The Forgotten Ford Idea Automotive That Might’ve Been America’s Ferrari

The 2-seat cabin featured a steering wheel with all the automotive’s predominant controls on its middle, together with lights and switch sign buttons that changed conventional stalks — one thing Ferrari would deliver to its personal street vehicles some 20 years later.

The Maya’s cabin wasn’t quick on area, with no middle console forward of the gear shifter, and space for storing behind the 2 seats for comfortable baggage, says Ford Authority. In different phrases, Ford needed to provide a sensible, on a regular basis supercar which may even have competed with the Porsche 911, the gold normal of that individual automotive style.

It additionally featured impartial rear suspension constructed from aluminum, a double-wishbone setup on the entrance and the potential for Ford to tackle iconic sports activities vehicles just like the Chevrolet Corvette.

Penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro, who additionally has the Ferrari 250 GT and Volkswagen Golf mk1 on his resume, the Maya shared its wedge form with the DeLorean DMC-12 of Again To The Future fame and the Lotus Esprit, each additionally merchandise of Giugiaro’s sketchpad.

However, whereas it shared its unique form with such esteemed British and Italian firms, the Maya’s genius was that it could underpin the poster-car seems with mass-market elements already produced for different Ford autos, TopGear explains.