Ford Scorpio: "The ugliest car ever." The design of the large Fords did not appeal to everyone. The first series seemed too 'cheap'. Because for what he was he looked too much like a Sierra. The successor, the 'round' version, was therefore not equally appreciated by everyone. And that while the royal house was driving in.
The Ford Scorpio, now in AMK
In the meantime, the Scorpio story is in the current issue of AMK, which is not yet everywhere in the newsstands. That may be the reason for you anyway a subscription to take. And if you are late for the current issue, we will send you the original text by e-mail.
And then we come to the confluence of circumstances
Because because of that story in AMK, Mr. Scheer - he is a subscriber - has seen the light. It had been brewing for a while, but our story was decisive: Limburg must be enriched with a Ford Scorpio! Point. It is one thing that mr. Scheeris 'is not on the internet'. That makes searching a bit more difficult in these digital times. But for a loyal subscriber we are happy to do something extra: If you have a minimally neat Ford Scorpio four or six cylinder for sale, please contact mr. Scheeris, 06-53161034.
Friend and subscriber Maurice Hünen popped into his memory as a result of the Scorpio story and found this:
Just read the article about the Gord Scorpio 2.9 GLX in AM classic. We have ridden the predecessor for years. A 2.9GL five-speed manual transmission. Big, heavy, thirsty, but a great car. The engine was not without joy. The periphery had already been screwed on and the exhaust had already been replaced from before the cat. And that was very carelessly done, including a weld in the pipe that choked the exhaust due to internal fraying. The motor bearing shells were also damaged! When replacing it, I saw that the 'stop bearing' only had one shell with pivot ring. And that has run 160.000 km. Anyway. Mauriesje restored it all well and somewhere towards 290.000 km I sold it for scrap iron price. The bodywork was of poor quality. Unfortunately I had to weld a lot because it was precisely the drainage of the sliding / tilting roof that was constantly discharging water into the box girders.
I discovered something nice during one of my routine checkups.
With the engine stopped, I pressed the accelerator on the board with a piece of wood and checked whether the throttle valves opened completely. Well… not nearly. No play anywhere, but the valves remained at an angle of about 30-45 degrees in their channel. Cannot be adjusted! Turns out that they had reduced the emission values and therefore also the power at the factory.
A ring of 15 mm copper pipe of 5 mm wide, sawn off and placed between the body and the outer cable, turned out to be the solution. The valves opened completely.
Then in the throttle body a completely pointless run-up bump to the throttle valves, milled and polished.
A very fast Ford
Although he was not slow beforehand and went from 0 to 100 according to the book in 9, a few more seconds. The result now was astonishing. From 0 to real 100 km / h (110 on the meter needle) it did in 8 seconds. Top speed: rev limiter. And that was around 225 an hour. The torque had increased very markedly. Where those V6s normally paralyzed at 5000 rpm, it burned off again. Really Dolf, astonishing. I was surrounded by Scorpio 2.9 riders at work at the time. One drove the Cosworth variant with 24 valves.
On the motorway he could only stomp me away with difficulty
Ronnie was amazed at my Scorpio. He boosted those things with turbos to almost 300hp. I adjusted the pistons for that.
I was then working in Germany and Autobahnen were categorically taken above 160 per hour. That boy took the same route every day with his BMW K100RS, lost the race on the same stretch every morning.
We've had the Scorpio for about twelve years. Three small children, large trunk, trunk on it and with a trailer full of bicycles to Zeeland. A beauty of a family car. The legroom was enormous indeed. He was comfortable too. And on the highway he just did 1:10. By 1: 7.
The first series of Scorpio could be very beautiful.
Although I had a white 2.9 Ghia, a 5 door, and in white it was not the prettiest either.
That blue that you often saw, or a dark color suited him better.
But I just still can't like that last series.
Once said and comedian about the Ford Scorpio: the only car designed by Stevie Wonder!
John Compagner
The 2nd series Scorpio was not exactly a nice model,
but now in 2021 if you compare the scorpio with what is now monstrous SUVs driving around, then it is compared to a nice piece of elegant design.
I think back to my first Scorpio 2.0 CL series with mixed feelings. A real crisis implementation, but guys, what a sea of space. Road holding unfortunately zero, at less than a ton the distribution chain is broken and brake discs crooked every 10.000 km….
Whether the royal family deserves something more flamboyant ... costs the hard-working citizen with money. Our company was an importer of VM motori. They were also in this Scorpio. He could certainly be called smooth because of that self-igniter. That is why we sometimes drove it, very comfortable and spacious. You rarely see them
Herz had the 2.0 (?) With automatic transmission for rent of the first copies. A huge difference from the three cylinder passat ts I had at the time. Standard with ABS !!! I had never experienced that before. So I rented one for a week and drove myself to my wedding :-). Picked up grandmother in the Schone Stad Achter de Duine in advance, etc. etc. were very nice km's.
What I think of the Ford period: Surely our royal family deserves something more flamboyant to make the international flash? Sure enough, it became Volvo (then owned by Ford).
Now a fact on topic:
That aerodynamic Ford (2) muzzle came from Porsche because the sales of the first (1) were disappointing. The same intervention that SEAT system Porsche took to give their Malaga and Ibiza more stature. And in some cases the trick actually worked, but I still remember the journalistic criticism of the Scorpio 😂
The Lancia Lybra, for whatever era-related reason, had a similar nose job. Almost as beautiful in ugliness.
I have indeed also read that the front of the 2nd series Scorpio was developed by Porsche, especially the headlights. They were able to use the technology and the monetary proceeds for the development of the headlight units of the Boxster and 911 (996).
thanks for the additional info!