Rare fords
# 60 Ford Visos
Another rare Blue Oval...
Back in the ’70s and ’80s Ford was at the forefront of sleek, two-door sports coupe design. We had the Cortina, the Granada, and of course, the legendary Capri. But what did we get after the Capri? The Probe!? The Cougar!? Hardly in the same ballpark, wouldn’t you say?
Ford designers obviously agreed, and when they put pencil to paper just after the turn of the century, their design goal was to produce a Capri for the 21st century. The result was this concept, first unveiled in 2003.
The design sticks to Ford’s styling ethos of the time, and features simple and sharp lines. Other designs touches such as the long bonnet, bonnet bulges, and short back end surely weren’t similar to the Capri’s by accident.
Thankfully though, the Visos merely looked like the Capri, and underneath was an altogether much more sophisticated machine. For example, the Visos utilises ‘active surfacing’ – when in normal and comfort modes, extra aerodynamic aids are retracted to provide a cleaner, smoother (not to mention more fuel efficient) look, but press the ‘sport’ button and the Visos starts growing extra bits of bodywork to help with aero performance. These include a front splitter, rear diffuser, and rear spoiler, which are not needed when driving in normal modes. They do however, automatically activate when the car reaches 56mph to provide stability at speed.
This ultra-clean design continues down to the door mirrors, which aren’t mirrors at all! Instead two small cameras are hidden flush within the doors, and rotate out when the engine is started. They even feature a blind spot warning system.
As you’d expect from any concept car, the Visos is fully loaded with all the latest tech and the high-def LCD display gives clear and easy control of all of them. But one thing we’ve never seen on a concept car before, and something that, as car enthusiasts, really interests us is the little LCD display found beside the engine under the bonnet. According to reports from the time, people who bought cars like the Capri enjoyed being able to tinker with them. So, that little LCD display under the bonnet displays the car’s current set-up. Meaning that owners could simply plug in a laptop (via a USB port, so no fancy OBD cable required) and change settings such as the damper settings and the rev limiter, among others.
And the engine? Well that was a six-cylinder twin-turbo unit kicking out a very respectable 350bhp and 400Nm, and that power was sent to all four wheels via a fancy semi-automatic six-speed gearbox!
And you didn’t make this Ford!? What were you thinking!?