects an image of the camera’s view behind the car. Adaptive cruise control, collision warning and blind spot info systems are included in the list of safety items featured on the car.

In the entertainment and convenience department there is a 12 speaker Sony entertainment system. Ford’s award winning SYNC is standard while adding the voice activated navigation system also brings a 10 Gigabyte hard drive for storage of music.

Strangely, VW’s Routan mini-van advertizing campaign comes to mind. If compelled by life to drive a vehicle with more than 2 seats and 2 doors, it seems that something like this new Taurus SHO would be far more appealing. SHO babies seem a bit more believable than Routan babies.