A Lesson on the Flying Potato That Saved Ford From Bankruptcy in the 80s

Hagerty Media recently uploaded an informative video on its YouTube channel, giving us all a lesson in Ford’s most popular car in the 80s and 90s, the Taurus family sedan.

The original Taurus family sedan was a godsend in 1980 when Ford had incurred $3 billion in losses and was desperate to climb back the stairs of success. In a final and desperate attempt to recover, Ford invested the equivalent of today’s $7 billion in a new, revolutionary design that gave birth to the first generation of Taurus vehicles.

The design of the Taurus was so groundbreaking that the 1986 Ford Taurus was featured in every movie depicting the future.

The company had so little faith in its new endeavor that it even kept its LTD mid-size range in production, just in case their new plan failed. But it didn’t. Not only that, but it even became the bestselling car in America back then.

However, the so-called “jelly bean” or “flying potato” car didn’t come with the most performance-orientated features. Hence the Taurus SHO was developed, as the performance version of the Taurus, with a Yamaha-built V-6 engine, four overhead cams, and 24 valves. The SHO used a Mazda-sourced 5-speed manual and was the most powerful front-wheel-drive sedan in the world.

But the SHO didn’t have the success of its predecessor, with the original Taurus selling in 400,000 units per year. The SHO didn’t even manage to get close to the company’s target of 20,000 cars sold annually. We’ll let you find out for yourself why, in Jason Cammisa’s Revelations video.