Stylistically its kind of the missing link between the BMW e24 6-series and the e31 8-series.

No, the man in the picture is Steve Byrnes, a long time Nascar commentator who passed away last week from cancer. That picture is him and his teenage son.

Its train wreck after train wreck. Just when Petersen had people returning to Ford showrooms by asking them if they’ve “driven a Ford lately,” those three stooges drive them all back out for another twenty years.

I agree 100%. If you haven’t read Bob Lutz’ books, you would love them. Go with Car Guys vs. Bean Counters first, its exactly what you’ve written about.

Tony Kuchta began the project with the blessing of Don Petersen, the Quality is Job 1 guru who implemented TQM, Ford’s aero look, and their 80s technological renaissance. He believed excellent engineering and design would make for popular cars and company profit, which it did.The Taurus, Escort, Tempo and Thunderbird…

More boost does seem to accelerate the eventual demise of the head gaskets, which can be permanently repaired. The later ones, stock, will match a new GTI in acceleration and handling, which isn’t too bad for a 20 year old car.

What ended up happening to it?

That sounds... interesting.

Properly set up is the key, you’re probably right about the tires. The SC came with 225/60R16 tires vs the MR2s likely 185s. The suspension on the SC does control the weight really well though.

The suspension on them is beefy as hell though, the control arms are huge. There’s a reason such a porker could out-do an ‘88 MR2 and ‘88 Fiero in a slalom, which is insane.

Its not too hard to extract another 75hp from them. Going to the updated blower and plenum from the ‘94-95 along with an underdrive pulley gets you pretty close.

To some extent I suppose. The Taurus used very European styling put together in a rather Japanese package (transverse fwd). The SHO (while brilliant) was still designed in a futile bean counting exercise. They had the engines left over from the GN34 and nothing to put them in. If they had produced the GN34 then it…

The 10th Generation MN12 Ford Thunderbird SC and Mercury Cougar XR-7.

Having looked at my parts catalog I can now say for certain its a 1998-2001 Jimmy. The silver side stripes weren’t available 2002-2004.

I worked in service service before moving to parts. Its nice going home clean so I can get dirty wrenching on my own shit. Being a counterman and looking at blowup diagrams all day I very much look under cars, just in a different way. In addition to windshield wipers, my dealership does parts for all GM brands.

That’s what led me to update the post immediately after. I think the silver side stripe was only available until 2002 which would narrow the range down even further. Unfortunately I cant check the GM parts catalog until tomorrow when I’m at work.

Possibly. The Bravada never had the silver strip down the side, the cladding was different.

This one is accurate down to the wheels:

I’m a GM parts counterman and that’s a 1998-2004 GMC S-15 Jimmy. Could be an S-15 Envoy but the cladding and front fascia is wrong. Hard to tell from the frames.