So long, Probe
This is an email I sent to friends on August 17th, 1997:
Well, the Probe is gone. I say my last goodbyes Wed. when I go to clean it out.
Last Tuesday I smelled oil burning and already knew of a bunch of repair work I wanted done, plus I was dumping about 2-2.5K/year into it.
So I took a look at the Ford Taurus SHO and after 5 days of research, haggling, etc, we have a brand new white SHO 4 door.
The car is in the garage believe it or not, but cannot get anywhere else. It was expensive, but I got them down 3K under sticker, got them to lower the rate so that basically allowed me to the extended powertrain warranty.
The SHO (Super High Output) has a huge following mainly because its a family car that has some get go. The engine is a Yamaha built (block is cast in the Ford Cosworth factory) V8 with 32 valves and has a output of 235HP at 6,100 RPM. I've not got it over 4,100 RPM yet. Because the engine is so well built, there is no break in period.
The engine on this car is amazing. When idling, there are no noticable vibrations in the car. And you cannot hear the engine either.
The car is an automatic (Ford stopped making manual SHOs this year) and thats the only complaint anyone has had of the car. In the low end, the tranny is slow to shift. But, according to a mailing list I am on for the SHO (and many web sites too) there are aftermarket chips that change the behavior of the tranny.
So the car seats 5, with three shoulder belts in the back. All leather seats (soft leather, too), great sound system (6 speaker), 6CD changer which has the coolest feature. If you are playing a CD and either turn the player off, switch to another audio source, like press AM or shut off the car, when you activate the CD player it picks up where you left off! This is not even in the manual, but its a great feature.
The car is full of little niceties like this, feels like Apple built it hehhehe. There is a hook in the driver side floor that holds the floor mat (yes, it cam with floor mats, another monkey off my back) and keeps it from doing the floor mat creep under the brake pedal.
Every control is right at the fingertips and the radio/CD display is high, just below dash level, so no looking down far and taking the eyes off the road.
The car is very eliptical, mainly ovals. I like the front because it slopes down and in, but that means I cannot see from the front (nor the back) so this will take some getting used to. Slowing down when a cop is behind will take some reprogramming, as I used to use the clutch.
The side mirrors are heated, both sides have dual visors so can block side and front, there is a lighted mirror in both visors and they even have a dimmer.
The seatbelts for the front have adjustable post positions, so you can control where the belt comes down across your body.
The seats fold down 60/40. Nowhere near the room of my Probe but I'll live. Instead of hauling cans in my car, will have to use Peri's truck :)
There is rear AC/heating vents, which is really nice. Oh yeah, its climate controlled, so just set a temp and it controls fan speed and temp. Can override for manual also. Another nice touch - at night, the colors of the climate controls are amber while the audio system is blue. Very nice.
The car has auto lights. Can operate manually, or set auto lights and they come on when dark and shut off when light or when car is turned off. You can set the delay up to 3 mins.
The speedometer goes to 150 :)
Car came with a keyless entry system and alarm. Can open the trunk, etc from the remote, or the keypad. Have not even tested the keypad yet. its kinda silly, drivers door has to be unlocked before passenger door can be opened with the pad. But from the pad you can open the trunk, the doors, etc.
Since the car uses an active key (it has a chip) having the keypad means I don't have to carry a spare key in case I lock mine in, just need to remember the code. This is the last year of keyless entries I hear though - a cost cutting move.
So anyway, its a great car. It goes back Wed to be detailed, cleaned, they have a few things to replace (scuff on the passenger seat, etc) and when I get it back, I'll take pictures!
Steve
© Copyright 1997-2002 Steve Riggins. Graphics by Andrew Duncan.
