[ZTWsquared]

NOS2Go4Me,Jun 29 2009, 07:42 AM Wrote:

NefCanuck,Jun 28 2009, 07:13 PM Wrote:Here'ss the thing though NOS, developing motors isn't cheap and the new Taurus SHO comes standard loaded to the gills too (so as better to compete with the segment it's playing it, it's not a Mustang and never claims to be)

Personally I think the SHO is an interesting car, but not sure it would have that much more over a Fusion Sport AWD to make me choose it if I was shopping for a car ATM.

NefCanuck
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That's my point, Nef. It's a niche car - for a niche so small we're all missing it. I never meant that it was going to compete with the Mustang. I just meant if I wanted to go fast with a Ford oval on the grille / hood / trunk, I'd get a Mustang (of the '10 offerings). They're shooting for some serious luxury touring cars and unless I'm horribly wrong (which does definitely happen), they're going to get burned.

Ken - one of my fave "bibles", Car and Driver, has pronounced the '10 GT with the Track Pack as the current best of the existing pony cars - that's right, beating out the Challenger R/T and the Camaro SS overall. It's the June issue IIRC. It's definitely a track-worthy car. As I mentioned to Dan, it's not that the SHO belongs on a track. It's that it doesn't belong, period.

The only guys that are going to buy them are the 1st-gen romanticists who will put somewhere around 5-20k on them and then store the bastards while driving more worthwhile vehicles every day. I guess Ford should be congratulated for building the first 4-door collector's item in quite some time.
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Don't get me wrong - I wasn't saying that the Mustang wasn't track worthy - I was saying exactly what you pointed out - - it's competition is the other pony cars and not the hot hatch segment. Ford doesn't give a rats ass if the Mustang can't beat an STi around the track so long as the traditionalists prefer it over the Camaro and Challenger. And as we all know that's a sizeable market still.

And in that same way I'm sure that Ford doesn't care if the SHO is deemed track worthy or not (although hopefully it will surprise us in that regard) ... based on what I see of the car and it's specs, I'm pretty certain that Ford's demographic for the SHO is indeed different than for the first-gen SHO (boy racer wannabe) and is in fact closer to that of the 2nd-gen SHO - (young-at-heart luxury intender wanting elevated horsepower and sophistication but not a Lincoln - maybe drives a Mustang on weekends) - I just hope for their sake the execution this time 'round is better.