By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

In designing the new SHO, Conan accuses Ford Marketing Manager Amy Marentic of trying to “tinker with perfection.” Whatever you might think about the Taurus generally, the original SHO was a tough car. Marentic, who according to her bio made it her personal mission to resurrect the SHO since starting with Ford, seems to be pretty into it as well. Watch!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

The Ford Taurus SHO was a pretty cool sleeper car to begin with, but there’s nothing that’s inconspicuous about Ramon’s ’94. Check out his epic ride page (21 of them, actually), in which he documents the entire build. As usual, I’m a fan of the paint booth sequence on page 9 and 11. But the custom interior build and the engine compartment refresh are pretty cool, too.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This week’s Showroom Showdown was over in a matter of minutes. I guess horsepower, RWD and good looks carries the day…

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Ford made headlines recently when they announced that the SHO is coming back. Pontiac has been in the news as well, though it hasn’t really been good news. Still, the G8 GXP is one of the hottest Pontiacs to come along in a long time, so we thought this would be a good match up. With the SHO you get AWD, a 365 hp twin-turbo, direct-injection 3.5-liter V-6, and your only option is the paddle-shift 6-speed auto. The G8 GXP is RWD, has a 415 hp 6.2 liter pushrod V8, and it’s available with a 6-speed manual tranny. Both cars come in right around $38k. So, which would you choose?

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

Now that the new SHO is a reality, it’s time for a reality check. GM pretty much bombed the new GTO, which was too bad because it was a great car in spite of the baggage that the GTO name brought with it. So how does the new SHO stack up to its original? The new SHO keeps to the guidelines: high output V6, solid transmission, and a fancy leather interior, all set up as a trim package, just like the original (GTO). At the same time, the SHO doesn’t have to live up to a foggy flashback image, so there’s no confusion about what it’s supposed to be. Advantage: SHO. Face it, the SHO was the GTO of the 80s, and the new one is much closer to John DeLorean’s vision of a hopped up family car than GM’s snappy Holden rebadge was. I feel for GM, but Ford wins this round hands down. What do you think?

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

The Ford peeps bussed me out to the Chicago Assembly plant where they will build the new Taurus and the new SHO (complete with track package!) The plant covers over 2.8 million square feet and has at any given time about 1400 vehicles in process. That takes over 7.5 miles of conveyor belt, according to the plant manager Anthony Hoskins. We toured the final assembly side of things, where the unit body is mated to the interior and drivetrain, the wheels are put on, and final QC is done. Final assembly is a 5 hour process, if you started a car and moved it non-stop down the line, you’d spent a total of about 12 hours building it. About 35 SHO enthusiasts were along for the tour, holy cow you guys and gals are serious about your Tauri! More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Ford Chicago Assembly" »

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

Derrick Kumar couldn’t let it be. He scoped out the enthusiast market and pushed a new Taurus SHO through the product channels at Ford. CarDomain, your voices have been heard. With a high boost EcoBoost V6 driving a 6-speed manumatic with paddle shifters, upgraded suspension was required. It’s ok to be old school if it means the kind of cool that this is. The interior is full of SHO-specific trim details. Matt will have a gallery up as soon as we can get close to this new hottie!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Jalopnik just posted pics of the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO, which was spotted doing humid weather testing in Florida. Other than the dual exhaust and SHO emblem on the back, it looks the same as the standard Taurus we saw in Detroit. The new SHO is expected to get the 335 hp EcoBoost V6. You can see more pics at Jalopnik

So I’m curious: are you guys excited about this car at all?