New Fords Shout: Hey, Look at Us

Ford Motor Co., its image tarnished by the continuing flap over the safety of its best-selling Explorer sport-utility vehicle, is preparing to hit the market with two new models intended to polish the corporate logo.

One is an interpretation of a mid-20th century icon, the Ford Thunderbird, now presented as a modern two-seat cruiser that pays sleek but subdued homage to the original roadsters of 1955-57.

The other is intended to become a 21st century icon for Ford’s domestic luxury division. The Lincoln Blackwood, which pays homage to “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” is the world’s first ultra-luxury pickup truck.

Neither vehicle passes any test that would qualify it as a necessity.

At a base price of $35,495, and topping out at $39,795, the V-8-powered Thunderbird is a peppy two-seat cruiser with a limited 6.9 cubic feet of trunk space that would be fun for a day’s drive, perhaps even for a weekend outing that doesn’t require many changes of dress. But forget anything requiring driver and passenger to haul more than a couple of mid-size overnight bags.

And the $52,500 Blackwood, with its quartet of leather bucket seats and a 26.5-cubic-foot covered and carpeted “cargo trunk” in place of a traditional pickup bed, is a truck whose real-world duties will be limited to tasks such as carrying Saturday morning foursomes and their clubs to the golf course. Practicality aside--and that’s where it must be firmly placed for either of these vehicles to wind up on a serious car shopper’s consideration list--each already has shown that it has legs.

Ford intends to build only 25,000 Thunderbirds each year at its plant in Wixom, Mich., and though the inaugural 2002 model won’t hit showrooms until late summer, almost the entire first production run is spoken for.

Over at Lincoln, plans are to keep the Blackwood in even more rarefied territory, with production limited to fewer than 10,000 a year. Lincoln dealers reportedly have taken advance orders for about 2,500 with two months to go before the trucks start trickling out of the Kansas City, Mo., plant.

Ford says it considers the Thunderbird to be unique in the market, with no real competitor, although, when pushed, chief program engineer Nancy Gioia lists the Mercedes-Benz 230 SLK, the Porsche Boxster and the BMW Z3 as roadsters in the same price range that might compete for attention.

The Lincoln truly is without peer--and will be until early next year, when Cadillac makes it a luxe-trucks war with its own ultra-posh pickup, the Escalade EXT. Though it is easy to dismiss the Blackwood as a mere toy for boys with too many, Lincoln made sure it does two things quite well: It hauls its passengers with abundant luxury and amazingly good road manners.

We had the chance to spend a few hours behind the wheel of each of the new FoMoCo offerings recently on a drive along the coast and in the hills from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara.

The Thunderbird: A Smooth Looker

The 2002 Thunderbird was a calculated gamble for the folks in Dearborn, Mich.: Do it well and it soars, pulling the rest of the brand along. Do it poorly and it lays an rotten egg whose stench will taint for years to come.

They did it well--not perfectly, but well enough that there should be few complainers.

One thing Ford stresses--and prospective buyers should write it atop their shopping lists--is that the new T-Bird, like the old, was not engineered to be a sports car.

It is smooth and stable on straight or gently curving roads at speeds we cannot officially countenance. A 3.9-liter, 252-horsepower V-8, borrowed from the well-received Lincoln LS, gives it the punch, and a platform that is part Lincoln LS and part Jaguar S-Type makes it roadworthy.

But this is a 3,775-pound roadster (the Boxster weighs in at 2,888 with automatic transmission), built with softer springs and shocks than those of its Lincoln and Jaguar stablemates. And that means it dips, dives and rolls far more than would be acceptable in a true performance car. “We were going for relaxed sportiness,” says Thunderbird engineering manager Bob Johnston. The T-Bird also has only about half the torsional stiffness of the LS--the result of removing the fixed hardtop. That too translates into a degree of rough road jitters and cowl shake that would make it hard for Ford to claim high-performance credentials.

Still, the T-Bird is fun to drive and great fun to be seen in--big reasons people will buy it.

Outside, it is a thoroughly modern car with copious hints of previous Thunderbirds, from a front end that screams “1955” to a 1961-themed rear, a hood scoop straight from the ’57 and a turquoise T-Bird logo lifted from the 1969 model.

Inside, the instrument panel is from the LS, with the addition of softly glowing turquoise pointers on the analog instrument dials. There’s a fat, leather-clad shifter for the five-speed automatic transmission. An in-dash six-CD changer is standard, as is a premium six-speaker AM-FM stereo. The bucket seats are covered in cushy tuck-and-roll leather.

The engineers did a great job of minimizing top-down wind turbulence, so it’s possible to have a civilized conversation at 80 mph.

When top-down is not ideal, drivers have two choices: a standard cloth convertible top, or an 82-pound removable hardtop with those wonderful T-Bird porthole windows, a $1,000 upgrade.

