Ford 427
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ÏThis is a car that you take home, park in your driveway, sit back and let your neighbor eat his heart out,Ó said J Mays, Ford Motor Company vice president, Design. ÏThe 427 concept is unmistakably Ford and 100 percent American. It demonstrates that a sedan from a U.S. manufacturer can once again be exciting, sexy, sophisticated and powerful.Ó
The Ford 427 proportions are long, low slung and wide. The car's overall profile is classically clean, smooth and unfettered by extraneous detail. Menacingly blunt in its all-black silhouette with glints of chrome and billet aluminum, the 427 concept is dark and mysterious, day or night. Striking an almost sinister pose wherever goes, the car seems like it was designed for film noir.
To create the 427 concept, Ford designers went back to the blue oval sedans that defined American luxury and performance in the 1960s. They constructed a wish list of elements they felt would be needed to create a modern-day interpretation of the large, family sedan and then incorporated those into a car that would unmistakably be a Ford.
The Ford 427 concept proportions are long, low-slung and wide. The hood, roof and rear deck surfaces are purposefully taut with deliberate graceful transitions. The carÌs profile can be described in a single line, flowing crisply through the front fenders and over the roofline before returning on itself in an accelerating sweep into the rocker. This graphical simplicity is emphasized by the use of brushed billet trim to highlight the window line and rocker.
The carÌs overall profile is clean, smooth and unfettered by extraneous detail. The front fascia is vertical and linear with a powerful, thick bent bar grille that was inspired by the mid-sixties Galaxie lineup. The front headlamps and rear taillamps are vertical, drawing from the same era but adding modern rounded square cues.
The wheels feature an iconic five-spoke wedge-shaped configuration wrapped with 19-inch rubber. The nomenclature is a modern rendition of the Î427Ì logo that saw use on the Galaxie 500 XL 427. When all of these elements are combined, they cast a silhouette that is unquestionably Ford and unabashedly American.
The 427's interior features black leather with corn meal white stitching, billet aluminum trim, and chrome that make the car appear to be solid and structural. Contemporary exterior themes of the muscular bent grille, the squared vertical headlamps and clean American profile are carried over to the interior in an uncompromising fashion.
The steering wheel carries the same leather stitching, with a tight sectional pattern inspired by the angular waterfall bends in the front grille. Visible through the steering wheel is an instrument cluster with a rounded square speedometer and tachometer that are direct descendants of the front and rear lamps. These gauges are analog with bold black numbers bathed in a fiery red glow. The instrument panel also employs billet end-caps that create the illusion that the panel has a core of solid steel. The rearview mirror is trimmed in similar fashion.
The centre console runs the entire length of the interior, conveying the sense that the car has the strength and structure to handle large, potent powerplant. It also creates a sensation that its four-passenger bucket seats form individual roomy fighter jet cockpits. The console houses the six-speed shifter with a modern authoritative brushed billet base capped off with a soft leather shift knob and integrated aluminum emergency brake. Its lower portion adjacent to the floor pan is trimmed in billet and accents the angular slotted billet pedals. Finally, the carpet is all black with chrome checkered flag buttons fastening it in place.
The 427 engine produces a tremendous 590 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 509 foot-pounds of torque at 5500 rpm. Remarkably, the engine is almost 70 pounds lighter than the 5.4-liter 32-valve Cobra R engine from the Ford Mustang.
Posts
