[Shotimes] Re SHOs before 1989

[James White]

About a week after Car & Driver announced the arrival of the SHO, I happened
to be in Detroit (actually Novi) at a Holiday Inn.  There were about 2 dozen
SHO test mules parked outside.  Inside they were having a meeting about
offering a bunch of Ford engineers early retirement.

Most of these SHOs were black.  Only a few had a SHO logo of any kind and
those that did were all different,  but all had the SHO body cladding.
Most had holes hacked in them for various equipment.  Remember that one had
a 1 1/2" dia cable bundle coming out of the hood and going through the
passenger door to a full front seat of scopes and old style paper graph
recorders.  One had a rear shelf full of gauges that were reverse, so one
could read them in the enlarged rearview mirror.

And here I am kicking myself, because I have a SLO wagon that was financed
100% to Frod Credit, and with 2 kids in college, no chance to get one of
these until '93!

Likely, that day they retired the wrong people!  This meeting should have
been about retiring the "bean counters".  Maybe we would still have our SHOs
available?

Likely the one spotted in Montana was one of these test mules up North for
cold weather testing.  The engineers did a good job with that, because I
have always had good weather starts.

After I got my '93 SHO I ran into one of these test mules, but in a Lincoln
Contential.  Wires all over the place.  At an impromptu "stoplight drag" in
Dearborn, this guy left me in the dust!  Like, he was faster than a 'Vette!
Smiling all of the time, while trouncing me for 3 stoplights in a row, going
up Telegraph Road.

On that day in 1988 Ford let loose of the wrong people!  The meeting should
have been about the "bean counters" that thinks that over weight over sized
SUVs and Vans is what the car market is about.

regards, Jim White - greensho@crown.net
Valparaiso, Indiana
'95 MTX - 282k - lots of mods
'93 MTX - 285k - few mods and starting to rust
95 MTX - 134k - lots of mods, and runs really good thanks to our David
Bonds...


----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Strobel <theamcguy@yahoo.com>
To: Times List SHO <shotimes@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 6:43 PM
Subject: [Shotimes] Re SHOs before 1989


> The cover and article was from the December 22 1986 issue of Auto Week.
The article made a point of stating that the car was an appearance option
only and included no mechanical upgrades hence no AWD.  The car on the cover
has all of the available options present.  The base kit included the front
and rear bumper extensions and lower door and quarter panel skirts.  The car
on the cover also included the fog lights, rear spoiler, wheels, tires and a
suspension lowering kit.
>
>
> Bill Strobel
> Independent Towing
> Fayetteville NC
>
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