One quibble: There’s plenty of leg, hip and shoulder room, but headroom with the soft-top can be a bit skimpy for those taller than 6-foot-2, especially those who prefer a fairly upright seating position.

The original T-Birds, as well as the concept car that led to the 2002 model, rode on Firestone tires, but because of the tiff between Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. and Ford over tire blowouts on the Explorer, production models will ride on 17-inch wheels shod with P235/50R Michelins.

The Blackwood: Polished Pickup

Lincoln makes some things pretty easy with the Blackwood.

The luxe truck is available only with rear-wheel drive and in just one color combination, black on black. And there’s only one option, a console-mounted navigation system for $1,995.

The design is American Mutt: a Lincoln Navigator SUV cab mated with a cargo box of molded plastic, inside and out. This trunk, as Lincoln calls it, comes carpeted and lined in polished aluminum, and is equipped with a permanently mounted, electronically operated hard-plastic cover.

Ford’s marketers acknowledge that the Blackwood won’t appeal to the hard-core pickup fan. Indeed, it is unapologetically an image vehicle--a “Hey! Look at me!” attempt by Detroit to improve upon the car-to-pickup conversions that customizers have been doing to various vehicles for years.

At that level, it works just fine, and the reason is drivability.

The Blackwood shares the Navigator’s 5.4-liter, 300-horsepower V-8 and four-speed automatic. But despite the power--and enough torque to pull an 8,700-pound trailer--this is a “pickup” that won’t break loose the rear wheels on a tight corner. Body roll is there--it is still a tall vehicle--and running a slalom isn’t advisable. But the Blackwood, and its occupants, stay fairly stable, with little rock and roll even on the tightest twists and turns.

To accomplish that, Lincoln tweaked the Navigator-based suspension with stiffer front springs, specially valved shock absorbers, a bigger stabilizer bar and a hybrid rear suspension that adds a long parabolic leaf spring on each side to the Navigator-style self-leveling air springs.

Engineers also balanced the chassis (there’s an 800-pound steel space frame under the plastic in the cargo box) to give the Blackwood a perfect 50-50 weight distribution and much better ride and handling than its SUV sibling. (Sources say the suspension improvements will show up soon in the Navigator itself.)

Even on rough dirt tracks, the Blackwood, which rides on 18-inch wheels and specially designed P275/55R Michelin tires, insulates occupants from unpleasant jouncing and jostling.

Occupants can enjoy the improved ride in comfort, with goodies such as heated and cooled front seats, as well as a radio that self-adjusts the sound to compensate for increased noise at speed--a bit of techno-silliness except when the windows are open, as the cabin is as quiet as a luxury sedan’s.

Air conditioning worked superbly on our test drive. Even though the outside temperature hit 99 degrees, the black seat and dashboard surfaces never felt hot to the touch.

There’s plenty of head, leg, hip and shoulder room at all four seating positions, and the view of the road is commanding.

To be sure, it’s hard to get around the fact that this truck is a pretty costly and environmentally unfriendly proposition these days at 12 miles per gallon in the city and 17 mpg on the highway.

Yet, all in all, driving around in a Blackwood is a nice way to go.

If only there were a more compelling reason to do so.

*

Times staff writer John O’Dell can be reached at john.odell@latimes.com.

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2002 Ford Thunderbird

Pricing

* $35,495 to $39,795: Standard equipment includes five-speed shiftable automatic transmission, front and seat-mounted side air bags, leather seating, six-speaker AM-FM stereo with cassette and six-CD changer, padded cloth top with heated glass rear window, 17-inch wheels and P235/50R all-season tires, 4-wheel antilock disc brakes, rack and pinion steering. Options include supplemental parking lamps, various interior color schemes, removable hardtop.

Type

* Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, two-seat roadster.

Engine

* 3.9-liter, 252-horsepower V-8 with 261 foot-pounds of torque.

Fuel consumption

* 17 miles per gallon city, 23 mpg highway, as estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Curb Weight

* 3,775 pounds.

2002 Lincoln Blackwood

Pricing

* Base, $52,500: Standard equipment includes four-speed automatic transmission, front and seat-mounted side air bags, leather seating, heated and cooled front seats, electronically adjustable brake and accelerator pedals, six-speaker AM-FM stereo with cassette and six-CD changer, rear seat radio and fan controls, audible backup warning system, 18-inch wheels. Only option is a CD-ROM-based global navigation system ($1,995).

Type

* Front-engine, rear-wheel drive, four-seat sport-utility truck.

Engine

* 5.4-liter, 300-horsepower V-8 with 355 foot-pounds of torque.

Performance

* Cargo volume: 26.5 cubic feet.

* Tow capacity: 8,700 pounds.

* Fuel consumption: 12 miles per gallon city, 17 mpg highway, as estimated by Ford Motor Co.

Curb Weight

* 5,700 pounds.