You hear it well before you see it; the deep, throttling burble of a big V-8, barely at idle, like a startled stallion ready to run.
The metaphor is fitting for the Ford Interceptor, the striking, four-door concept vehicle that has been called “the four-door Mustang.” First unveiled at the North American International Auto Show, in Detroit, last January, the Interceptor has been working its way across the country, but now, with auto show season winding down, Ford put it to pasture, so to speak, making it available – along with two other, recent concept vehicles – for TheCarConnection.com to drive.
It’s not
uncommon for some manufacturers to make these show cars available, though it’s a
bit more unusual for Ford, so we jumped at the chance to take a spin around the
automaker’s
“When you see a car outside and moving, it’s a completely different look from what you see on the show stand,” suggested Peter Horbury, Ford’s North American design director, who accompanied us as we checked out the one-of-a-kind machines.
Each of the three fills a different role for Ford, but collectively, they run from the probable to the highly unlikely. The bulbous Airstream fits the latter description. To borrow the words of former, longtime Ford design boss Jack Telnack, the RV-like van is little more than a “wet dream in chrome.”
“In the future, we have to go in a different direction,” cautioned Horbury, adding that “especially with tight budgets,” Ford can no longer afford many of these wild and wacky concepts. “We’re not going to waste time and money showing something that has no chance of being put into production.”
So, don’t be surprised the see both Interceptor and
MKR resurface, even if it’s just the influence of their dramatic lines showing
up on future Ford brand and
Ford Interceptor
Click for High-Res Photo Gallery:
This chopped four-door is designed to “celebrate the best of American muscle,” said Horbury. It also shows how you can take the iconic Mustang and make it just a bit more practical.
We could hear the roar of Interceptor’s
400-horsepower Ford Racing 5.0-liter Cammer V-8 – which is mated to a six-speed
manual gearbox – even before it rounded the corner at the
Yet it’s hard to prepare for the dramatic impact of the brutish sedan. Our first glimpse revealed an oversized version of the chromed, three-crossbar grille that has become a central element in Ford’s newest designs. Rigidly upright, the nose sharply angles into the hood, both opening, clamshell-style. The hood actually forms a massive V, wrapping around the fixed cladding atop Interceptor’s shaker-style powertrain.
Critics have compared the Interceptor to Chrysler’s popular 300 sedan and there’s a bit of truth to that. Interceptor also boasts a chopped, hotrod-style greenhouse that gives it a bit of a customized look – and enhances its menacing stance. The upper body is offset by unusually broad shoulders, another striking element we’d like to see in future Fords.
And we just may, according to Horbury, who says the approach is “entirely feasible,” though likely in less exaggerated form. “Even a shoulder two-thirds the size would look pretty dramatic.”
There’ve been plenty of rumors about Interceptor’s future, though with tough new, federal fuel economy rules a virtual certainty, is there any logic to building a car like this, the antithesis to what Horbury impish calls the Toyota Pious? There are still plenty of people who remain connected to the car as “more than just transport,” he argues.

2007 Ford Interceptor Concept
After driving the big Cammer engine, it would be hard to accept anything else, though. We had relatively little time behind the wheel, not surprising considering the way show cars are cobbled together. But there was no question this muscle car would love to launch off the line with tires squealing. We can only hope to get our hands on a production version someday soon.
More on
Interceptor:
2007 Ford Interceptor Concept by TCC Team (1/7/2007)
A
Mustang-based rear-driver heads for Cobo.
SLIDESHOW:
Ford Airstream
With its long, round shape and the orange accents
framing each window, the Airstream looks a bit like the Oscar Meyer-mobile. The
formal explanation for this distinctly oddball design is that, in Horbury’s
words, “brings together the company that put
There are some practical elements to this show car. As Ford has learned all too well, minivans are the most anti-emotional of automotive designs. The company is abandoning its traditional model, the unloved and unlovely Freestar, and going with a more distinctive “people mover” design, the soon-to-launch Flex, which is itself a production version of the popular Fairlane concept vehicle.
Don’t expect to see Airstream on a Ford assembly line, concedes the company’s advance design chief, Freeman Thomas, but some styling elements could influence future people movers. The unusual swing doors, up front, and the tall, rear barn doors, are good examples.
The rear two-thirds of the passenger compartment, meanwhile, abandon the classic row-upon-row minivan orientation. Instead, Airstream passengers sit in a sort of mobile living room, with a unabashedly bidarre, circular, high-definition video, er, device, as its centerpiece. It could serve as a fireplace, TV monitor or videogame console, apparently.

2007 Ford Airstream Concept Drive
Our brief drive was enhanced by Airstream’s massive forward glass space, though rear visibility was severely limited. Instead, the traditional mirrors were replaced by rear-facing cameras that displayed on a large LCD popping out of the center stack.
Interesting, but this concept has about as much chance of seeing mass production as the Wienermobile.
More on Airstream:
2007 Ford Airstream Concept by Joseph Szczesny
(1/7/2007)
Ford’s plug-in hybrid pays homage to the
Airstream.
Click for High-Res Photo Gallery:
Okay, let’s get this out of the way immediately: Ford corporate
planners, puh-leeze give up on the silly naming strategy for
With a better badge, the MKR would be home run, an absolute must-have in the lineup, and even now, it comes close. Unfortunately, it appears Ford is not planning to build this trick sedan, with its classic, suicide rear doors. We’ll have to settle for seeing it strongly influence future models from this seriously ailing luxury brand.
Pulling up to our start station, the first impression is of what Horbury calls the “Bow Wave” grille. The folks who actually penned this concept prefer the less colorful “split grille,” but whatever you call it, the look was borrowed from the original Lincoln Zephyr, a highly influential design that long kept the brand afloat.
The chamfer line – the chromed shoulder, if you
prefer – rides high, creating a chopped look not unlike that of the Ford
Interceptor concept. Proportionately, MKR is 2/3 body and 1/3 glass, very much
like another
Some readers might, at this point, hold their noses and declare, derisively, “Oh, no, another Ford retromobile,” but somehow, it’s anything but when it all comes together.

2002 Infiniti I35
Sadly, as we slipped into the MKR, we noticed some duct tape wrapped around the door and B-pillar. A previous driver had forgotten the first rule of driving a concept car: things fall apart, in this case, an aggressively slammed door wouldn’t stay shut. And as we wound our way around the Ford track, the portal kept popping open. Considering the concept’s lack of air conditioning, that wasn’t an entirely bad thing on a 98-degree day, by the way, but it did make it a little more difficult to really get a feel for how the MKR drives.
But it felt great to sit in, with the lavishly
finished instrument panel, the panoramic glass roof and the center console
sweeping the full length of the cockpit. In an era when luxury cars are
beginning to look more and more alike, outside and in,
Intriguingly, it wouldn’t require much of a stretch, in key areas. Like Interceptor, MKR borrows liberally from the Mustang, here using a platform that has been stretched 6 inches, most of that used to provide a truly functional rear seat.
Ford, if you’re listening, you’ve got two winners here and a third concept good for some entertainment value. Maybe it’s time to be thinking about market potential. We’d bet there’d be plenty of opportunities for Interceptor and MKR.
More on MKR:
2007 Lincoln MKR Concept by TCC Team
(12/23/2006)
Ford pins its
SLIDESHOW:
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